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  Bloomberg Japan’s retail sales increased for a third straight month, as easing virus concerns fueled spending by consumers before the emergence of the Omicron variant. Sales advanced 1.2% in November from the previous month, as shoppers spent more on clothing and motor vehicles, the industry ministry reported Monday. Economists had expected a 1.3% overall gain. While Japan’s consumption hasn’t ...

  Bloomberg The C-suite is a bundle of nerves this winter. A new survey shows that 72% of chief executive officers are worried about losing their jobs in 2022 because of business disruptions, tracking closely with the 94% of bosses who say their corporate models need to be overhauled within three years. “That’s eye-poppingly high,” says Simon Freakley, the CEO ...

Bloomberg China’s industrial firms are doing much better this year than in 2020, but the improvement in profits is patchy, with miners and raw material providers benefiting from higher commodity prices at the expense of manufacturers. In the first 11 months of the year, industrial profits climbed 38% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. ...

  Bloomberg China’s central bank pledged greater support for the real economy, and said that it will make monetary policy more forward-looking and targeted. There will be more “proactive” use of monetary policy tools, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement. It added that there will be “good use” of the monetary policy tools’ quantitative and structural ...

  Bloomberg Morgan Stanley told employees who have to be in the office through the first two weeks of January to wear face coverings when not at their desks and limit large in-person meetings. “This guidance applies to all locations (even those where everyone is fully vaccinated),” the New York-based bank said in a memo to staffers this week. “Masking ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has said it will buy the investment management unit of India’s L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, the latest push to build up the Asian wealth and investment business that is at the forefront of the bank’s turnaround plans. The London-headquartered lender said it had agreed terms to acquire L&T Investment Management, which had looked destined to ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG appealed a court verdict that it helped wealthy French clients stash undeclared funds in Swiss accounts, prolonging a period of legal uncertainty in seven-year old case. The Zurich-based bank filed an appeal with the French Supreme Court regarding the ruling, according to a statement. It had five days from the judgement last week to make ...

  Bloomberg Kenya’s shilling has depreciated 3.5% to dollar this year after a seven-month losing streak, adding to a 7.8% loss last year. The currency of East Africa’s largest economy reached its weakest closing level of 113.09 per dollar and was trading little changed in Nairobi. The biggest monthly decline was in August when it weakened 1.3%, while July-September was ...

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc is preparing to launch a fund that provides debt financing to Asian start-ups in an effort to win investment-banking business through subsequent initial public offerings. Japan’s largest lender will start a $300 million fund early next year after upsizing its first joint-venture fund earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer Hironori Kamezawa said in ...

  Bloomberg Emerging-market bonds were supposed to be dragged down this year as central banks moved towards withdrawing stimulus. Instead, the best-performing global debt was all from developing nations. Sovereign bonds issued by South Africa, China, Indonesia, India and Croatia topped the rankings of 46 markets around the world in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg through last week. ...