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

I hope Alphabet Inc. has a plan. The Google parent company announced that it would spend $2.1 billion to buy Fitbit Inc., a pioneer in the fitness-tracking gadgets that haven’t proved to be a lasting category of consumer electronics. Google has now spent billions of dollars developing homegrown hardware such as its Pixel smartphones and buying all or parts of ...

China has a standard road map for fixing state-owned giants that have gone off the rails: Create an even more inflated behemoth through a mega-merger, in the hope that the stronger business will be able to prop up the weaker one until the storm blows over. It’s a playbook that’s been followed in steel, shipping, energy and rolling stock — ...

In the hours before climbers were permanently barred from Uluru, the world-famous red sandstone monolith that rises from the heart of Australia, the line to ascend it snaked for hundreds of feet — past a sign posted by its aboriginal owners noting that the site is sacred, and requesting that visitors refrain from climbing it. The last-minute trekkers weren’t alone ...

There’s been some chatter in markets that the rebound in equities in October and a re-steepening of the Treasury market’s yield curve are signs that investors believe the global economic outlook is looking up – or at least not getting any worse. As indicators go, those are fine, but perhaps the most telling may be the dollar. The Bloomberg Dollar ...

People have a love-hate relationship with the futures markets. Futures are either financial drivers of rapid economic growth, turbocharging small amounts of capital to outflank entrenched barriers to innovation, or — to a populist — they are demonic pits where speculators manipulate prices and corrupt honest real economic activity. Since people also love or hate cryptocurrency, the rise of Bitcoin ...

Bloomberg US equity futures climbed with European and Asian stocks as investors took confidence from signs that America and China are inching towards a trade deal. Treasuries fell, while the yuan strengthened past 7 for the first time since August. Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow Industrials and Nasdaq 100 all pointed to a positive start on Wall Street, following ...

Bloomberg China’s yuan rallied past 7 per dollar and analysts are already warning the strength won’t last. The currency jumped as much as 0.60% to 6.9880 a dollar on Tuesday, trading stronger than the key level for the first time since August. The offshore rate rose as much 0.66%. The level had been a key support for the currency for ...

Bloomberg As the Federal Reserve signals it’s satisfied after pulling off a mid-cycle easing, Wall Street’s rate strategists are as divided as ever on the direction of Treasury yields. JPMorgan Chase & Co strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou warned that 10-year yields may surge 100 basis points over the next six months given the Fed is now done with its “insurance” cuts. ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged, giving itself policy space to act in coming months if the global economy worsens. The central bank held its overnight rate at 3% at its final meeting for the year, as predicted by 16 of the 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The remaining nine had expected a 25 basis-point cut. ...

Bloomberg Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stepped into the global debate about whether governments need to do more heavy lifting to support their economies, saying that the ultra-low interest environment created by Japan’s central bank makes fiscal spending more powerful. Kuroda said the BOJ wasn’t planning to add to its stimulus in tandem with some form of government spending ...