An experimental Alzheimer’s medicine has flunked a large clinical trial, wiping more than $10bn off the market value of its developer Eli Lilly and dealing a significant setback to the hunt for a drug to delay the fatal disease. Investors and analysts had tipped the medicine, known as Solanezumab, or Sola, to be the first drug that could delay dementia in Alzheimer’s patients, after earlier studies appeared […]
Mid-morning last Friday, as Tokyo’s foreign-exchange traders were contemplating lunch, the first pictures of Donald Trump meeting the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, flashed up. The yen bears loved it. Setting aside the gold-encrusted Babylonian decor of Trump Tower and forced bonhomie, conventional market wisdom before November 9 was that an image like this would send global investors everywhere screaming into haven, long yen positions. Forget an […]
At the Bundesbank’s Frankfurt offices, its dealers sit in front of rows of Bloomberg and Reuters terminals and search for €10bn-worth of their government’s bonds to buy each month. As prices for the debt hit record highs earlier this year, they struggled to find bonds cheap enough to meet their target, set as part of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme. Now, as investors anticipate higher […]
Mexico can expect a windfall of as much as $2.9bn next month from its annual oil hedging programme, but that will be dwarfed by an expected bonanza from the central bank that could pour close to $20bn into government coffers in April, analysts say. For a government facing bitter spending cuts, an increasingly uncertain economic outlook, sharply lower growth prospects next year and the threat of a […]
Impala Asset Management, the $2.2bn hedge fund run by George Soros’s former chief investment officer, is benefiting from bets that an overhaul of America’s infrastructure and sustained demand from China will buoy appetite for commodities. Robert Bishop, who founded Impala in 2004, said they decided infrastructure would be a win whoever won the US election, but doubly so in the case of Donald Trump, a real estate […]
ABU DHABI // The Ministry of Education and Du have pledged to distribute 12,000 books to 226 school libraries across the country. “Education is where the seeds of our knowledge economy sprout,” said Marwan Ahmad Al Sawaleh, undersecretary of support services at the ministry. The President, Sheikh Khalifa, declared 2016 the Year of Reading to create a generation of book lovers and consolidate the UAE’s position as […]
South Korea on Wednesday signed a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan aimed at better managing the threat from North Korea’s increasingly active missile and nuclear weapons programmes. The deal, which comes as Seoul scrambles to adjust to the region’s shifting geopolitical landscape, has faced fierce domestic opposition from critics who slam it as an example of embattled President Park Geun-hye’s unilateral decision-making. Ms Park is embroiled in […]
ABU DHABI // Education is essential for the future of young Emirati men and women and the whole nation, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak told the Arab Knowledge Forum in Dubai this week. The UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development said the UAE is moving in the right direction thanks to “wonderful examples of young Emiratis”. “We must provide an education that empowers our youth to embrace […]
The overview Wednesday 2.20am GMT Asian equities continue to rally on Wednesday after Wall Street notched up another set of record highs overnight, while the US dollar is trading flat. Standout stories The Dow Jones Industrial Average deserves a mention for closing above 19,000 points for the first time, while its peer US stock indices again closed at record highs. Monday was the first time since 1999 […]
SYDNEY Asian stocks crept to one-week highs on Wednesday as investors tried to share in the exuberance of Wall Street, where the three main indices seized record peaks for a second straight session. Australia’s main index led the early action with a rise of 0.5 percent to a one-month top, helped by strength in bulk commodity prices. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 was closed for a holiday after enjoying […]
ABU DHABI // The UAE is focused on tourism as one of the main pillars of the post-oil economy, Sultan Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, has said. Under the directives of the country’s leadership, the Emirates has developed an economic system based on diversity, innovation and sustainability that achieved an 8.7 per cent GDP growth worth Dh134 billion during 2015, said the minister in an interview with […]
Global lenders’ need to cut the mounting cost of running their swaps portfolios has turned what was once a cottage industry into a cornerstone of the global derivatives industry. BGC Partners, the US interdealer broker, became the latest to underline this trend after revealing the value of interest rate swaptions it had torn up for banks this year more than trebled to $3.5tn. A swaption gives a […]
