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Bloomberg Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong said the team in the ruling party that will choose the country’s next premier is expected to take a “little longer” to make a decision due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The choice is expected “well before” the next general election, Lee said during a speech at a convention for his People’s Action Party (PAP). ...

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley is offering to reimburse its Hong Kong employees as much as HK$40,000 ($5,100) to compensate for quarantine costs brought on by the financial hub’s zero-Covid strategy. The one-time reimbursement will be available to all Hong Kong permanent employees when they return from a personal trip to visit immediate family members, including spouses, domestic partners, children, parents and ...

Bloomberg US banks, which have been combining at levels not seen since before the global financial crisis, are now facing the near-term hurdles of stalled approvals and the mounting opposition from Democrats in Washington. All of that is unlikely to keep the string of deals from ultimately continuing, according to analysts. Regional lenders “may tap the brakes” in their merger-and-acquisition ...

Bloomberg The Czech central bank expects only a limited economic fallout from the worsening pandemic and remains prepared for more interest-rate increases to curb surging inflation, according to one of its vice governors. The country “has learned to live with Covid” and potential lockdown measures are unlikely to significantly hurt consumption and investments, Marek Mora said in a video posted ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s central bank said it will consider supervisory actions after DBS Group Holdings Ltd. suffered one of the worst digital disruptions for Southeast Asia’s biggest lender in the past decade. “This is a serious disruption and MAS expects DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root causes and implement the necessary remedial measures,” Marcus Lim, assistant managing ...

Bloomberg The Riksbank expects to start hiking interest rates in 2024, the first sign from the Swedish central bank that it sees an end in sight to its ultra-loose monetary policy. While policy makers kept their benchmark unchanged, they also signalled for the first time that they see a case to move higher within three years. Previously they said the ...

Bloomberg Zambia’s central bank in a surprise move raised its benchmark interest rate for the second time this year to try contain inflation that’s still nearly triple the targeted rate. The monetary policy committee lifted the gauge to 9% from 8.5%, Governor Denny Kalyalya told reporters. It was Kalyalya’s first rate decision since being reappointed to the post in September. ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) strategists are bearish on markets next year and urged investors to focus on preserving cash as faster inflation and higher interest rates upend the trajectory of global asset prices. In a note to clients, strategists led by Michael Hartnett listed macro trade recommendations, including long positions on volatility gauges, oil, energy, the US dollar, ...

Bloomberg In a change of tone over the world’s two biggest emerging markets, global investors overseeing billions of dollars are slowly starting to favour China versus India — reversing a year-long trend that’s pushed stocks in opposite directions. BlackRock Inc. has upgraded Chinese stocks as policy hurdles ease, saying “the time to position in China is now,” while trimming its ...

Bloomberg One reason the first Covid-19 crash was so brutal back in March 2020 was all the froth that built up in markets before the virus landed. While there are differences for traders navigating the latest scare, a lot is the same, too. Chief among the similarities is a prevailing sense of comfort that investors found in solid economic data, ...