|By Matein Khalid| As a student of investing and the son of a painter/art historian, I cherish art as a visceral, spiritual value but am also intrigued by its historical linkage to banking and the financial markets. The happiest moments of my life have been spent in the Prado, Tate, Hermitage, Rijksmuseum, Ufizi, MOMA, Met, the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and so […]
ABU DHABI // Drivers of silver taxis are crying foul over what they call unfair competition from unlicensed cabs offering cheaper fares. Taxi drivers are under immense pressure to meet their targets, often working 12 to 14 hours every day. They say the increasing number of uninsured and unregulated cabs has made it harder for the city’s 10,000 drivers to find customers. Owners of private vehicles are […]
INTERNATIONAL. Global investors have raised their holdings of cash significantly in response to a weaker global economic outlook, particularly in China, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for July. Overall, equity allocations are unaffected by the higher risk aversion, however. • Confidence in the global economy falls sharply: 42percent of investors expect strengthening over next year, down from 55 percent a month ago.• China heads concerns: […]
JERUSALEM — Israeli commentators have described this week’s Iran nuclear deal as a “personal failure,” a “stinging failure,” and a “colossal failure” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yair Lapid, a rival who heads an opposition faction in Israel’s Parliament, called it “the greatest failure in foreign policy of any Israeli prime minister since the state’s establishment” and demanded his ouster. Mr. Netanyahu has framed his career over […]
VIENNA — One by one, the roadblocks to a nuclear accord between Iran and the United States had been painstakingly cleared. But as the negotiations went into their third week in the neoclassical Coburg Palace hotel this month, a major dispute lingered over whether a ban on Iran’s ability to purchase conventional weapons and missile technology would remain in place. The American delegation, led by Secretary of […]
|By TAP Staff| The UAE is taking the world’s most popular landmarks and attractions in Vegas, Orlando, London, Paris, New York and Ibiza to the next level for 2020. “Dubai is now considered as an international city on the same stage as New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, and is leading the development of the UAE leisure market together with Abu Dhabi,” said Phil Taylor, Director of Team Leisure LLC, previously Chief Executive of […]
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday urged lawmakers to support the nuclear deal reached with Iran, saying that failure to put it into effect would increase the likelihood of war in the Middle East and accelerate a nuclear arms race in the region that would threaten the safety of the United States. “That’s the choice that we face,” Mr. Obama said in opening comments at a news […]
INTERNATIONAL. A desperate battle was fought last week. It pitted Germany and Greece against each other. Each country had everything at stake. Based on the deal that was agreed to, Germany forced a Greek capitulation. But it is far from clear that Greece can allow the agreement reached to be implemented, or that it has the national political will to do so. It is also not clear […]
|By Matein Khalid| Last week was a roller coaster and the Nikkei Dow closed at 19,800. Abenomics has had a seismic impact on Japan’s economy, financial markets and banking system. The yen has fallen from 76 on the eve of the election in 2012 to 122 against the US dollar. Corporate profits have exploded. Land price rises, job growth, bonuses, capex and consumer spending have lifted Japan […]
Palestinians carried the body of Muhammad Hani al-Kasba, 17, during his funeral in Ramallah on July 3, the day he was shot by an Israeli soldier. By DIAA HADID July 13, 2015 JERUSALEM — An Israeli human rights group on Monday challenged the military’s account of an episode in which a soldier shot and killed a Palestinian youth who had hurled a rock at his vehicle, saying that video […]
|By Matein Khald| During the 2008 post-Lehman financial meltdown, home prices in Dubai fell by 60-70 per cent and a generation of offplan flippers and leveraged investors/buyers (a mortgage, by definition, is a highly leveraged and speculative financial product. There is a reason the word “mortgage” derives from the French “mort” or death!) were wiped out. However, the Arab Spring, global liquidity and the successful debt restructuring […]
UAE. Private sector businesses in Dubai signalled further strong increases in business activity and new orders in June, though the rates of expansion moderated to 27- and 53-month lows, respectively. Despite softer increases in activity and new work, Dubai private sector companies were increasingly optimistic towards the year-ahead, with the degree of positive sentiment reaching a 19-month high. Furthermore, increased confidence towards the business outlook underpinned the […]
