For decades, the relationship between the world’s two largest democracies, the United States and India, has been held together by two things: hope, and shared values. Hope that India’s rise will not be too long delayed, and that the US will welcome it as an exemplary, responsible great power that helps maintain the global liberal order — because of the ...
Read More »Rejiggering won’t solve Boeing’s woes
When Boeing Co. CEO David Calhoun was asked last month how he would fix the 737 Max crisis as a long-time insider, he bristled at the label, telling reporters, “I watched the same movie you did.†Calhoun, of course, was hardly just an observer, or shouldn’t have been: He has been a director at the company since 2009. A pair ...
Read More »Home Depot delivers but can’t get comfortable
Who would have thought power tools and patio sets would be big holiday-season winners? After big-box retailers such as Walmart Inc. and even superstar Target Corp. came up short during the 2019 holiday shopping sprint, Home Depot Inc. rebounded with a better-than-expected fourth quarter. Same-store sales rose 5.2%, ahead of consensus expectations of a 4.7% gain. The gains indicate the ...
Read More »Coronavirus freaked markets, not the Fed
The US equity market finally is taking notice of the coronavirus, which now is spreading from China to other countries and increasing the risk of a shock that could cause a US recession. So what are the implications for the US economy and the Federal Reserve? Obviously, that is a difficult question to answer because it’s impossible to anticipate what ...
Read More »Coronavirus may be worse than a natural disaster
Everyone is wondering when China will return to work. While it may be tempting to consider past epidemics or labour strikes to gauge how quickly that could happen, the industrial shutdown from the coronavirus is looking more like a natural disaster than anything else. It may even get worse. Chinese industrial activity remains severely depressed. One tracker shows an even ...
Read More »A slimmer Nokia might compete with Huawei
The prospect is tantalising: the Boeing Co. versus Airbus SE battle, but for the 5G era. Nokia Oyj, the Finnish telecommunications equipment firm, is contemplating asset sales and merger options, Bloomberg News reported. That raises the prospect of joining forces with Swedish rival Ericsson AB, thereby creating a European behemoth to compete more effectively with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. A ...
Read More »Central banks seek an edge in a game they can’t win
Monetary-policy specialists are furiously exploring ways to improve central banks’ effectiveness, particularly should economies fall into a recession — a risk heightened by the coronavirus’s cascading economic stop. The underlying policy motivation is the growing recognition that prolonged and excessive reliance on central banks has reduced the power of both conventional and unconventional measures; it has even risked making them ...
Read More »Porsche plans green financing in EV push
Bloomberg Sports-car maker Porsche AG intends to offer more green debt to support its 6 billion-euro ($6.6 billion) investment in electric vehicles. The Volkswagen AG unit will stick with green financing after selling a record 1 billion-euro green Schuldschein last year, according to Wolfgang Ratheiser, vice president for corporate finance and treasury. It has for now ruled out raising potentially ...
Read More »Ford’s Spin expands outside US
Bloomberg Spin, the scooter-sharing service owned by Ford Motor Co, is expanding to new markets outside of the US. The company will launch its first international fleet of electric scooters in Cologne, Germany, as soon as the spring, according to a statement. It will start with several hundred scooters and plans to increase the number quickly, though pricing hasn’t been ...
Read More »CVC, iDreamSky in talks for Leyou takeover
Bloomberg iDreamSky Technology Holdings Ltd is in advanced talks with buyout firm CVC Capital Partners to jointly acquire gaming firm Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd, according to people familiar with the matter. iDreamSky, which counts Tencent Holdings Ltd among its investors, has been in exclusive talks with Leyou’s controlling shareholder since late last year, Bloomberg News previously reported. Leyou later confirmed ...
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