A bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators Thursday insisted China’s currency practices are effectively a subsidy and urged Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to consider action against Chinese imports. “There can be no doubt that China’s policy of large-scale intervention in the exchange markets and the significant undervaluation of its currency acts as a subsidy to [...]

China, dollar, forex, US Hide

HONG KONG : Hong Kong property consultants said the government’s move to raise transaction taxes for luxury apartments will do little to stabilise residential prices. However, they said plans to increase residential land supply will help. The measures were announced in the government’s Budget speech on Wednesday, and are aimed at averting a property bubble [...]

Hong Kong, housing Hide

Royal Bank of Scotland’s deal for ABN Amro is acknowledged as a shocker. But is it the worst ever? Mathieu Robbins counts down the top ten bad deals. Tuesday, 20 January 2009 Is Royal Bank of Scotland’s horrendously damaging acquisition of Dutch rival ABN Amro in 2007 the worst ever M&A deal? According to academics, [...]

financial scandals, investment banks, investments, M&A Hide

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks rallied Thursday as sentiment was lifted by an EU pledge to help Greece stave off a debt crisis and better-than-expected US labour market data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average overcame a weak start and climbed 105.81 points (1.05 percent) to close at 10,144.19, rebounding from modest losses Wednesday. The [...]

debt, Euro Zone, greece, recovery, stock market, unemployment, US Hide

The biggest Australian jobs boom in five years may make it harder for central bank GovernorGlenn Stevens to extend a pause in recent interest-rate gains. Investors doubled bets the Reserve Bank of Australia will raise the overnight cash rate target by a quarter percentage point to 4 percent next month after a report yesterday showed employers [...]

australia, Interest rates, recovery Hide

Worries about Greece, its problems far from solved, have temporarily been put to the side, as traders shift focus to the more mundane January retail sales report Friday. January sales are expected to come in with a slight gain of 0.3 percent, compared to December’s 0.3 percent decline. Economists forecast that if autos are excluded, [...]

Euro, greece, US Hide

BRUSSELS: EU heads of state and government will meet in Brussels Thursday for a summit focussed on supporting debt-laden Greece and preventing the crisis there from spreading to rest of the eurozone. The Spanish EU presidency announced Wednesday that European nations would offer support to help Greece tackle its unprecedented deficit crisis, which poses a [...]

debt, Euro Zone, greece Hide

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday detailed how the U.S. central bank will begin to wean the economy off its extraordinary stimulus, even as he stressed it was not yet time to do so. Bernanke said the Fed would likely begin tightening monetary policy by removing cash from the financial system before it turns to [...]

global markets, Interest rates, stimulus, US Hide

LONDON: The world faces an oil supply crunch within the next five years, British business leaders led by Virgin tycoon Richard Branson warned on Wednesday. The rate at which oil is produced risks hitting a peak by 2015, sparking a surge in crude prices and living costs, said a report from the UK Industry Taskforce [...]

global markets, oil Hide

VIENNA: The OPEC oil producers’ cartel held its forecast for modest growth in world oil demand this year on Wednesday, but warned the slow pace of economic recovery was clouding the outlook. “The slow pace of the recovery in the world economy in 2010 is putting pressure on oil demand,” the Organization of Petroleum Exporting [...]

recovery Hide