The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

Bloomberg After four years of planning, Tesla Inc finally broke ground on its planned $5 billion factory in the world’s biggest auto market. But the timing couldn’t be more inauspicious. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and some Shanghai officials, including Mayor Ying Yong, on Monday attended a function at a site near the city kicking off construction of what would …

Bloomberg Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd will extend its strategy of trimming top executive positions to include lower ranking managers and finally the general workforce as South Africa’s cash-strapped power utility looks to cut costs, according to a person familiar with the plans. The state-owned company last month reduced its highest executive structure to nine positions from 21 by regrading and …

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc cut its oil price forecasts for 2019, citing a re-emerging surplus and resilient US shale production. Global benchmark Brent crude will average $62.50 a barrel this year, analysts including Damien Courvalin said in a January 6 note, down from a previous estimate of $70. US marker West Texas Intermediate will average $55.50 a barrel, down …

Bloomberg US stocks rose slightly as investors weighed their risk tolerance amid the resumption of trade talks with China. The dollar fell to its lowest level since October as traders assessed seemingly dovish remarks from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Friday. The S&P 500 Index gained led by consumer discretionary stocks and energy as oil surged higher. The Nasdaq …

Bloomberg Japan’s financial watchdog has abandoned plans to allow listed derivatives based on cryptocurrencies but may yet approve exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the asset class, according to a person familiar with the matter. The decision to bar instruments like Bitcoin futures or Ethereum options in one of the largest markets for cryptocurrencies marks another setback for investors betting on …

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley just beat JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc for a second straight year in one of Wall Street’s most competitive businesses — and it’s poised to win again in 2019. Its secret: Quirky dealmakers wielding a spigot of private money. The bank is the world’s top stock underwriter, a title that in recent years …

Bloomberg UBS Group AG is in the early stages of planning the succession of Sergio Ermotti, one of European banking’s longest-serving chief executive officers, according to Chairman Axel Weber. Ermotti, almost eight years on the job, and Weber himself are at “a point in time where you need to start thinking about what is it that you’re going to do …

Bloomberg Kenya’s biggest mortgage lender plans to double its home-loan business over the next two years by offering longer repayment periods, its chief executive officer said. KCB Group Ltd, which has 70 billion shillings ($685 million) in home loans and is also the country’s biggest bank by assets, wants to have 20,000 mortgages on its books by the end of …

Bloomberg It may finally be time to load up on risky assets, Bank of America (BofA) says. The bank’s proprietary Bull & Bear Indicator, which measures investor sentiment by weighing factors like equity and bond fund flows, gave its first “buy” signal since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, strategists led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a note. …

Bloomberg As a growing number of cryptocurrency ventures struggle for funding, cut staff or shut down, all is well in one small corner of the industry: lending. Creditors focussing on the crypto arena say they’re finding strong demand from borrowers who don’t want to sell their virtual coins at depressed prices, as well as from big investors eager to borrow …