Bloomberg Taiwan is strengthening ties with the government of Somaliland in a bid to bolster its dwindling number of allies. While the move falls short of full diplomatic recognition, the last time Taiwan managed to persuade a country to establish ties with it rather than China was with the Caribbean island of St Lucia in 2007. China claims Taiwan as ...
Read More »Sweden to investigate coronavirus response
Bloomberg Sweden’s government has initiated a commission to investigate its controversial approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sweden has taken a different path compared to most European countries by keeping much of society open and by recommending social distancing and self-isolation rather than imposing a blanket lockdown. That strategy has resulted in a much higher death rate than in neighboring countries, ...
Read More »PM Johnson’s economic task seen in UK’s housing malaise
Bloomberg The scale of Boris Johnson’s challenge to revive the UK economy was laid bare on Wednesday as house prices posted their first annual decline since 2012 and firms reported a record slump in sales. The prime minister has unveiled part of his plan for boosting the UK’s recovery, reconfirming his commitment to long-term investment in some of the country’s ...
Read More »Unemployment in Germany surges
Bloomberg German unemployment surged in June as one of country’s leading economic research institutes warned of a slower-than-expected economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Another sharp gain last month has taken the number of job losses in the second quarter to 678,000 and the total to just below 3 million, a threshold not broken since 2011. Yet more redundancies were ...
Read More »Wirecard debt hedges set to pay out $212mn to funds
Bloomberg Hedge funds that bought credit insurance on Wirecard AG debt are among those in line for a windfall of as much as $212 million after the disgraced German payments company filed for insolvency last week. A committee of traders ruled that Wirecard has gone through a so-called bankruptcy credit event, triggering payouts to holders of credit-default swaps. These contracts ...
Read More »Manufacturing in euro area stems its drop with jobs at risk
Bloomberg Factories across the euro area recorded a stronger performance than initially reported in June, with consumer-goods producers growing again. But despite countries easing restrictions and life slowly returning to normal, output continued to contract and demand — especially among exporters — remained weak. In a sign that the pandemic has been inflicting lasting damage on the economy, all of ...
Read More »EU’s move to keep Americans out signals long travel slump
Bloomberg As the Eiffel Tower gradually reopens from an extended shutdown, an essential segment of the summer tourist trade will be missing: Americans touching down in Paris on lucrative trans-Atlantic flights. Voyagers from New York, Houston or Los Angeles will have to hold off on their overseas vacations after European Union governments extended a travel ban from Wednesday, deeming the ...
Read More »French car sales see 1.2% rise in June
Bloomberg French car sales rose for the first time this year, sending a strong signal that government incentives are helping the sector claw back from a deep slump triggered by the coronavirus. Passenger car registrations increased by 1.2% to 233,818 in June compared with same month last year, according to figures published by industry group CCFA. It was the first ...
Read More »European stocks advance as quarter starts; bonds decline
Bloomberg European stocks edged up in a muted start to third-quarter trading as investors mulled mixed economic data and fresh warnings about the spread of the coronavirus. Treasuries slipped alongside the US equity futures. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened modestly higher, led by oil and gas shares, with data showing German unemployment rose to the highest level in nearly ...
Read More »Deutsche Boerse outage halts trading in Central Europe
Bloomberg Deutsche Boerse AG’s electronic trading system was halted due to a technical glitch on Wednesday, the second such outage this year. It disrupted derivatives trading and stock markets in several Central and Eastern European countries, and prompted Denmark to postpone a bond auction. Only about 30 of 99 stocks in Germany’s HDAX large and mid-cap index were showing electronic ...
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