China’s Country Garden Sells $500 Million Convertible Bond
Country Garden Holdings Co., China’s largest developer by sales, raised HK$3.9 billion ($500 million) in a convertible bond sale amid a spreading crisis in the real estate sector.
Latest From Bloomberg
-
-
Gold Set for Second Weekly Advance as Inflation, Yields in Focus
Gold headed for a second straight weekly gain as investors sought an inflation hedge amid a retreat in U.S. bond yields and equities.
-
There’s a Four-Year Wait List for Toyota Land Cruisers in Japan
Would-be buyers of Toyota Motor Corp.’s new Land Cruiser model in Japan may have to wait around four years before taking delivery, as the automaker struggles to keep up with demand for the iconic sports utility vehicle amid supply-chain disruptions.
-
More Advisers Eyed; Bond Rally Peters Out: Evergrande Update
China Evergrande Group’s risk management committee plans to hire additional financial and legal advisers to help the embattled developer deal with its debt stress and respond to creditors’ demands.
-
Malaysia Resumes Sales of Vaccinated Lane Tickets to Singapore
Malaysia has lifted its suspension on the sale of flight and bus tickets to Singapore via its vaccinated travel lane effective Friday, according to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
-
Argentina More Than Halves 2021 Budget Deficit Amid IMF Talks
Argentina sharply reduced its budget deficit in 2021 as President Alberto Fernandez tries to cut down on spending amid talks with the International Monetary Fund.
-
Ex-Daimler Boss Tapped for New Kensington Auto-Focused SPAC
Kensington Capital, whose blank-check firms have already taken public QuantumScape Corp. and Wallbox NV, has tapped former Daimler AG chief Dieter Zetsche as vice chairman for a fourth automotive-focused special purpose acquisition company.
-
Japan’s Topix Falls 1.8%, Takes Drop From September Peak to 10%
Japan’s Topix index is set to follow the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 into a correction amid concerns over the potential for monetary policy tightening in the U.S. and the global struggle to contain the pandemic.
-
Evergrande to Hire Advisers on Debt Risks, Creditor Demands
China Evergrande Group’s risk management committee plans to hire additional financial and legal advisers to help the embattled developer deal with its debt stress and respond to creditors’ demands.
-
BitMex Founder’s ‘Coconut’ Bribery Claim Just a Joke, Judge Says
When BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes was accused in 2020 of allowing money laundering on the cryptocurrency exchange, prosecutors cited a joke he made about using a coconut to bribe officials in the Seychelles, where the company is based, as evidence of his desire to avoid regulation.
-
Covid Hospital Cases Are Falling in Australia’s Biggest State
Covid-19 hospital admissions have eased for two days straight in Australia’s most-populous state, New South Wales, the first time that’s happened in more than a month.
-
Oil Extends Drop From Seven-Year High as U.S. Stockpiles Expand
Oil extended its decline from the highest level since 2014 after a surprise gain in U.S. crude stockpiles and a big increase in gasoline supplies.
-
Peloton Vows to Slash Costs as It Posts Tepid Quarterly Results
Peloton Interactive Inc. vowed to cut costs at the fitness company and gave an early look at its quarterly results, which came in just short of analysts’ estimates.
-
Japan’s Prices Fail to Make Further Progress to Distant BOJ Goal
Gains in Japan’s key consumer prices failed to accelerate toward the Bank of Japan’s target in December, highlighting ongoing weakness in the economy’s inflation pulse in stark contrast to its global peers.
-
VMware Staff Blast Hire of Ex-AWS Executive Who Had Faced Probe
VMware Inc. employees are sharply criticizing the company’s decision to hire a former Amazon Web Services executive who was subject to an internal investigation over alleged discriminatory comments.
-
Xbox Chief Says ‘Call of Duty’ Will Remain on PlayStation
PlayStation fans will still be able to play the famed ‘Call of Duty’ franchise on the Sony gaming platform even after the proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. by the parent of rival Xbox, Microsoft Corp.’s head of gaming said on Thursday.
