While an overseas buying spree by Chinese companies has grabbed headlines, more mundane activity such as trade finance and corporate cash management are a much bigger strain on China’s foreign exchange reserves, analysis of official data shows. The dominance of bank lending and portfolio investment as a source of Chinese capital outflows casts doubt on whether Beijing’s recent clampdown on big-ticket foreign deals by the likes of Dalian […]
Sunday, 18 December 2016 – Today, Phidar Advisory released its Dubai residential research note with November data, which is now reported using a 3-month moving average. The report shows that residential rents continue to decline and projects further declines. “The risk in the residential market remains on the downside,” said Jesse Downs, Managing Director of Phidar Advisory. “Weak investment demand and softening rents will push rates down […]
Kickstarter campaigns sometimes never deliver, Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core, but we also see successfully funded products that end up providing what was promoted. The Ticwatch 2 campaign began in late July and reached its funding goal of $50,000 in just 10 minutes. While I surprisingly did not back this new smartwatch, I was recently sent an evaluation Ticwatch 2 Active to test out. I’ve used […]
BP cemented its 77-year relationship with Abu Dhabi by swapping about $2.2 billion of its own shares for a stake in one of the emirate’s largest onshore oil concessions. The U.K.’s second-biggest oil group will issue new ordinary shares to pay for 10 percent of the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations Ltd., giving the emirate a 2 percent holding in BP, the London-based company said […]
Apple’s competitors have clearly got a bit of an obsession with the MacBook Air. Following the ASUS ZenBook UX330UA, which blatantly copied the fruity ultraportable’s design, Acer has now released the TravelMate X349-M, a more affordable alternative with a similarly familiar look about it. With prices starting at less than £600 (inc. VAT), the TravelMate X349 inevitably lacks some of the finer features and superior performance of […]
That’s only one reason the current Israeli government is less than enthusiastic about having to evacuate Amona. In addition to fears of clashes with the settlers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will have to act against its own constituency, a plurality of which would like the evacuation avoided. And yet the government has little choice. Attempts to circumvent the court’s orders legislatively, by introducing a law to […]
A series of big events shaped financial markets in 2016. Here is a selection of FT analyses and commentary, alongside charts, highlighting a tumultuous year. The new year rout January proved brutal for investors. After just 10 trading days, global equity markets had lost more than $4tn of value, with sentiment hammered by fears about China’s economic slowdown and a depreciating currency. In turn, bond markets were […]
Digitizing analog processes can have steep learning curve. Robin Harris Even as a kid, I could see the visual difference between TV sitcoms – shot on videotape – and films. Video had a jarring sharpness that, paradoxically, made the picture less real. Films, with much higher resolution than video, looked more real, even though the motion blur and background softness – among other artifacts – are a […]
Many stakeholders are now coming home after a productive week at the 2016 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Guadalajara, Mexico. As the first IGF since its 10 year mandate renewal by the UN General Assembly, this was a key edition to set the stage for multistakeholder cooperation in the next few years, and to identify the issues that will have to be addressed by the global Internet community now […]
By Stanley White and Izumi Nakagawa | TOKYO TOKYO Japanese workers put up with long hours and unpaid overtime under pressure from cost-saving companies, and figures from government, which wants more money in workers’ pockets to boost consumer spending, appear to underestimate the problem. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to enact labor reforms as part of his “Abenomics” plan to end decades of stagnant growth and […]
On the other side of the tent, though, Bernhard Hauser, 40, of Burghausen, was hunched over, eyes peeking out from a stack of blankets, offering monosyllabic utterances through clattering teeth as three paramedics kept close watch. The difference between the two men was remarkable. Hauser had finished 27:55.46, ahead of Koitka, but his body had a much stronger reaction to the cold. When asked how this could […]
Our round-up of the week’s best comment and analysis from the Financial Times focuses on expectations of a Trump-presidency stimulus and the danger of complacency. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. Wall Street might be too complacent about Donald Trump’s corporate tax stimulus and are not pricing in an upsurge in volatility, argues the […]
