SYDNEY (REUTERS) – Asian shares tried to rally on Monday (Feb 1) as Wall Street continued to struggle with doubts about vaccine rollouts and economic recovery, while silver surged as newly empowered retail investors turned speculative eyes to precious metals. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan recouped early losses to rise 0.7 per […]
SINGAPORE – Initiatives are being rolled out to improve conditions in the electronics industry, with the aim of attracting more workers and boosting growth opportunities in the sector. Industrial landlord JTC Corporation unveiled plans on Wednesday (Jan 27) to spruce up wafer fabrication parks. The four wafer fab parks here – in the North Coast […]
TOKYO (REUTERS) – Japan’s factory activity slipped into contraction in January and the services sector was more pessimistic, a private-sector survey showed on Friday (Jan 22), as emergency measures taken in response to a resurgence of Covid-19 infections hurt sentiment. Japanese Prime Minister Suga this month announced a second state of emergency in the country […]
BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – China’s top financial regulator dismissed claims the nation is distorting its economy through “state monopoly capitalism” as pressure grows on China to align more with global trade rules. Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said the accusations are a big “misunderstanding” of how its economy operates. Private […]
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) – US President Donald Trump famously tweeted that “trade wars were good, and easy to win” in 2018 as he began to impose tariffs on about US$360 billion of imports from China. Turns out he was wrong on both counts. Even before the coronavirus infected millions of Americans and sparked the steepest […]
BEIJING (REUTERS) – Activity in China’s factory sector rose in December as the world’s second-largest economy sustained its recovery to pre-pandemic levels, a business survey showed on Monday (Jan 4), but increasing cost pressures slowed the pace of expansion. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 53.0 from November’s 54.9, with the gauge […]
SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Singapore saw 14,676 visitors in November, as tourism numbers slowly inched up from their trough earlier this year, on a gradual reopening of borders. Arrivals rose 9.5 per cent from October, but were still a fraction of the 1.53 million visitors in the year prior, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) data […]
SHANGHAI (REUTERS) – Chinese regulators on Tuesday (Dec 29) said they have suspended the credit rating business of Moody’s Chinese joint venture over its role in the default of a state-owned coal miner that stunned China’s bond market last month. The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII), which regulates China’s interbank bond market, […]
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) – Economic shocks like the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 only arrive once every few generations, and they bring about permanent and far-reaching change. Measured by output, the world economy is well on the way to recovery from a slump the likes of which barely any of its 7.7 billion people have seen […]
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) – Temasek International’s head of sustainability and stewardship group Robin Hu will leave his role at the end of this year, with some of his key functions taken over by Ikea’s former chief sustainability officer Steve Howard. Mr Hu will take on a different position and remain part of the firm’s senior leadership […]