By Liana B. Baker and Jessica DiNapoli U.S. brand management company Iconix Brand Group Inc (ICON.O) is exploring a sale of its majority stake in Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to cartoon strip characters Snoopy and Charlie Brown, according to people familiar with the matter. The move sent shares of Iconix up more than 5 percent. It comes three months after U.S. insurance company MetLife […]
Those dollar bulls blinkered by the so-called Trumpflation trade and wondering if a pullback is justified get a reminder this week of the other main force behind the long-dollar consensus. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues are staging their first meeting of the year. A Fed meeting, particularly one taking place at some point along the path of a rates cycle, would normally command considerable […]
India is looking at a radical idea for reducing poverty: free money for everyone—no strings attached. The Ministry of Finance’s annual survey of the economy, released Tuesday, explores how the country might replace its various welfare programs with a universal basic income, or a uniform stipend paid to every adult and child, poor or rich. Guaranteeing all citizens enough income to cover their basic needs would promote […]
The US stock market suffered its largest decline this year, alongside investors snapping up protection against a possible rise in volatility, pointing towards the nervousness over the recent rally. The S&P 500 dipped 0.6 per cent to 2,281, its biggest one-day fall since December 28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 per cent to 19,971, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8 per cent to 5,614. […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| FGB, one of the leading banks in the UAE and the largest by market capitalisation, achieved a record group net profit of AED 6.03 Billion for the full year 2016, compared to AED 6.01 billion in 2015. Full year 2016 earnings per share amounted to AED 1.32, compared to AED 1.31 in 2015. Commenting on the results, Abdulhamid Saeed, FGB’s Managing Director and […]
Spam emails work, cybercriminals are discovering. Image: iStock In all walks of life, there are those who believe that the old ways are the best. It appears that despite involvement in a technologically advanced, constantly evolving arena, cyberattackers are increasingly turning back to the same tactics which worked for them at the start of the decade. The payloads might have changed, but cybercriminals are turning back to […]
GENEVA The United Nations has restarted air drops of food to support 93,500 Syrians besieged by Islamic State in the city of Deir al-Zor, the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday. Air drops were halted on Jan. 15 after Islamic State militants cut the besieged zone in two and overran the drop zone that had been used for 177 air drops since April. WFP spokeswoman Bettina […]
Royal Dutch Shell has struck deals worth up to $4.7bn to sell offshore oil and gas assets in the North Sea and Thailand, adding momentum to the debt-reduction programme launched after its $50bn takeover of BG Group. The Anglo-Dutch group said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell a package of UK North Sea assets to Chrysaor, a small British company backed by EIG Partners, a US […]
The great Trump reflation story, which points to strong equities, weak bonds and a highly valued dollar, is by now thoroughly entrenched in the minds of global investors. Not without reason. But when conviction is near-universal in markets it makes sense to ponder what investors might be missing. For my money the most likely flaw in this narrative relates to the cost of protectionist policies. There is […]
Being a time-saver and convenience at a click, the application has earned itself a growing number of tech-savvy customers since its launch in October 2016. 31 January 2017 Ajman, UAE – Reiterating their commitment towards providing seamless consumer experiences ranging from state-of-art pipeline and water treatment solutions to facilitating remote interactions with its customers, Ajman Sewerage Private Company Limited (ASPCL) announced strong growth in user-base for its […]
By Tom Allard and Agustinus Beo Da Costa | JAKARTA JAKARTA Indonesian police will block a rally in Jakarta next month led by the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) if the group intends to make it political just days before an election for city governor that has raised religious tension. The FPI has led two rallies over the past year targeting the ethnic Chinese, Christian Jakarta governor, […]
The publication of Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys in 2014 thrust the arcane world of ultra-high frequency trading firms into the popular consciousness, prompting debate over everything from the industry’s morality to the possible risks it posed to financial stability. What was undeniable was how several of these companies were staggeringly profitable, generating hundreds of millions of dollars by trading at speeds made up of fractions of […]
Investors, economists and strategists have begun to question their enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s new administration, following the president’s decision to block entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries. Mr Trump’s travel clampdown appeared to knock some of the confidence from markets, after stock indices reached record highs last week following speculation the new president will deliver faster economic growth and accelerating price rises — dubbed “Trumpflation”. […]
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is set to present the federal budget on Wednesday, when the government will reveal its plans to steer the economy out of a self-inflicted slowdown. New Delhi’s move in November to crack down on corruption and tax avoidance by voiding 86% of high-value bank notes slammed the brakes on economic activity and threatens to snatch away India’s coveted position as the world’s […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Brent crude oil prices fell around 5 percent from their early January peak as rising U.S. drilling activity offset efforts by OPEC and other producers to cut output in an effort to prop up the market. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $55.25 per barrel at 0112 GMT, virtually unchanged from their last close. […]
The ranks of business leaders attacking Donald Trump’s immigration clampdown swelled on Monday as executives at several large US companies criticised the measures while Amazon said it was considering a legal challenge. Executives at the financial groups Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and MasterCard, the carmaker Ford and beverage group Coca-Cola risked a clash with the president as they criticised the restrictions on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Amazon’s Jeff […]
January 31, 2017 by: Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong Tuesday 01:50 GMT Overview A shaky Monday for US stocks rolled into Asian trading on Tuesday as confusion persisted over President Donald Trump’s executive order to clampdown in immigration and ahead of the Bank of Japan’s interest rates decision. Hot topic Stock markets remained closed in Hong Kong and China for the lunar new year holiday, but those […]
By John Walcott and Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON When Donald Trump’s administration put together its controversial executive order on immigration, it was Steve Bannon – the populist firebrand fast emerging as the president’s right-hand man – pushing a hard line. Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interpreted the order to mean that lawful permanent residents – green card holders – who hailed […]
Credit: Tel Aviv University The handwritten signature is still the most widely accepted biometric used to verify a person’s identity. Banks, corporations, and government bodies rely on the human eye and digital devices such as tablets or smart pens to capture, analyse, and verify people’s autographs. New software developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev now enables smartwatches, currently worn by […]
By William Shaw Law360, London (January 30, 2017, 8:30 PM GMT) — A major European Parliament committee will next month investigate the role played by lawyers, accountants and bankers in the tax evasion networks revealed in last year’s Panama Papers leaks, the European Union legislative body said Monday. The Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion will take testimony from investigative journalists and […]
Microsoft was finalising plans to borrow at least $14bn Monday, in what will be the largest corporate bond sale of the year so far, as the US technology company joins a rush to tap debt markets ahead of expected interest rate rises later this year. The deal will rank as one of the largest ever corporate debt sales not to finance a takeover, and follows a bumper […]
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera | NEW YORK NEW YORK Day traders love making bets on tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump, but some of the most prominent quantitative strategists from hedge funds and banks are not quite ready to make big, bold trades on his social media musings. The president’s active Twitter presence has lifted volatility in financial markets, which is good for day traders […]
MA’ALE ADUMIM, West Bank — The first babies of Ma’ale Adumim, a hilly city on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem, are now middle-aged. A cemetery finally opened last year, and 40 residents are buried there, most dead of natural causes after long and peaceful lives. That is to say, there is nothing temporary about this place, one of the closest settlements to Jerusalem in the occupied West […]
Pakistan’s interior minister on Monday criticized President Donald Trump’s restrictions on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries, saying the move would harm the global fight against terrorism, amid concerns that Pakistanis may also be impacted. Mr. Trump issued an executive order Friday, suspending the U.S. refugee program for four months and banning the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. […]