Video | Kerry Says He Will Not Rush Iran Talks Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that he was not willing to rush nuclear talks with Iran, but that they could not go on forever without an agreement. By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID E. SANGER July 9, 2015 VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States would continue to negotiate on a nuclear agreement […]
If you read the news regularly, you read about data breaches and massive hacks just about every week. That can make you a little nervous about safeguarding your financial information. A new MasterCard survey reveals you are not alone. Seventy-seven percent of consumers are anxious about their personal and financial information being hacked. In fact, the fear of a hack is higher than the fear of compromised […]
UAE. The global sukuk market is heading toward a correction in 2015 after the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM)–one of the largest issuers of sukuk worldwide–stopped issuing earlier this year, says a report published today by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. But as the report, titled “Global Sukuk Issuance Stalls In 2015 As Major Issuer Exits The Market,” points out, BNM’s move leaves the door open to […]
SAN FRANCISCO When it comes to dashboard displays that are more like smart phones, two things are clear: Customers want them, and automakers are intent on supplying them. But are they really a good idea? Car companies answer with an emphatic yes. They say outsized dashboard displays that behave more like smart phones will boost revenue and attract buyers. And they also insist the new screens will […]
INTERNATIONAL. This is now officially a Greek tragedy. In many ways, it is relatively easy to understand why the result was a No from Greece. There is little to lose, as a Yes to more austerity hardly was a great choice for a society on the brink of a social break down. The vote clearly was not help by the fact that the actual vote: Yes or No […]
UAE. Non-oil private sector firms in the UAE reported the weakest improvement in business conditions since August 2013 during June. Marked slowdowns in growth of output and new business were at the forefront of the overall deceleration, while employment continued to rise at a solid pace. Meanwhile, inflationary pressures from both input costs and output charges were negligible. The survey, sponsored by Emirates NBD and produced by […]
Oil prices tumbled their most in three months on Monday, with U.S. crude falling 6 percent, after Greece’s rejection of debt bailout terms and China’s rolling out of emergency measures to support its stock markets shook global markets. Adding to the pressure on oil, Iran and global powers were trying to meet a July 7 deadline on a nuclear deal, which could bring more supply to the […]
|TAP Staff| Iran’s oil biggest shipping company has amassed the world’s largest fleet of super tankers and is in talks to sail back into western waters should the Islamic Republic strike a nuclear deal, according to senior officials, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report quotes privatised Iranian shipping company NITC as saying it has 42 very large crude carriers, known as VLCCs, after buying 20 such […]
INTERNATIONAL. Greece’s seeming hour-by-hour descent into chaos at the end of the second quarter has fashioned an intensely uncertain framework casting markets at the mercy of headline risk. It is with that ever-changing caveat that Saxo Bank publishes its Q3 Outlook ahead of the Greek referendum on EU membership which, as things stand, will take place July 5. The outlook for Q3, therefore hangs in the balance, […]
By RICK GLADSTONE and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 Islamic State militants indulged in new public displays of artifact destruction this week, sledgehammering a half-dozen statues said to have been stolen from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The militants also broke up a hidden 2,000-year-old lion statue they discovered in a Palmyra museum garden and demolished a 13th-century tomb near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The destruction, publicized in […]
A supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange holds a placard with his mouth during a gathering outside the Ecuador embassy in London, Britain June 19, 2015. Reuters/Stefan Wermuth PARIS France swiftly rejected on Friday a request for asylum by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The founder of the transparency website had appealed directly to President Francois Hollande, days after Wikileaks published documents showing the United States had spied […]