1 of 15 Fancy something fancy? We pay a visit to 14 of the city’s snazziest afternoon teas to scope out scones, sandwiches and smooth brews. 2 of 15 Al Fayrooz Lounge Rating: 4/5Most impressive item: Mango soufflé with blackcurrant sorbet.There’s a very traditional feel to this afternoon tea, with old-fashioned ceiling fans and a plush Arabesque lounge setting, but the tea itself has a modern twist; […]
(Image: file photo) An advisor working for financial planning giant Ameriprise has inadvertently exposed hundreds of investment portfolios, worth tens of millions of dollars. The data was found on an internet-connected backup drive at the advisor’s home, which was set to synchronize over the internet with his primary backup drive at his office. But neither drive had a password, allowing anyone to view sensitive client data. The […]
Monte dei Paschi di Siena has gained stock market approval to extend a voluntary debt-for-equity swap to retail investors, a key part of the Italian bank’s attempt to raise €5bn in fresh capital before Christmas and stave off a state rescue. The last-gasp attempt by the world’s oldest surviving lender comes as regulators and the bank have revealed that long running crisis at MPS is taking a […]
The Volcani Center, the Ministry of Agriculture’s research organization, is building a national institute for medical marijuana research. The chief scientist’s office of the Ministry of Economy has infused millions of shekels into innovative marijuana companies, much as government investment helped fuel the Israeli tech boom in the 1990s. The government is also setting standards for the cultivation, storage and use of medical marijuana. Continue reading the […]
(Image: Uber) Uber will continue operating its Volvo self-driving cars on San Francisco, California streets, despite repeated warning from state regulators the ride-hailing service doesn’t have proper permits to do so. In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, California’s Department of Justice said “the attorney general will seek injunctive and other appropriate relief,” if Uber doesn’t get the special permit to allow for self-driving vehicles. The […]
It was a clear and chilly afternoon in Moscow – March 18, 2014 – when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the documents to formally annex the Crimean Peninsula away from Ukraine. Frustrated Western governments soon began rolling out the only response they could agree on to Mr. Putin’s brazen redrawing of Europe’s borders: economic sanctions. Over the next two days, the United States would designate 27 individuals […]
Image from Istockphoto In part one of my conversation with Kim Stevenson and Adriana Karaboutis, we discussed the challenges and opportunities facing women in technology Also read: Women in technology: Advice from Intel and Biogen This second post offers advice from Andi and Kim on how CIOs can add value to their organizations. Both women have years of CIO experience; Kim was CIO at Intel and Andi […]
Photo Minnesota football players spoke with the media on Friday. Credit Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune, via Associated Press The University of Minnesota football team on Saturday rescinded its threatened boycott of a bowl game, a protest that had been intended to persuade the administration to lift the suspensions of 10 players entangled in a sexual assault inquiry. Team leaders continued to say that the 10 players, whose suspensions […]
Microsoft is building out a number of “graphs,” or data indexes, across the company. There’s the Bing knowledge graph, the Office Graph, and now, the LinkedIn professional graph. This week, the company announced plans to add another graph to its stable: A “world graph.” It’s partnering with HERE, TomTom, and Esri to build this geographic data index. The data in the coming world graph isn’t just about […]
WASHINGTON The Pentagon said on Saturday that Chinese authorities have agreed to return a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) collecting oceanographic data seized by Chinese warship this week. “Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, editing by G Crosse) ‘); […]
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte(Photo: Tang Chhin Sothy, AFP/Getty Images) President Rodrigo Duterte threatened Saturday to terminate a pact that allows U.S. troops to visit the Philippines, saying “bye-bye America” as he reacted with rage to what he thought was a U.S. decision to scrap a major aid package over human rights concerns. A U.S. government aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, said earlier in the week that […]
By all accounts, the June charity gala at Skylight, a Beaux-Arts building in midtown New York, was a very glitzy affair. Whoopi Goldberg served as master of ceremonies, while Naomi Campbell and Leonardo DiCaprio were among the A-list guests. The hosts for the evening were Martin Chavez, named this week as the next chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs, and his husband, Adam Norbury. In many respects […]
