Bloomberg Some of Britain’s largest and most storied manufacturers are making a last-ditch plea to lawmakers to avoid a disorderly retreat from the European Union with stark warnings of production grinding to a halt and political inertia hurting their business. Ultra-luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce said its factory in southern England risks being paralysed in the event of a hard Brexit if ...
Read More »US job openings fall to five-month low
Bloomberg US job openings fell to a five-month low in November while still exceeding the number of unemployed Americans by almost 1 million, data consistent with a tight job market. The number of positions waiting to be filled fell by 243,000 to 6.89 million, from a revised 7.13 million in the prior month, according to the Job Openings and Labor ...
Read More »CBS prepares for Viacom merger talks
Bloomberg When CBS Corp board members go to Los Angeles for their January 31 meeting, they’ll have more on the agenda than just a tour of the local TV studios. The 11-member panel is expected to discuss both the hunt for a permanent chief executive officer and the possibility of a merger with Viacom Inc, according to people familiar with ...
Read More »Amsterdam’s house prices set to hit record
Bloomberg Amsterdam’s homes are going for record prices as more expats move into the city. House prices in the Amsterdam region rose 8 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the year earlier, statistics from realtors association NVM sho-wed. The median transaction price was 448,000 euros ($517,000), a new record. Although the pace of the rise was the slowest in ...
Read More »PG&E faces confidence crisis from Wall Street to San Francisco
Bloomberg PG&E Corp’s financial woes have spiralled into a crisis of confidence on Wall Street and beyond after fallout from deadly wildfires hobbled the company’s credit rating and eviscerated more than $16 billion of market value. The embattled California power giant’s bonds were among the biggest decliners in the high-yield market. Protesters interrupted a California Public Utilities Commission meeting in ...
Read More »Wireless firms put big 5G gambles on display at CES
Bloomberg Fifth-generation wireless technology may one day handle sci-fi tasks like guiding driverless cars, but today’s consumers are more concerned with making their phones work faster — and that’s not lost on mobile carriers who headed to CES in Las Vegas this year. In coming weeks, AT&T Inc will introduce an interim “5G E†service that promises 50 percent faster ...
Read More »Samsung shows off robots for healthcare, retail stores
Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co showed off robots at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas, including one for retail stores and another in the healthcare space. The Bot Care can measure blood pressure and heart rate, detect falls and administer medicine, the South Korean technology giant said. It’s designed for in-home use. Bot Retail communicates with consumers in stores, while ...
Read More »Walmart to add 2,000 staffers in tech group
Bloomberg Walmart Inc plans to hire 2,000 technology experts this year to support its efforts both in stores and online, boosting the group’s ranks by more than a fourth. The world’s biggest retailer is looking for data scientists, software engineers, designers and others to work in nine offices from Silicon Valley to Bangalore, Walmart Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King said ...
Read More »Nissan unveils the all-new Leaf
Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co unveiled a new version of the Leaf that narrows the driving-range gap between its best-selling electric car versus Tesla’s Model 3 and Chevrolet Bolt. The Leaf e+ that debuted at CES in Las Vegas boasts a more energy-dense battery that extends range by about 40 percent, to363 kilometres. That compares with the 220- to 310-mile range ...
Read More »Fed can be patient before adjusting rates: Powell
Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank can be patient before adjusting interest rates again as it waits to see how global risks impact the domestic economy. “We’re in a place where we can be patient and flexible and wait and see what does evolve, and I think for the meantime we’re waiting and watching,†Powell ...
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