US corporate boardrooms’ approval of share buyback plans has fallen to its lowest level since 2012, signalling that the stock market’s surge to further highs this year is curbing a key source of demand for equities. Companies on the S&P 500 index have authorised $146bn in share buybacks this year, down 15 per cent from a year ago, according to data from Goldman Sachs. Executives have also […]
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 […]
WASHINGTON U.S. consumer spending was unchanged in March for a second straight month and the overall monthly inflation rate fell for the first time in a year,confirming the weak domestic demand in the first quarter. But when adjusted for inflation consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased 0.3 percent, ending two straight months of decline,the Commerce Department said on Monday. Economists […]
DUBAI // Hundreds of displaced residents of Tamweel Tower, which was badly damaged by a blaze in 2012, may finally return this Ramadan after a key document confirming completion of cladding work was submitted to the authorities. The document signed by eight companies was submitted last week to Dubai Civil Defence stating that the installation of the new cladding complied with fire safety requirements. The 34-storey Jumeirah […]
Ibn Arabi, undoubtedly one of the world’s great spiritual teachers, provokes mixed reactions. There are those that consider the 12th century mystic, philosopher, Islamic scholar, poet and sage to be the foremost spiritual leader and Sufi master in Muslim history. Others regard him as a heretic or even an apostate. There is rarely much middle ground. Ibn Arabi – known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of Religion) and […]
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 […]
DUBAI // A new boarding school in the emirate will compete with some of the best and most exclusive in the world as it prepares to open its campus this year. The first of three planned boarding houses at the Swiss International Scientific School’s Al Jaddaf campus is being built and on track for completion before the academic year starts in September. Consisting of 50 en-suite rooms […]
The Trump administration’s interest in issuing the US government’s first “ultra-long” bonds, following in the footsteps of countries such as the UK, Mexico and Belgium, is facing scepticism from fund managers, analysts and former officials. The US Treasury in April asked its “primary dealers”, the club of banks that underwrite and arrange the government’s debt sales, to explore whether there would be demand for Treasuries that mature […]
A union representing 1,200 U.S. air maintenance workers at United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) turned up pressure on the company on Sunday to settle a three-year contract dispute, saying it would seek clearance to strike. The union is taking its grievances directly to UPS shareholders, running as an advertisement an open letter to David Abney, the company’s chief executive, ahead of a Thursday shareholders meeting. The letter, which has […]
To understand the dynamics of Pakistani politics, one needs to watch the popular drama series Game of Thrones. Based on George R R Martin’s series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire this drama serial focuses on the moves and conspiracies to win power games. I am sure if the writer or director sees Pakistan’s version of Game of Thrones they would forget their own drama series. […]
By Sue-Lin Wong and Kevin Yao | BEIJING BEIJING Growth in China’s manufacturing sector slowed faster than expected in April, an official survey showed on Sunday, as producer price inflation cooled and policymakers’ efforts to reduce financial risks in the economy weighed on demand. The National Bureau of Statistics’ official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to a six-month low of 51.2 in April from March’s near five-year […]
30 April 2017 UAE – According to the annual YouGov survey conducted by IP Global, the leading full-service property investment company; North America, UK, Germany and Australia remain the top property investment destination for UAE residents. The survey results show that when it comes to investing in property abroad, North America is the most popular market among UAE citizens. The UK with 13% and Australia with 11%, […]
By Lacey Johnson and Ian Simpson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A sea of protesters swarmed in front of the White House on Saturday to voice displeasure with President Donald Trump’s stance on the environment and demand that he rethink plans to reverse the climate change policies backed by his predecessor. The Peoples Climate March, the culmination of a string of Earth Week protests that began with last Saturday’s […]
Ben Wilson from Pacific Crest thinks it’s unlikely that a new device will replace the smartphone for most purposes. Instead, it will be supplemented by AI-based services such as Amazon’s Alexa. The smartphone is just another iteration of the everyday experience that computers have been getting smaller and smaller for the past 60 years. We’ve already moved from mainframes, minicomputers, workstations, personal computers, laptops, and handhelds to […]
Al Qudra Holding, an Abu Dhabi-based real estate and investment company, agreed to buy Al Rayan Investment Co for more than 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) in stock. Shareholders also approved listing Al Qudra shares in Abu Dhabi. The acquisition will involve issuing 210.4 million new shares and boost Al Qudra’s assets to about 4 billion dirhams, the company said Saturday in an emailed statement. Al Rayan […]
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Friday, April 28 extending offshore oil and gas drilling to areas that had been off-limits. The move aims to increase domestic production, but it might not prove to be the best idea considering that industry demand for acreage has been rather low. The new executive order could expand offshore drilling to parts of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans, […]
Marine Le Pen has agreed to team up with an anti-EU candidate who came sixth in the first round of France’s presidential election as she seeks to win votes from the centre-right in the run-off next weekend. On Saturday Ms Le Pen announced that she would name Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, an anti-EU Gaullist and founder of the nationalist party Debout la France (Arise France), as prime minister in […]
This story was originally published on Medium and is being republished here with the permission of its author. Two years ago in Hong Kong, I sat around a conference table with some of the finest journalists to have worked in the Chinese media in the past two decades. Left and right of me were reporters who had broken major stories of corruption, malfeasance and cruelty, and who […]
European leaders are warning Theresa May over her “completely unreal” expectations of a swift trade deal, as they gathered in Brussels to agree a tough opening stance on Brexit talks. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, briefed an EU summit on Saturday on a recent dinner where the British prime minister said any Brexit exit payment would only pass before 2019 if accompanied by a full trade […]
Say you’re a gaming company that released a brand-new console, a throwback to one of your old hits. Suppose it became an instant rousing hit to the point where a lot of people went out of their way to snag one from any store that had it. This is great, right? People actually want your product, a demand which you had not expected from the get-go. What […]
Bret Stephens made his debut in the pages of The New York Times opinion section today with a column defending climate change skepticism in the face of scientific surety, a take that didn’t sit well with many of his colleagues in the newsroom. Stephens, a 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winner who joined The Times earlier this year after critiquing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for The Wall Street Journal’s opinion […]
SYDNEY Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said it will challenge amended tax assessments issued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), which is trying to claw back billions of dollars from multinational corporations citing unpaid taxes. The ATO has increased scrutiny over how much tax multinationals operating in Australia pay. In December, it said it was pursuing seven global businesses over A$2 billion ($1.50 billion) in unpaid tax. While […]
Emerging from an Hermès store in Shanghai with a shiny new watch costing “tens of thousands” of renminbi, Zhao Feifei is emblematic of a younger generation of Chinese consumers driving a rebound in sales of European luxury brands. “I’m earning more than before so I’m more willing to spend,” says Ms Zhao, who works in an internet finance company. The 30-year-old is one of the many customers […]
Hotels in Saudi Arabia suffered during the first quarter of 2017 with occupancy, rates and revenues all showing double-digit decreases, according to new figures. Data released by hospitality analysts STR revealed that hotel occupancy across the Gulf kingdom averaged 58.3 percent in Q1, down 10.4 percent on the year-earlier period. STR also said that average daily rates (ADR) in Saudi Arabia slumped by 12 percent to SR578.09 […]