-
U.S. Hospital Crisis Eases; France to Relax Curbs: Virus Update
The U.S. hospital-staffing shortage exacerbated by the latest Covid-19 wave is showing signs of easing, but many West Coast and rural states are still seeing the worst of it. San Francisco’s infections are falling rapidly from a peak a week and half ago.
-
Morgan Stanley Sees Brent Crude Hitting $100 by Third Quarter
Add Morgan Stanley to the list of banks expecting crude to reach $100 a barrel later this year.
-
Intel to Announce U.S. Manufacturing Plans on Friday
Intel Corp. will announce Friday the next step in Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger’s plan to build up semiconductor production in the U.S., seeking to restore the chipmaker’s edge in manufacturing technology.
-
MercadoLibre Doubles Down on Crypto With Two Stake Purchases
Latin American e-commerce powerhouse MercadoLibre Inc. is deepening its presence in the crypto world.
-
Tech-Led U.S. Stock Reversal to Pressure Asia Open: Markets Wrap
Asian stocks looked set to fall Friday after U.S. shares surrendered gains and tumbled into the close of trading, pushing the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 into a correction.
-
Yellen Still Hopes U.S. Inflation Gets Back to 2% by Year-end
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she continues to forecast inflation falling close to 2% by the end of 2022.
-
Pelosi Says House ‘Close’ on China Competition, Chips Aid Bill
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House is close to finishing legislation to bolster U.S. competition with China and aid the U.S. semiconductor industry that can be merged with a similar Senate-passed bill, a crucial step toward eventual passage by Congress.
-
JPMorgan Raises CEO Dimon’s Pay 10% to $34.5 Million for 2021
(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon’s total compensation 10% to $34.5 million for his work in 2021, the firm’s most profitable year on record.
-
U.S. Charges Belarus Officials With Piracy in Flight Diversion
(Bloomberg) -- Federal prosecutors in New York charged four Belarus government officials with airline piracy over the diversion of a Ryanair flight last year that resulted in the arrest of a dissident.
-
Activision Employees Say They’re Optimistic About Acquisition by Microsoft
Activision Blizzard Inc. employees have had a range of differing and sometimes conflicting emotional responses to news this week that their company will be purchased by Microsoft Corp. for $69 billion.
-
CLOs Have Seen Only Five Defaults in a Decade
Investors can’t get enough of leveraged loans that get packaged into bonds, and a report that came out this week gives an inkling as to one reason why: the securities almost never default.
-
A Year’s Worth of Nasdaq Tumult Was Condensed Into Three Weeks
Many ways exist to chart shakiness in the stock market. There’s options-derived volatility indexes, price relative to moving averages and maximum drawdowns, to name a few.
-
Nasdaq 100 Enters Correction as Tech Stocks Resume Slide
The technology-focused Nasdaq 100 fell into a correction on Thursday, a swift reversal after touching an all-time high in November as a surge in U.S. Treasury yields has dented the allure for high-flying growth shares.
-
Chipmakers Tumble Again in Biggest Weekly Drop Since March 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Shares of semiconductor companies fell on Thursday, with the group participating in a widespread late selloff for technology stocks that pushed the Nasdaq 100 Index into correction territory.
-
Deutsche Bank Hires BofA’s Arena for Fine-Art Lending in Florida
Deutsche Bank AG hired John Arena from Bank of America Corp. to help structure art loans for the ultra-wealthy.
-
Atlanta D.A. Requests Grand Jury for Trump Election-Fraud Probe
The Atlanta prosecutor investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results is seeking to convene a special-purpose grand jury to hear evidence in the case.
-
McConnell Backs Effort to Overhaul Electoral Vote Count Law
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is backing efforts to rework a law on certifying electoral votes as a bipartisan group of senators considers changes aimed a preventing maneuvers deployed by some Republicans last year to challenge the 2020 election results.
-
GM Labor Vote in Mexico Raises Red Flags for Unifor, AFL-CIO
The largest unions in the U.S. and Canada are raising questions over the fairness of a vote that’s set to take place at General Motors Co.’s truck plant in Mexico.
