Donald Trump has turned his Twitter ire on Toyota, telling the Japanese carmaker that it will face heavy penalties if it chooses to make cars for the US market in Mexico. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax,” the President-elect wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The […]
Friday 02:30 GMT Overview Asia’s markets were bracing for key US jobs data on Friday, leaving stock indices flat and most currencies higher against a wobbling dollar. Within the region, attention was on the Chinese renminbi, which paused for breath after enjoying its biggest two-day rally against the dollar since the offshore market was created in 2010. Hot topic While currency markets are looking at the renminbi, […]
With all eyes likely on wage growth indications in the subtext of tomorrow’s payrolls report (following The Fed Minutes’ comments on full employment), Goldman Sachs is forecasting a better-than-expected 0.3% rebound in average hourly earnings (helped by more favorable calendar effects) and a better-than-expected 180k payrolls print (albeit with a small rise in the unemployment rate). However, they are careful to note that any downside can be […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN The Syrian army and its allies pressed ahead on Friday with a two-week-long offensive to seize a strategic valley where a key spring provides supplies to four million people in the capital, Damascus, residents and rebels said. Aerial bombing and shelling from the army as well as Hezbollah fighters stationed in the mountains that overlook the valley on the northwestern edge […]
Mexico’s central bank intervened in the foreign exchange markets to halt the peso’s record slide against the dollar but failed to provide anything more than temporary respite for its battered currency. The peso responded to the move, the first of its kind since the election of Donald Trump, with a 1.5 per cent rise against the dollar. Having tumbled to another all-time low of 21.61 pesos on […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump targeted Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Thursday, threatening to impose a hefty fee on the world’s largest automaker if it builds its Corolla cars for the U.S. market at a plant in Mexico. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or […]
By Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded an ethics probe into Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. health secretary, following a report that the fierce Obamacare critic traded in healthcare company stocks while pushing legislation in Congress that could affect those shares. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others made their comments as congressional Republicans moved ahead with […]
Tiny rods found inside the bodies of orange puffball sea sponges have an interesting tapered shape. That shape, new research shows, turns out to be a match for the Clausen profile, a column shape shown to be optimal for resistance to buckling failure. Credit: Michael Monn, Haneesh Kesari / Brown University Judging by their name alone, orange puffball sea sponges might seem unlikely paragons of structural strength. […]
Every big city has a sanctuary of sorts, a place where people can escape from the madness around them. New York has its famous Central Park; in London you can take your pick of Hyde, Regent’s, Green or St James’ parks – all greening up large parts of some of the world’s most expensive real estate. At the other end of the world, Auckland, the largest city […]
Thursday 15:20 GMT Overview A surge in the Chinese renminbi is contributing to selling of the US dollar, its retreat from 14-year highs rattling the broader market and boosting the price of gold. US and European equities are becalmed following a mixed Asian session, while Treasury yields dip from recent peaks despite what many analysts consider were a relatively hawkish set of minutes from the Federal Reserve. […]
India is headed for a long and critical election season that will span five states, just as many weeks and 160 million voters. The polls will be seen as a test of whether the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi–who won a landslide election in 2014–endures after his move to remove 86% of bank notes from circulation led to a severe cash shortage. The first ballot will […]
In one of the first signs that India’s crackdown on tax evaders is helping swell the government’s coffers, it this week lowered its borrowing plan by 4.2%. The government says it now plans to reduce the amount it borrows by 180 billion rupees ($2.64 billion). It had budgeted to borrow a net 4.25 trillion rupees in the current financial year. The Reserve Bank of India, which acts […]
Wednesday 05:00 GMT Overview Data-fuelled optimism helped lift equities for a second day in Asia as Japanese investors cheered the weaker yen after the US dollar hit new 14-year highs. With few significant events on the regional calendar for Wednesday, it was left to overnight gains on Wall Street to set the tone Hot topic Is it too early to start talking about Friday’s US non-farm payrolls […]
By David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON In three words of a tweet this week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed North Korea would never test an intercontinental ballistic missile. “It won’t happen!” Trump wrote after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his nuclear-capable country was close to testing an ICBM of a kind that could someday hit the United States. Preventing such […]
After seven years of stock markets climbing ever upwards, investors found a new reason to buy in November: the shock election of Donald Trump. One oft-repeated anecdote is how the billionaire investor Carl Icahn left Mr Trump’s victory party to buy US stocks. A few days later Stanley Druckenmiller, who earlier in the year told a conference for fellow hedge fund managers to “get out of the […]
By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Republican-led U.S. Congress had a rough start to its first session of the Donald Trump era on Tuesday when a public outcry that included a dressing-down from the president-elect prompted the House of Representatives to backtrack on its plans to defang an ethics watchdog. It was supposed to have been a ceremonious beginning in which lawmakers set […]
Banks and commodity companies set the pace as the FTSE 100 extended its run into record territory on Tuesday, taking the gains for the blue-chip index to 13 per cent since the UK voted for Brexit. Sentiment towards the FTSE 100 has brightened on optimism over bank earnings as bond yields rise, and on the support a stronger oil price is giving the commodities sector. “The FTSE […]
|By Matein Khalid|“Few individuals alter the course of history. Fewer still change the map of the world. Hardly anyone creates a nation state. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all three”. Dr. Stanley Wolpert’s words still give me goose pimples two decades after I first read his book. Mr. Jinnah founded Pakistan and was also my ancestral kinsman. I too was born in Karachi, the city by the sea, […]
Tapping into the potential of Islamic Economy for the East Africa Market: Kenya will host the 2nd edition of the East Africa Islamic Economy Summit (EAIES 2017) East Africa’s Islamic Economy Summit – Nairobi 2017 Tapping into the potential of Islamic Economy for the East Africa Market: Kenya will host the 2nd edition of the East Africa Islamic Economy Summit (EAIES 2017) LONDON, United Kingdom, January […]
By David Morgan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Big Oil could be in a unique position to protect its interests against a Republican proposal to tax imports, given that President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet is studded with oil champions sensitive to the risk of higher gasoline prices. Trump’s emerging leadership includes Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, former Texas Governor Rick Perry as energy […]
Britain’s ambassador to the EU has unexpectedly and abruptly resigned, just a few months before the UK is expected to start formal Brexit negotiations in which he would have played a crucial role. Sir Ivan Rogers told staff on Tuesday that he would be stepping down from his post early, leaving officials in shock at the loss of one of Britain’s most experienced EU negotiators. He did […]
By Ueslei Marcelino | MANAUS, Brazil MANAUS, Brazil The Brazilian government will relocate gang leaders to other federal penitentiaries after the country’s deadliest prison massacre in decades left 56 inmates dead in a scene of mutilated and burned bodies this week, officials said on Tuesday. Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said authorities would move quickly to identify and transfer the gang bosses out of the crowded jail […]
The Abu Dhabi Government has announced the list of public holidays planned for 2017. “The following list shows the public holidays in the UAE for the year 2017. The official reference to determine Islamic occasions, such as the beginning of Ramadan or Haj, is the Hijri Calendar. It is based on the phases of the moon. Hence, the exact dates of Islamic events vary from one Gregorian […]
Donald Trump is expected to tap a longtime advocate of greater protectionism as his US trade representative in yet another signal that his administration is poised to enact the aggressive trade policies he advocated during the campaign into government. Robert Lighthizer, whose impending nomination was reported by US media on Monday, has been seen as the favourite for the trade role for weeks and has been leading […]
