Readers have had enough of the media not calling things by their names. Take Don Miller, of Littleton, Colorado, for example: Do you remain asea in ‘political correctness,’ or are you just being kind when you make reference to ‘whoppers’ and ‘falsehoods?’ A lie is a lie is a lie is a lie, intended to sway and/or influence the recipient, but still a lie. Mr. Miller’s email […]
Vijay Mallya has denied that he fled India leaving behind $1.3bn of unpaid loans, after Indian authorities this week charged the billionaire industrialist with criminal conspiracy, dishonesty and corruption in an effort to secure his extradition from the UK. In a series of tweets late on Thursday night, Mr Mallya said that there was “no final judicial determination on what Kingfisher Airlines owes to banks and what […]
January 26, 2017 by: Adam Samson and Mamta Badkar in New York The Dow Jones industrial and transportation averages on Thursday both closed at new highs in a bullish signal for one of Wall Street’s oldest investment theories. The two US equity benchmarks, which date back to the 19th century, have not recorded highs one after another since December, after which the duo began to diverge as the Trump […]
The UK was the fastest growing economy in the G7 last year and is not yet showing any signs of the slowdown that many economists predicted would follow the vote to leave the EU in June. The economy grew by 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to a first estimate from the Office for National Statistics. Growth for the year as a whole […]
By Luiza Ilie | BUCHAREST BUCHAREST The hermetically-sealed heavy steel door to the bunker of Romania’s late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu opens with a squeak, releasing a burst of cool air. The bunker sits two levels beneath a lavish villa in an upmarket neighbourhood in Bucharest, Ceausescu’s private residence through the 24 years he ruled Romania, one of Eastern Europe’s most repressive Cold War-era regimes. “It is […]
By Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA The Philippines has received intelligence that shows closer links between domestic militants and Islamic State, its defence minister said on Thursday, adding weight to worries that Middle East extremists are building a network in Southeast Asia. Intelligence from allies showed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, which has gained notoriety for piracy and kidnapping in the southern Philippines, was […]
January 26, 2017 by: Eric Platt and Joe Rennison in New York The combination of rebounding commodity prices and hopes for faster US economic growth under Donald Trump is helping some of the riskiest corporate borrowers secure cheaper financing and underlines investors’ growing stomach for risk. An expanding list of companies with a triple-C rating — deep within speculative territory — have been able to lock in […]
By Tulay Karadeniz | ANKARA ANKARA Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to order safe zones in Syria, and has long advocated such a plan, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said on Thursday. Trump said on Wednesday he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for refugees fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, he is expected […]
Johnson & Johnson is to acquire Swiss biotechnology company Actelion for $30bn in a complex deal that will see Actelion’s founder heading a standalone spin-off research company based and listed in Switzerland. The world’s largest healthcare company is offering Actelion shareholders $280 per share in an all-cash offer — as well as shares in the new research and development company headed by Jean-Paul Clozel, the Swiss group’s […]
Photo Joy Reid Credit Stephen Voss for The New York Times A few weeks ago, you said the media should stop covering Donald Trump’s tweets in order to force him into giving a press conference. Now that we’ve seen one, did you find it useful? It wasn’t a press conference, and it wasn’t useful. It was a weird third-world pep rally. Trump could make a very fine […]
January 26, 2017 by: Peter Wells in Hong Kong Thursday 05.15 GMT Overview Market spirits are buoyant in Asia after the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 20,000 points for the first time. Hot topic The Dow Jones on Wednesday traded and closed above 20,000 points for the first time. A generally supportive earnings season has allowed Wall Street to continue its “Trump trade”, which began in […]
BEIJING China may be testing a new, long-range air-to-air missile that could take out early warning aircraft and aerial refuelling aircraft, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday, after pictures of the new missile surfaced online. President Xi Jinping is overseeing an ambitious military modernisation programme that includes stealth jets and aircraft carriers. The country has also tested anti-satellite missiles. The official China Daily said the People’s Liberation […]
