Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, The Dow Jones Industrial Average provides us with some pretty strong evidence that our “stock market boom” has been fueled by debt. On Wednesday, the Dow crossed the 20,000 mark for the first time ever, and this comes at a time when the U.S. national debt is right on the verge of hitting 20 trillion dollars. Is […]
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Talal Chaudhry on Friday said Imran Khan should stop misleading people on Panama papers and present trail of foreign funding to his party. Talking to media outside Supreme Court, Talal asked the PTI chief to show financial documents in that regard so that people should know as to where the amount collected as donations was spent. “Now PTI chief Imran Khan should […]
Agreement allows healthcare organisations registered within the DHCA to operate inside the DIFC Partnership is in line with government’s wellbeing initiatives to broaden healthcare provision and access across the Emirate Move will continue to increase the international attractiveness and competitiveness of the DIFC community Dubai-UAE: 27 January 2017 Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Authority, the entity overseeing the largest financial centre in the Middle East, Africa and […]
Donald Trump’s first week as US president has re-energised Wall Street bulls while sharpening concern about the risk of higher inflation and trade protectionism. The sense of fatigue that hung over much of January has been replaced by renewed enthusiasm for equities, as investors sent the S&P 500 to fresh highs and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finally broke above the 20,000 threshold. As the billionaire took […]
Good morning. Is it the “opposition party?” Shortly after Steve Bannon, President Trump’s strategic and cultural Svengali, called the American press the “opposition party,” the opposition calmly sat on a Chicago stage and suggested the best path forward. Their response? Reasoned and tough-minded indifference. It’s a de facto prescription that might drive the new tweeter-in-chief and his sledgehammer-wielding sycophants daffy in their search for a Jacksonian revival. […]
The landscape of public transport is changing across the world. Not long ago, the only option for people who did not have their own car was to queue for a paper ticket and squeeze into a sardine-can bus or train. Today, the new normal is to download a ‘smart’ app and book a point-to-point ride for an ever-diminishing cost. Ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Careem are […]
By Vikram Subhedar | LONDON LONDON The dollar extended its recovery against a basket of other currencies on Friday, while banks dragged European shares slightly lower following underwhelming results from Swiss major UBS. The two-day recovery comes after the dollar suffered a 4 percent drop in the three weeks from Jan. 3 reflecting doubts about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies will play out for the currency, […]
UBS finished a tough 2016 on an upbeat note, with an unexpectedly strong increase in fourth-quarter profits, and has predicted improved US investor confidence would this year boost its wealth management businesses. However, Sergio Ermotti, chief executive, warned the more positive US trends were not mirrored globally, and UBS’s shares fell 1.2 per cent in early trading as analysts raised concerns about unexpected fourth-quarter outflows of clients’ […]
Friday 08:25 GMT Overview The US dollar is in the ascendancy as the currency once again benefits from hopes for a stronger US economy — optimism that also has helped push Wall Street to record levels. European bourses are mixed after a holiday-thinned Asian session. Commodities are muddled, with oil firmer but gold on the back foot. Hot topic The US dollar is in focus as it […]
Sitting in his spacious office in Doha’s West Bay, free from the entourage of assistants usually attached to CEOs of large, government-backed organisations, Rashid Bin Ali Al Mansoori appears relaxed and unhurried. He even responds, “How much time would you like?” when asked to confirm the length of our meeting. Al Mansoori, who has served as CEO of Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) since 2012, is frank about […]
Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat speaks during a debate on the priorities of the first-ever Maltese presidency at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on January 18, 2017 | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images Ministers avoid answering difficult questions. By Harry Cooper 1/26/17, 7:03 PM CET Updated 1/26/17, 10:14 PM CET Konrad Mizzi — the only sitting minister in Europe to be named in the Panama Papers scandal last […]
TOKYO Toshiba Corp’s (6502.T) board on Friday approved plans to make its core chip business a separate company and seek outside investment in it, aiming to avoid being crippled by an upcoming multi-billion dollar writedown for its U.S. nuclear business. Toshiba estimates the value of its chip business – the world’s biggest NAND flash memory producer after Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) – at 1-1.5 trillion yen ($9-13 billion), […]
All three of President Donald Trump’s likely nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court appear to be millionaires, just like the majority of their potential colleagues already on the nation’s highest court and many of Trump’s other picks for senior positions. Those reportedly on Trump’s short list to fill a vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia are all federal appellate judges: Judge Neil Gorsuch of […]
Consolidated Activity Highlights as at end-December 2016: USD 20.8 billion in Assets USD 17.1 billion in Deposits USD 5.2 billion in Loans Advertisement USD 2.1 billion in Total Equity USD 165 million in Net Profit Byblos Bank Headquarters, 26 January 2017 Byblos Bank overall results for 2016 were satisfactory given the difficult economic and financial conditions in Lebanon and the region. Lower oil prices and revenues in several countries […]
Some of hedge fund billionaire George Soros’ short positions dating back to 2012 were published on the Dutch financial market regulator’s website this week due to “human error” according to the regulator AFM, according to Bloomberg. Dutch bank ING is among the positions exposed and its stock price is tumbling… As Bloomberg notes, the short positions, bets on a stock declining, were “between 0.2 percent and 0.5 […]
|By Matein Khalid| The election of a Manhattan property developer and (failed) casino owner as President of the United State has not been positive for most American real estate investment trusts (REIT’s). The sharp rise in US interest rates since the election and the Federal Reserve’s vigilance against inflation risk hits this classic “bond proxy” sector, with its reliance on leverage to boost investor returns. In addition, […]
Dozens of US exporters including GE and Boeing are squaring off against Walmart and other retailers as a radical Republican plan to tax imports divides the giants of corporate America. The rift in the business community threatens President Donald Trump’s pledge to overhaul the tax code for the first time in 30 years by undermining a blueprint that House Republicans are drafting for the White House. The […]
Submitted by James Durso via RealClearDefense.com, Ukraine’s government has hired Washington lobbyists to fix its problems with the Trump Administration, but would do better to fix its internal problems, instead. Ukraine’s problems are in four categories: a structural problem caused by the multiple overlapping entities involved in military strategy and procurement; the absence of a unified strategic vision for ordering equipment and supplies; a “Fifth Column” of […]
By John Miller and John Revill | ZURICH ZURICH U.S. healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) will acquire Swiss biotech company Actelion (ATLN.S) in a $30 billion all-cash deal that includes spinning off Actelion’s research and development pipeline, the companies said on Thursday. The acquisition gives J&J access to the Swiss group’s line-up of high-price, high-margin medicines for rare diseases, helping it diversify its drug portfolio as […]
EBay on Wednesday posted fourth quarter financial results that met market expectations, thanks to a solid holiday season and strong growth in StubHub revenues. The e-commerce company reported non-GAAP earnings of 54 cents a share on revenue of $2.4 billion, as Wall Street was expecting. Earnings were up 8 percent year-over-year, while revenue was up 3 percent. EBay generated $620 million of operating cash flow in Q4 […]
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 […]
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 […]
China is progressing well and stands on the same starting point as other economic powers in the quantum computing arena, but local organisations still fall behind their western counterparts in research experience. China in recent years had begun investing in quantum technology, initiating several national projects in quantum communications and computation. And it seemed likely to continue its investment in future, said Andrew Yao, a Turing Award […]
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 […]
