Bloomberg The Great Asian Export Spurt may be about to end, replaced by a stretch of merely good exports. Demand from both Chinese consumers and manufacturers, a key driver for an unexpected jump in Asian exports so far this year, is likely to moderate as Beijing shifts focus toward economic re-balancing, and corporate China slows a massive inventory buildup, Credit ...
Read More »Microsoft faulted over cyber attack, shifts blame to NSA
Bloomberg There’s a blame game brewing over who’s responsible for the massive cyberattack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers. Microsoft Corp. is pointing its finger at the US government, while some experts say the software giant is accountable too. The attack has affected computers in more than 150 countries, including severe disruptions at Britain’s National Health Service. The hack ...
Read More »Boom times for longer in EU’s east as GDP growth quickens
Bloomberg The economies of the European Union’s eastern members probably got off to a quick start in 2017 as resumed flows of the bloc’s aid and reviving demand from the euro area, combined with household spending, gave them the edge over the rest of the EU. Preliminary gross domestic product data will show first-quarter expansion accelerated from the previous three ...
Read More »Waymo gains edge over Uber in driverless-car case
Bloomberg Waymo won a ruling that may strengthen its trade-secrets suit against Uber Technologies Inc. even as the Alphabet Inc. unit fell short of its goal to bring its rival’s driverless-car program to a standstill. US District Judge William Alsup approved of Uber’s move last month to demote the engineer leading its self-driving unit to keep him away from related ...
Read More »Europe car sales suffer biggest drop since 2013
Bloomberg European car sales fell the most in four years in April as the shift of Easter from March reduced buyers’ time for shopping, while registrations in the UK were further sapped by tax changes. With at least two fewer selling days compared with a year ago, industrywide registrations dropped 6.8 percent to 1.23 million vehicles last month, according to ...
Read More »Unusually low volatility can harm markets
The smoother the road, the faster people are likely to drive. The faster they drive, the more excited they are about getting to their destination in good, if not record time; but, also, the greater the risk of an accident that could also harm other drivers, including those driving slower and more carefully. That is an appropriate analogy for the ...
Read More »UK’s supermarkets are having an identity crisis
These days, nobody wants to be a British supermarket. Tesco Plc, the UK’s biggest grocer, is buying wholesaler Booker Plc, while J Sainsbury Plc last year snapped up catalog retailer Argos. As for Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, it is building its own wholesale business using the manufacturing facilities that already make about half of its fresh foods. The only one ...
Read More »China’s hidden pollution oozes to the surface
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping directed his government to build a new city for the “millennium to come.” It would rise on rural land about 60 miles south of Beijing, guided by the principles of “ecological protection and green development.” And it would become a model for a new kind of urban expansion. It was an attractive vision. Over ...
Read More »Egypt EFG, TMGH diverge on MSCI changes; Gulf firm with oil at $52
DUBAI / Reuters Shares of Egypt’s EFG Hermes and Talaat Mostafa diverged sharply on Tuesday on news that MSCI will swap the shares in its main Egyptian index, while Gulf equity markets were firm with the Brent oil price at $52 a barrel. Overnight, MSCI said it would include investment bank EFG Hermes in its MSCI Egypt Index but remove ...
Read More »Dollar falls as traders weigh homes data, Trump
Bloomberg The dollar weakened for a fifth day as traders digested disappointing US housing data against a backdrop of a fresh controversy engulfing President Donald Trump. US stock futures advanced amid earnings. The greenback fell against most of its major peers after a report the president shared terrorism intelligence with Russian officials, an action he has since defended. An unexpected ...
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