Does Uber worship business performance at the expense of ethics? That question flared up again at the start of this week, after a former programmer complained about sexual harassment at the car-booking company — and a culture she claimed turned a blind eye to misbehaviour in order to protect high-performing employees. As the world’s most valuable private technology company, Uber is the most prominent start-up to emerge […]
So what can schools near roads do about their air quality? Closing a school’s doors and windows won’t keep traffic pollutants out (though that helps). Heavy-duty air filters — higher quality than the typical filters in schools — can substantially reduce what gets into the air the kids and teachers are breathing inside. Filters rated MERV 16, characterized as surgery-grade, have been installed in dozens of Southern […]
Here we go again. The premium investors are demanding to hold French over German 10-year debt has hit a fresh post-eurozone crisis high today – exceeding 0.81 percentage points for the first time since August 2012. The yield gap has swollen to its highest in over four years this month, reflecting investor jitters about France’s upcoming and unpredictable presidential elections in three months’ time. France’s 10-year bond […]
Submitted by Don Quijones via WolfStreet.com, Untouchable. Inviolable. Immunity. Impunity. These are the sort of words and expressions that are often associated with senior central bankers, who are, by law, able to operate more or less above the law of the jurisdictions in which they operate. Rarely heard in association with senior central bankers are words or expressions like “accused”, “charged” or “under investigation.” But in Spain this […]
Lenín Boltaire Moreno is in the lead after Sunday’s nail-biting presidential election in Ecuador. The anointed candidate of leftwing President Rafael Correa was close to the margin needed to avoid a second round against Guillermo Lasso, a conservative former banker, in a test for Latin America’s battered left. After a campaign that underlined the divisive legacy of Mr Correa, the US-trained economist who has been in power […]
Newly appointed New South Wales Minister for Finance, Services and Property Victor Dominello has said he plans to bring his data-driven expertise to his new portfolio, rewarding government agencies with an “innovation bonus” if they move away from a silo-ridden approach to IT and service delivery. Speaking at the Gartner 2017 APAC Data & Analytics Summit in Sydney on Monday, Dominello said he had his eye on […]
ITP Media Group is hosting the UAE’s first Influencer Marketing Summit this morning at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Dubai Marina, chaired by the BBC broadcaster Andrew Neil. The event will see high profile social media stars such as Joelle Mardinian giving the first keynote speech, while also examining how influencers and brands can work together, and issues of transparency and legislation. (Refresh the page for updates) […]
SYDNEY Asian share markets were mixed on Monday as political uncertainty globally kept the mood cautious, while the U.S. dollar dithered in a tight range ahead of a busy week for Federal Reserve events. Turnover was light with U.S. markets closed for the Presidents Day holiday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 0.1 percent and back toward a 19-month peak reached last […]
New Zealand’s High Court has ruled that Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur accused of masterminding one of the largest copyright infringements in history, and three accomplices can be extradited to face trial in the US. The judgment is a victory for the US department of Justice, which has fought a near five-year legal battle to have the 43-year-old German stand trial on copyright infringement and money laundering charges […]
SINGAPORE The U.S. economy is on “sound footing,” a hawkish Federal Reserve official said on Monday in a speech that cautioned against asking the central bank to solve problems beyond its control such as low productivity growth. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, at a forum in Singapore, did not comment specifically on interest rates. However she has dissented in the past in favor of quicker rate hikes […]
Last week, as delegations from the new US administration, Russia, China and the EU gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the strategic challenges facing the international community, a very different international assembly was taking place at the Abu Dhabi headquarters of the UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development. As ministers in Germany prepared to debate matters diplomats define as “hard power” – military and […]
Yesterday´s Future is Today´s Reality. In the area of Business applications, cloud seems to be all over the place. But it has many facets which all have its right to exist, though it´s a fatal misunderstanding to see cloud simply as an alternative technical deployment option. From the new millennium SaaS models that have been adopted, initially with huge appetite in dedicated Line of Business areas. We […]