Fitch Ratings-London-22 November 2016 Fitch Ratings has affirmed The Commercial Bank Q.S.C’s (CBQ) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A+’ with a Stable Outlook. At the same time the agency has downgraded CBQ’s Viability Rating (VR) to ‘bbb-‘ from ‘bbb’. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this rating action commentary. The downgrade of the VR reflects the deterioration in CBQ’s asset quality […]
newslide Exhausted Kanye West hospitalised Rapper Kanye West was reportedly hospitalised in Los Angeles on Monday and is said to be suffering from exhaustion. The news broke just hours after he abruptly cancelled the remainder of his tour following a week of no-shows, curtailed concerts and political rants. A source told People magazine West was “exhausted and currently dealing with sleep deprivation” but was “fine”. Concert promoters […]
A two-day ceasefire after nearly two years of war in Yemen expired at midday (0900 GMT) on Monday and would not be renewed, a spokesman for a Saudi-led military coalition told al-Arabiya TV, with each side blaming the other for violations. The 48-hour truce, announced unilaterally by the Saudi coalition on Friday, failed to halt fighting across the country between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-led forces, which […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices rose to their highest level since October on Tuesday as the market priced in an expected output cut led by producer cartel OPEC, but analysts warned that a failure to agree on a cut could lead to a deepening supply glut by early 2017. International Brent crude oil futures rose as high as $49.63 a barrel on Tuesday, up […]
Genes in Space UAE: meet the five finalists – video November 22, 2016 The five teams selected from schools in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Dubai were announced at a dinner on Sunday night in the capital, where they were congratulated by family members, teachers and the competition organisers. The National
What better way to enjoy the cool winter evenings than by dining outdoors? There is no shortage of venues with terraces, some of which offer views of the waterfront and city skylines. Afshan Ahmed rounds up of some of the newest options available for alfresco dining in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. newslide Abu Dhabi Bu Located on the fourth floor of The Hub at World Trade […]
Dubai’s Shuaa Capital announced on Monday the completion of a deal allowing Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG) to buy a 48.36 percent stake in the investment bank. Alternative investment firm ADFG agreed in June to acquire the stake from Dubai Banking Group, a subsidiary of Dubai Group. Shuaa received approval from both the central bank and the stock market regulator last week and the deal has now […]
What does Europe’s top judge think of a full-blooded British tabloid headline casting justices as “Enemies of the People”? With a nod to propriety, Koen Lenaerts insists that he “cannot speak about ” that Daily Mail front page or the specifics of a landmark British ruling on parliamentary approval for Brexit. But the European Court of Justice president is unable to resist making a broader point. “I can say […]
Doha, Qatar – November 22 2016 Aamal Readymix, a branch of Aamal Company Q.S.C. and one of Qatar’s largest producers of quality ready mixed concrete has been awarded the First International Qatar Sustainability Award 2016 by the Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC). The award recognizes Aamal Readymix’s contribution to green and sustainable design in the development of concrete under the Green Building Material and Green Concrete categories. […]
Photo A cemetery on the outskirts of Gaziantep, Turkey. Grave No. 38487 holds the body of a 4-year-old girl who died of wounds she received when a shell containing sulfur mustard agent hit her home in Marea, Syria. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times WASHINGTON — The Islamic State has used chemical weapons, including chlorine and sulfur mustard agents, at least 52 times on the […]
The dollar’s post-US election surge has investors contemplating not whether they have overdone the rally but just how far the greenback can rise and how quickly it will get there. A series of currency landmarks, which not long ago investors thought too distant to worry about, have already been trampled by the dollar’s relentless march. The euro fell below $1.06, the yen weakened towards ¥111 against the […]
Dubai/London: November21, 2016 Advance Global Capital (AGC), announced the partnership with Invoice Bazaar, a FinTech Supply Chain Finance platform in the United Arab Emirates for offering receivables purchase from SME suppliers. As part of the initial term sheet signed, AGC is committing a capital of AED 4 Million (US$1.1Million) as the first tranche towards purchase of receivables mainly targeted towards the SME segment. Supply Chain Finance, is […]
