By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected in the fourth quarter as a plunge in shipments of soybeans weighed on exports, but steady consumer spending and rising business investment suggested the economy would continue to expand. Gross domestic product increased at a 1.9 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP. That was […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
If only a portion of Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Programme is implemented, there will be dramatic change, one of the kingdom’s most influential lawyers assures. “If we can cover 50 percent of what is the aspiration in the Vision 2030, the kingdom will be doing much better,” the Saudi country director of international law firm White & Case, Doug Peel, says. “My view is that it’s a […]
Najib wants three ministries to boost cooperation for growth of national commodity industry Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak speaking during the monthly gathering of the Ministry of Finance attended by civil servants from various departments under the ministry in Putrajaya, January 26, 2017. — Bernama picKUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak wants three ministries related to smallholders and commodities to boost […]
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 […]
By Muyu Xu and Ryan Woo | BEIJING BEIJING As millions in China head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday with their families, 24-year-old Luoluo is busy answering messages on a mobile app from desperate men looking to hire an instant girlfriend whom they can present to mom and dad. On visits home during the holiday, which kicks off on Friday, single people are often […]
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, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| UAE telecom revenue reached Dh31.9 billion in 2015, according to the country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority’s (TRA). Mobile revenue decreased 8.57 per cent to Dh23.34 billion in 2015 from Dh25.53 billion in 2014. UAE residents spent 31.49 billion minutes using mobile phones in 2015, up from 28.70 billion minutes in 2014. Mobile phone subscriber base reached 17.94 million in the UAE while fixed telephone […]
If protectionism is about to be unleashed by Donald Trump on America’s closest trading partners, foreign exchange traders are acknowledging the threat in a funny old way. On Wednesday, when Mr Trump issued an executive order to build a wall on the Mexican border, the peso rallied more than 2 per cent. Since slumping to a record low of 22.03 pesos two weeks ago, the currency has […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mashreq, Dubai’s third-biggest bank by assets, reported a 20.7 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, its sixth quarter in a row of falling profits, as fees and commission slipped and impairment allowances jumped. The lender made a net profit of 441 million dirhams ($120 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, it said in a statement, down from 556 million dirhams recorded for the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices edged up on Thursday, driven up by a weakening dollar, but gains were capped by plentiful supplies and inventories despite an effort by OPEC and other producers to cut output and prop up the market. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $55.44 per barrel at 0137 GMT, up 36 cents from their […]
Martin Shkreli, a former CEO who became infamous in 2015 for hiking the price of niche drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent, has become the poster child for greed in the pharmaceutical industry. But he’s not having any of it, firing back at the very industry and singling out other alleged offenders. He recently launched a new website called “Pharma Skeletons,” which details cases of big pharma […]
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 […]
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the United Arab Emirates’ largest sharia-compliant lender, is targeting loan growth of between 10 and 15 percent in 2017 after reporting an estimate-beating 58.4 percent rise in fourth-quarter 2016 net profit. Aiming to pave the way for the bank’s next stage of growth, it also said it would seek shareholder approval next month to raise Tier 1 issued capital by $1 billion, as […]
