Bloomberg House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving cautiously as she faces pressure from angry Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time, while President-elect Joe Biden is making it clear he wants to focus on his agenda and fighting the coronavirus. With many House Democrats demanding impeachment after Trump encouraged a mob that stormed the Capitol this week, ...
Read More »HK blocks local website on ‘security grounds’
Bloomberg Hong Kong police blocked a local website and cited National Security Law for the first time in doing so. The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force has blocked hkchronicles.com, without specifying which content violated the law. The website often features pro-democracy articles. Ming Pao reported Hong Kong police declined to comment on individual cases, but the ...
Read More »Goldman traders score $2b in commodities’ comeback year
Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s commodities traders doubled their revenue haul in 2020 — another sign that Wall Street desks managed to print profits into the year’s finale, even as market mayhem subsided. Goldman’s business generated more than $2 billion in revenue for its best annual showing in about a decade, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That ...
Read More »Credit Suisse to post fourth-quarter loss
Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group expects to post a fourth-quarter loss after setting aside $850 million for legal cases in US as CEO Thomas Gottstein seeks to tackle legacy issues and start the year with a clean slate. The amount is more than twice what the bank signaled last month when it flagged that a dispute with bond insurer MBIA Inc. ...
Read More »Deutsche to pay $100m to avoid bribery charges
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay more than $130 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it bribed foreign officials and manipulated the market for precious-metals futures through a trading tactic known as spoofing. The Frankfurt-based bank agreed to a deal in which it won’t be prosecuted as long as it doesn’t engage in the practices again for ...
Read More »Commerzbank takes additional $2.6 billion hit from pandemic
Bloomberg Commerzbank AG will take an additional 2.1 billion-euro ($2.6 billion) hit in the fourth quarter as the pandemic weighs on interest rates and drives up bad loans, pushing the lender deeper into the red as it readies a new turnaround plan. Commerzbank will write off 1.5 billion euros in goodwill on its books and set aside about 630 million ...
Read More »Top US banks’ tax bill would rise $11bn with Biden hike
Bloomberg After three years of savings, top US banks could face an increased tax bill of as much as $11 billion a year if President-elect Joe Biden moves forward with corporate rate hikes he campaigned on. That would follow $42 billion of savings by the six biggest banks thanks to outgoing President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which have boosted ...
Read More »Beijing jails former China Development Bank chief
Bloomberg China sentenced Hu Huaibang, a former chairman of the nation’s biggest policy bank, to life imprisonment on charges of corruption, the second harsh punishment doled out this week in a sign President Xi Jinping is escalating a campaign to crack down on lawbreaking state officials. Hu was found guilty of taking bribes totaling 85.5 million yuan ($13 million) during ...
Read More »Chip shortage hits global automakers
Bloomberg A semiconductor shortage is pinching some of the world’s biggest auto manufacturers, costing Daimler AG, Nissan Motor Co., Honda Motor Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV production for a range of cars. Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler joined its German peer Volkswagen AG in announcing it’s affected by the industrywide supply bottleneck, without quantifying the impact. Honda said ...
Read More »Hyundai walks back on comment linking it with Apple’s car plans
Bloomberg Hyundai Motor backed away from a statement confirming it is in talks with Apple Inc. on developing self-driving car that fuelled an $8 billion surge in the Korean automaker’s market value, saying instead that it received requests for potential cooperation from a number of companies. Revising its statement for the second time in a matter of hours, Hyundai said ...
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