By Ayesha Rascoe and Soyoung Kim | WASHINGTON/SEOUL WASHINGTON/SEOUL U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday opened the door to meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, saying he would be honoured to meet the young leader under the right circumstances, even as Pyongyang suggested it would continue its nuclear weapons tests. “If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be […]
A club of top bankers, investors and Treasury officials will this week meet at the venerable Hay-Adams hotel in downtown Washington to discuss the US government’s borrowing plans. It could be a blockbuster meeting. The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee meets quarterly to discuss with senior government officials the best way for the US to finance its budget deficit. It is made up of senior executives from hedge […]
By Martin Petty and Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA Across Asia, more and more countries are being pulled into Beijing’s orbit, with the timid stance adopted by Southeast Asian nations on the South China Sea at a weekend summit a clear sign this fundamental geostrategic shift is gathering momentum. U.S. President Donald Trump’s flurry of calls at the weekend to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and […]
Besides the upcoming FOMC meeting on May 2-3, and French & Italian politics – the decisive runoff round of the French election takes place this Sunday – this week’s releases are dominated by US payrolls expected to come around 170k. The busy release calendar continues with Norges bank and RBA meetings as well as global manufacturing PMIs. The market’s focus during the week of 5/1 will begin […]
TOKYO The United States will begin an investigation into whether thermoplastic components used in some Japanese and German vehicle models sold in the country violate its patent laws, trade authorities said late last week. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) on Friday listed 25 companies in the probe, including BMW, Honda Motor Co Ltd, Toyota Motor Corp, along with Japanese parts suppliers Aisin Seiki Co Ltd and […]
When North Korea deployed hundreds of artillery units, submarines and soldiers to take part in its largest live-fire drill, it was intended as a chilling display of the reclusive regime’s military might. The country boasts the world’s fourth-largest standing army, with more than 1m troops as well as 7m reserves, and last week’s military exercise came as US President Donald Trump ramped up the pressure on Pyongyang […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks struggled for traction on Monday after weaker-than-expected U.S. economic growth data, while the dollar dropped against the yen amid tensions over North Korea and slipped versus the euro on evidence of strong euro zone inflation. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS inched up 0.1 percent and Japan’s Nikkei .N225 added 0.1 percent. Many markets in Asia […]
Authored by EconomicPrism’s MN Gordon, annotated by Acting-Man’s Pater Tenebrarum, Seeing the Light It has been said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” No one quite knows who first uttered this remark; it has been attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, and has even been said to be an Ancient Chinese Proverb. What […]
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will speak with leaders of Singapore and Thailand on Sunday about the threat North Korea poses of massive, nuclear destruction in Asia, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said. “We need cooperation at some level with as many partners in the area as we can get to make sure that we have our ducks in a row,” Priebus told ABC’s “This Week.” […]
Hedge funds have slashed their bets against the British pound to the lowest level since the Brexit vote in June last year, after the currency enjoyed its best month against the dollar in two years. The pared-back “short” bets, which would profit on a drop in the pound, followed Theresa May’s decision to call snap elections in June, a move that investors said would allow the ruling […]
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, Not everyone likes to hear about the threat of nuclear war. Some find refuge in denial and say that nuclear war is impossible because it makes no sense. Unfortunately, humankind has a long record of doing things that make no sense. In previous posts in recent years I have pointed out both written documents and changes in US war doctrine that indicate […]
Even before the first details of Nintendo’s Switch games console were unveiled to the world in early January, the industry knew it would be a cross between a home console and a handheld gaming machine and could sense an all-in bet coming. On Friday, behind the hoopla of the company’s latest game launch, analysts spotted the same tell: a giveaway sign of a company that desperately wants […]
By Ju-min Park and James Pearson | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea said Washington had reaffirmed it would shoulder the cost of deploying the THAAD anti-missile system, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said Seoul should pay for the $1-billion system designed to defend against nuclear-armed North Korea. In a telephone call on Sunday, Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, reassured his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, that […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for April 28, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Craft market Attend […]
By Neil Jerome Morales | MANILA MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday urged the United States to show restraint after North Korea’s latest missile test and to avoid playing into the hands of leader Kim Jong Un, who “wants to end the world”. The notoriously blunt Duterte said the Southeast Asia region was extremely worried about tensions between the United States and North Korea, and said […]
Authored by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners, Back on March 10, the New York Fed’s attempt at real-time GDP forecasting predicted that the Q1 2017 estimate would be 3.2%. That would have qualified as another decent quarter, the second out of the past three and somewhat in keeping with “reflation.” As we know today, the advance figure calculated by the Commerce Department amounted to just 0.69% […]
By Michelle Nichols and Lesley Wroughton | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned on Friday that failure to curb North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs could lead to ‘catastrophic consequences,’ while China and Russia rebuked Washington’s threat of military force. The showdown in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on North Korea highlighted the diplomatic challenges of resolving tensions over […]
By Nobuhiro Kubo | SASEBO SASEBO As tension spikes on the Korean peninsula, a French amphibious assault carrier sailed into Japan’s naval base of Sasebo on Saturday ahead of drills that risk upsetting China, which faces U.S. pressure to rein in North Korea’s arms programmes. The Mistral will lead exercises next month near Guam, along with forces from Japan, the United States and Britain, practicing amphibious landings […]
By Jack Kim and Michelle Nichols | SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS North Korea unsuccessfully test-fired a ballistic missile on Saturday from a region north of its capital, Pyongyang, South Korea’s military said, defying intense pressure from the United States and the reclusive state’s main ally, China. The test came as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the United Nations Security Council that failure to curb North […]
Our round-up of the best comment and analysis from the Financial Times during the week focuses on US corporate earnings, eurozone interest rates and the future of US economic reforms. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. The FT’s John Authers says US corporate earnings have reached a turning point — the earnings recession that […]
I’m a PC gamer who hasn’t owned a home video game console in five years. I don’t mention that to obnoxiously flex my PC Master Race muscles or look down upon filthy console peasants. Instead, it’s to highlight how thoroughly done I am with those generic black boxes that sit in entertainment centers and simply…exist. I may not be the most hardcore PC gamer, but […]
Bioluminescent mushrooms, an unusual and beautiful sight of nature, have intrigued researchers for years. Scientists have also attempted to unravel the mystery behind why some mushrooms glow in the dark. A team of researchers from Japan, Russia, and Brazil have finally decoded the mystery of the glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. In a new research paper, scientists detailed the reason why two mushroom types exhibit bioluminescence. The researchers focused on […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a “horrible” free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a U.S. anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion. In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea “unacceptable” and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his […]
April 28, 2017 by: Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong Friday 05.00 BST Overview Equities fell on Friday in Asia as the region’s markets took their cues from an underwhelming session on Wall Street, while currencies pared earlier rises amid mixed signals on the future of Nafta. Hot topic Asia-Pacific equities were choppy after Wall Street investors on Thursday digested the prospects of the Trump administration’s proposed tax […]