Two months after an unexpected, landslide loss in the December 4 constitutional referendum which cost him his job as Italy’s prime minister, on Sunday Matteo Renzi quit as leader of Italy’s ruling party, in the process triggering a re-election fight against minority dissidents that threatens the stability of the center-left government, Bloomberg reports. Renzi told a national assembly of the ruling PD that he had handed in […]
Here are the questions the FT Markets team will be pondering this week: What do retail flows mean? Money flows are widely watched but, like anything in markets, there is signal and then there is noise. Investors poured money into global stock funds last week, one when US stock markets set fresh records, and US long-only equity funds received the first net inflow of cash ($0.5bn) in […]
Emerging market equity funds attracted the most money from investors in six months, as resilience in commodity prices and signs of improvement across the world’s major economies sharpened investors’ appetite. The EM funds secured $2.7bn this week, with exchange traded funds pulling in $1.8bn of the total, according to data from EPFR. Interest in EM equities was mirrored by bond investors, who handed EM debt funds $1.3bn. […]
Sign up to receive Authers’ Note daily by email here Donald Trump has been remarkably consistent in his first month in office. As he reminded everyone at his press conference on Thursday, he has done what he said he would do. But on the same day came one clear-cut instance where he has changed his mind — on the stock market. This is what he tweeted on Thursday. […]
Committed to its new strategy to support the corporate sector with innovative financing solutions 18 February 2017 Kuwait – Warba Bank has announced that an agreement has been concluded with Al-Mulla International Financing Company by which the bank will increase the allocated amount of the acquisition of financing portfolios from Al-Mulla International Financing to reach the amount of 50 Million Kuwaiti Dinars. This substantial agreement reflects Warba Bank’s […]
Donald Trump has been consistent in his first month in office. As he reminded us at his press conference on Thursday, he has done what he said he would do. But one issue he has changed his mind — on the stock market. On Thursday he tweeted: “Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism — even before […]
When Paul Polman became chief executive of Unilever, the consumer goods company which on Friday rejected a $143bn takeover approach from Kraft Heinz, he told investors to steer clear unless they were prepared to sacrifice short-term profit for “sustainable” ideals. The same message has been delivered to the maker of Kool-Aid drinks and Oscar Mayer hot dogs, with a flat rejection of a deal that would be […]
February 17, 2017 by: Eric Platt, US Capital Markets Correspondent A few seats away from starlets Adriana Lima, Amber Valletta and Diane Kruger in the salon at New York’s St. Regis hotel, buyers from the department store chain Bergdorf Goodman were trend-spotting. They were there to see Jason Wu’s latest autumn collection, a line-up full of amber gold velvet draped dresses, smart glen plaid workwear and sheer […]
Ambitious dealmaking can spell pain for corporate bond investors. Unilever’s bondholders were offered a reminder of that on Friday as prices for the Anglo-Dutch consumer group’s debt fell after the company rejected a $143bn takeover approach from US rival Kraft Heinz. Bonds that were sold only last week by Unilever dropped, with half the €1.2bn issue sliding 2 per cent to 98.37 cents on the euro, leaving […]
This market reminds us of this…“none shall fall” Gold remains 2017’s biggest gainer, oil is down, bonds flat and the panic bid this week dragged The Dow higher… After 6 straight intraday ramps in the S&P 500, the last two days – since Catalyst stopped its forced covering – have seen the character of the market shift notably… On the week, Nasdaq was the […]
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg mounted a broad defence of social media on Thursday, taking on growing concerns about his company’s contribution to everything from recruitment by terrorists to the spread of fake news. In a 5,700 word treatise posted on the social network, the 32-year-old founder also laid out ideas that could lead Facebook increasingly into new forms of social engineering, as it intervenes more directly to ensure […]
Friday 04.40 GMT Overview Market volatility dissipated in Asia trade on Friday as the dollar’s downward momentum eased and US Treasuries steadied, but equities in the region were led lower by heavyweights including Toshiba and Samsung. Hot topic Shares in Japan’s Toshiba dropped as much as 12.2 per cent, bringing the company’s market capitalisation nearly 25 per cent lower for the week with a cumulative loss of […]
