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They told you so, Apple. Japan’s machinery makers gave Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook a warning well in advance about what he didn’t seem to know: Chinese smartphone demand was plummeting. The iPhone maker blamed China for a cut in its revenue forecast, which sent fresh ripples through the company’s long chain of suppliers across Asia. Apple “did not foresee ...

For investors attempting to adjust their portfolios in anticipation of a recession by the end of 2020, recent economic indicators carry a message: they may have to prepare for the downturn to start as early as 2019 despite stocks enjoying a recent “dead-cat bounce.” Bloomberg News reports that a Federal Reserve Bank of New York gauge puts the chances of ...

The world enters 2019 with a lot more uncertainty about the prospects for global growth. The excitement a year ago about a synchronised pickup in global growth is replaced by angst that was initially focused on China and Europe but is increasingly spreading to the US, the sole consistent bright spot and one of the most powerful job creators and ...

There may be such a thing as a free lunch in China’s pharmaceutical industry. It turns out it’s not an unlimited buffet, though. For years, the country’s largest drugmakers have happily sold low-cost generic medicines yielding gross margins of 80 percent to 90 percent without giving much thought to consumer protection or innovation. It’s not uncommon for pharma companies to ...

As the great unwind of global monetary stimulus gains momentum, markets are at increased risk of experiencing doom loops. Investors need to be prepared for these downward spirals, where shocks set off a self-perpetuating sequence of disruptions. There are five doom loops that feed each other in a financial crisis. collateral doom loop Declines in the value of stocks, bonds, ...

Bloomberg As he browsed digital store shelves last month in search of an aromatherapy diffuser, entrepreneur David Berger had a single requirement for his wife’s Christmas gift: It had to work with Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa software. “She’s really into making the house smell beautiful, and I’m really into Alexa,” says Berger who lives in Weston, Connecticut. “So this is a ...

Bloomberg Largan Precision Co., which supplies camera lenses to Apple Inc, said revenue in December fell by a third amid weakening appetite for iPhones in China. Sales dropped 33.9 percent from a year to NT$3.23 billion ($104.9 million), and were in line with Largan’s estimates, a company spokeswoman said on Saturday. The company, which also makes lenses for Huawei Technologies ...

Bloomberg Last year, Microsoft Corp’s Azure security team detected suspicious activity in the cloud computing usage of a large retailer: One of the company’s administrators, who usually logs on from New York, was trying to gain entry from Romania. And no, the admin wasn’t on vacation. A hacker had broken in. Microsoft quickly alerted its customer, and the attack was ...

Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signalled the central bank could pause interest-rate increases if the US economy weakened and pledged he will stay at his post even if President Donald Trump presses him to resign. Invoking events of 2016, when the Fed held rates unchanged through most of the year amid financial market turmoil spurred by concerns over slower ...

Bloomberg Polish central bank Governor Adam Glapinski is undergoing “routine” questioning by prosecutors in relation to a bribery scandal that led to the arrest of the country’s banking watchdog chairman. The latest in a string of central bankers from emerging Europe becoming involved in legal probes, Glapinski has rebuffed calls to step down from opposition parties that are demanding a ...