Bloomberg San Francisco-based startup Lime has spent the last year scattering an assortment of brightly coloured scooters and bikes around American cities, arguing such services will reduce car use and traffic problems. But even Lime can’t quite sever ties with the automobile. Starting soon, the company will start spreading around Lime-branded cars, too. Lime is launching a car-sharing service in ...
Read More »â€˜Self-driving cars won’t be ubiqitous for decades’
Bloomberg The head of Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous vehicle unit gave a cautious outlook for the nascent industry, saying the technology won’t be ubiquitous for decades and that driverless vehicles will always have constraints. Waymo Chief Executive Officer John Krafcik said self-driving cars will require driver assistance for many years to come, and that he doesn’t envision a day when the ...
Read More »Tesla buys trucking firms for deliveries
Bloomberg Elon Musk is apparently charting his way out of what he’s referred to as “delivery logistics hell†by making acquisitions and lining up contracts with trucking haulers. The Tesla Inc. CEO tweeted that Model 3s ordered in the US by the end of the month will be delivered by year-end. He wrote that using trucks instead of rail shaves ...
Read More »Google plans high-flying balloons to provide internet in Africa
Bloomberg Bringing fast, widespread internet to rural Africa has proven vexing for companies that have tried—and largely failed—with strategies ranging from drones to satellites. Now, a sister company of Google says it has the answer: balloons. Loon, spun out of the search giant’s X innovation lab in July, is teaming up with Telkom Kenya Ltd. to build a network of ...
Read More »Powell: Solid economy faces headwinds as Fed mulls rates
Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US economy is strong but could face headwinds next year as policy makers weigh how far and fast to raise interest rates. “We have to be thinking about how much further to raise rates, and the pace at which we will raise rates,†Powell said during a question and answers session in ...
Read More »Chinese top bank fails to sell dollar bonds to US buyers
Bloomberg China’s biggest lender pulled an offering of dollar bonds in the US market, adding to concern that American investor demand for Chinese offerings is dwindling amid the trade war. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Ltd had been marketing three-year and five-year floating-rate notes through its New York branch, then decided not to proceed with pricing, according to people ...
Read More »Warren Buffett ramps up bets on banks
Bloomberg Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is betting big on banks. The billionaire’s company piled more than $13 billion into those stocks in the quarter, making Berkshire a major shareholder in four of the five largest US banks, according to a regulatory filing. Berkshire disclosed a new stake in JPMorgan Chase & Co and increased bets on Bank of America ...
Read More »Risky debt could magnify downturn: RBA’s Debelle
Bloomberg Australia’s central bank No. 2 official Guy Debelle says risky borrowing is more likely to be an accelerator to an economic downturn rather than its source, in an address discussing the impact of lending curbs. “If a negative shock were to hit the Australian economy, particularly one that caused a sizeable rise in unemployment, then the risk on the ...
Read More »Indonesian central bank surprises with 6th rate hike this year
Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark interest rate for a sixth time this year to help rein in a widening trade deficit and bolster the currency. The seven-day reverse repurchase rate was raised by 25 basis points to 6 percent, surprising most economists who had predicted no change. That takes the cumulative rate hikes since May to 175 ...
Read More »Modi enlists Tata for India’s Jet Air rescue
Bloomberg The interests of India’s government and the nation’s biggest conglomerate are converging over a teetering airline. Narendra Modi’s administration has approached Tata Group’s salt-to-software empire to help rescue Jet Airways India Ltd., people familiar with the matter said. To aid the process, the government is talking to Tata about a potential haircut to state-run banks on Jet’s loans and ...
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