Manuel Valls sought to make up lost ground in the race for France’s Socialist presidential nomination by attacking frontrunner Benoît Hamon’s “illusory” economic proposals and “ambiguous” stance towards radical Islam. In a primetime television debate four days before the party’s primary run-off, the former French prime minister challenged his rival’s claim that automation would destroy jobs, leaving individuals with fewer work opportunities. Mr Valls criticised Mr Hamon’s […]
Those misfortunes, of course, mean it has also been a rare year of schadenfreude for many outside Duke. Continue reading the main story But perhaps there is something to be said for what Duke offers its fans. At a time when entire segments of the country have retreated into private echo chambers of elation or fear, sports is not a terrible place to try to put oneself […]
It is difficult to understand why Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “make America great again” resounded so deeply with so many. True, the threat of terrorism, rising inequality and job-killing digitalisation have been breeding anxiety for some time. However, on most metrics the US economy has been doing just fine and certainly better than Europe. While the median US household’s real income still stands below peak of […]
Konrad Mizzi offered no new information on his involvement in the Panama Papers scandal today when he briefed a European Parliament committee on the Maltese EU presidency’s priorities for the energy sector. Only one non-Maltese MEP, Reinhald Butikofer of the Greens, mentioned the scandal, despite several MEPs asking technical questions about Dr Mizzi’s energy portfolio. The only other Panama Papers-related questions came from Nationalist MEPs David Casa […]
Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing, welcomed Donald Trump’s habit of individually targeting companies like the US aerospace and defence manufacturer for criticism via Twitter, praising the new president for “directly engaging” with corporate America. Rather than feeling bullied, Mr Muilenburg was effusive in his praise of the president’s social media strategy, as well as his economic plans including tax reform, saying he was giving business a […]
The New York Stock Exchange is planning a direct challenge to its smaller rival IEX with a “speed bump” at one of its trading venues, in the latest example of ways that participants in the world’s largest equity market are experimenting with speed. NYSE intends to apply to regulators to allow a delay of 350 microseconds to trades on its NYSE MKT exchange for small and mid-cap […]
DUBAI // After living in the UAE for three years, Peter, an Irish lawyer in Dubai, had gained 17 kilograms. Even though he exercised five days a week, he was unable to lose weight. What the expatriate did not know was he was caught in a vicious cycle between obesity and sleep apnoea, a disorder in which a person experiences shallow breaths or pauses in breathing during […]
Dow 20,000 is here at last. No regular reader — or indeed, any sentient and sensible human being — should base any investment decision on the Dow. Its methodological flaws are irremediable. And in any case, round numbers should not matter. One brief illustration of the Dow’s primitive methodology will suffice. Just five of its stocks — Goldman Sachs, IBM, Boeing, UnitedHealth and JPMorgan Chase — account […]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday rose above 20,000 points for the first time marking a milestone for Wall Street’s venerable equity barometer as the Trump trade that stalled at the onset of 2017 resumes. The gauge of blue-chip companies climbed 0.5 per cent to 20,014 in opening trading, as US equities extended their record-setting rally that began after the presidential election in November. Investors have […]
Bloomberg has gone where MSCI feared to tread, becoming only the second major index provider to include China’s onshore markets in widely-followed benchmark indices in a move that could prompt rivals to follow suit. China is home to the world’s second-largest stock market and the third-largest bond markets, but its tight control of onshore activity has made its inclusion in flagship indices contentious, with many investors arguing […]
French presidential frontrunner François Fillon has come under pressure to justify why he employed his Welsh wife as a parliamentary aide and specify what work she did for him. Mr Fillon, who won the centre-right presidential nomination in November on a vow to restore high moral standards in French politics, is facing claims from a weekly French satirical newspaper that his wife Penelope Fillon earned a total […]
Wednesday 05:05 GMT Overview Major stock markets across Asia were mostly positive, buoyed by a record high for the S&P 500 in the US and by stronger prices for base metals supporting materials stocks. Hot topic The Australian dollar was the big loser among Asian currencies, down 0.5 per cent at $0.7541 against its US counterpart after inflation data for the December quarter fell short of economists’ […]
