Bloomberg Bitcoin miners hit hard by the cryptocurrency’s crash may be throwing in the towel. The Bitcoin network’s hash rate, one way of gauging the computing power dedicated to mining the digital currency, dropped about 24 percent from an all-time high at the end of August through November 24, according to Blockchain.com. While the decline may have partially resulted from ...
Read More »Greece’s Eurobank attempts revival in $8bn bad-loan sale
Bloomberg Greece’s Eurobank Ergasias SA isn’t waiting around for a state rescue, with a plan to sell about 7 billion euros ($8 billion) of troubled loans and merge with a real estate fund. The shares soared, leading the country’s banking index higher. As part of the plan, the bank will merge with real estate fund Grivalia Properties REIC to create ...
Read More »QE end isn’t reduction of stimulus: ECB’s Praet
Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist Peter Praet said the end of the institution’s bond-buying program — quantitative easing (QE) — this year doesn’t mean policy is being tightened, as he pointed to “increasingly noticeable†headwinds for the economy. The message comes as the Governing Council prepares for its December 13 meeting, when it will publish new economic forecasts ...
Read More »Correspondent banks in crosshairs over Danske crisis
Bloomberg The financial regulator of Danske Bank A/S says it’s now telling lenders to be more selective when choosing correspondent banks. The decision comes after Denmark’s biggest bank ended up at the center of one of Europe’s worst ever money laundering scandals. Danske’s regulator says some of the bank’s employees were probably involved in “criminal†acts, and the lender may ...
Read More »The era of easy-money draws to close
Bloomberg Global governments are doing the most to propel the world economy in a decade just as growth slows. As leaders from the Group of 20 prepare to meet this week in Argentina, JPMorgan Chase & Co economists calculate easier fiscal policy will add 0.3 percentage point to global gross domestic product next year, the biggest impulse this decade. That’s ...
Read More »FirstRand’s FNB to tap fintech to connect traders
Bloomberg FirstRand Ltd’s First National Bank (FNB) and a startup financial-technology company in South Africa are partnering to connect informal traders in townships with fast-moving consumer-goods companies. FNB is seeking to tap into a market that it estimates could consist of as many as 1 million enterprises that have largely been ignored and falls into the “unseen economy,†the Johannesburg-based ...
Read More »Blockbuster Cyber Monday not enough to boost market
Bloomberg Shoppers will spend an estimated $7.8 billion on Cyber Monday — a record — boosting a strong holiday shopping season. And Wall Street will likely shrug it off. Even a blockbuster holiday won’t divert the market’s attention from the rising interest rates that could hurt car and home sales next year and the escalating trade war between the US ...
Read More »Winter storm snarls post-Thankgiving travel in midwest US
Bloomberg A winter storm moving across the Central Plains towards the Great Lakes disrupted air travel in Chicago and other cities on the busiest travel day of the year. The storm has blizzard-like conditions and is bringing gusty winds and 6 to 10 inches of snow that will stretch from Kansas City to Chicago, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster ...
Read More »Canada Goose pushes ahead with its China expansion plan
Bloomberg Canada Goose Holdings Inc. is pushing ahead with its China expansion, betting its strategy of selling premium coats directly to customers will help overcome a proliferation of knockoffs and the nation’s consumption slowdown. The Toronto, Canada-based company has dealt with counterfeits soon after it started selling globally two decades ago, CEO Dani Reiss said in an interview in Beijing. ...
Read More »Lion Air pilots battled confusing malfunctions before crash
Bloomberg The Lion Air pilots whose plane nosedived into the Java Sea in October, killing all those aboard, were battling multiple malfunctions almost as soon as the doomed flight began, according to a trove of new data released by Indonesian investigators. They faced a cacophony of warnings that started seconds after takeoff and continued for the remaining 11 minutes before ...
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