-
Australia, U.K. Work on Security Ties as China’s Clout Expands
(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s top foreign and defense officials will meet their Australian counterparts in Sydney on Friday to advance a security pact involving nuclear-powered submarines and share notes on countering China’s growing clout.
-
India’s Bond Market Has $30 Billion Riding on Index Inclusion
(Bloomberg) -- India is inching toward a major milestone: opening its $1 trillion government bond market to more international investors, one of the most ambitious attempts to attract foreign inflows since the country liberalized its economy three decades ago.
-
Recruiters Say 'No Amount of Money' Can Lure Bankers to Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s status as a magnet for international financiers is cratering as firms struggle to coax traders and bankers to move to the once vibrant trading hub.
-
NYC Gateway Tunnel Gets Set for Federal Funding as U.S. Raises Priority
The Gateway commuter-rail tunnel project in New York and New Jersey is receiving a long-awaited priority boost that will make it eligible for federal funding.
-
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Abortion Providers Again on Texas Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a fresh rebuff to Texas abortion providers by refusing for a second time to return their suit challenging the state’s sweeping ban to the trial judge who once blocked the law.
-
Diesel Futures Signal the Cost of Filling Up the Truck Might Have Peaked
The premium on the nearest U.S. diesel contract collapsed on Thursday by the most since April 2020 as milder weather next month may reduce its demand for heating.
-
Europe’s Biggest Lithium Mine Blocked as Rio Loses in Serbia
Serbia blocked plans for Europe’s biggest lithium mine -- a flagship project of Rio Tinto Group’s new chief executive -- in a dramatic response to local opposition that’s set to pile more pressure on future supply of the crucial battery metal.
-
Banorte Tops Analysts’ Picks to Nab Citi’s Mexico Retail Bank
(Bloomberg) -- Grupo Financiero Banorte is seen as the top contender among potential bidders to buy Citigroup Inc.’s Mexican consumer banking operations, according to analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG and Bank of America Corp.
-
U.S. Power Grids Need Stronger Cybersecurity, Top Regulator Says
U.S. power grids need to boost their cyber defenses to find hackers faster to keep them from gaining control over operations, according to the country’s top energy regulator.
-
Wind Giant Siemens Gamesa Cuts Profit Outlook as Inflation Bites
(Bloomberg) -- One of the world’s largest makers of wind turbines cut its outlook for the year as supply-chain snarls boosted raw material costs.
-
TrueCar Founder’s New Venture Will Get You a Tesla in 10 Minutes
For drivers who dream of cruising around in a Tesla Inc. but can’t afford one -- or just have commitment issues -- there’s a new option.
-
LA Port Saw Record Cargo in 2021 Despite Trade Snarls
(Bloomberg) -- The Port of Los Angeles moved record cargo volumes last year amid an import surge at the U.S.’s biggest container gateway and supply-chain snarls brought on by the pandemic.
-
U.S. Funds for Electric Car Charging Network To Flow This Year
Feds plan to issue guidance to states next month on how to apply
-
Soy Seen Toppling King Corn as Inflation Upends U.S. Plantings
(Bloomberg) -- Move over, corn.
-
Google Asks EU’s Top Court to Overturn Record Antitrust Fine
(Bloomberg) -- Google asked the European Union’s top court to strike down a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) antitrust fine that bolstered regulators’ crackdown on big tech.
-
Steelmaker CEO Warns North America Market a ‘Falling Knife’
The North American steel market is in for some rough months ahead, with excess supplies, rising inventories and shrinking demand, according to the head of Stelco Holdings Inc. Steelmaker shares fell.
-
White House Optimistic EV Credits Will Stay in Reworked Spending Bill
(Bloomberg) -- White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy expressed confidence on Thursday that tax credits for electric cars would survive in a reworked Build Back Better climate and social spending bill after President Joe Biden signaled willingness to accept “chunks” of the stalled legislation.
-
‘Fight Like Hell’: Democrats Draw Lines as Biden Agenda Shrinks
President Joe Biden’s attempt to salvage the centerpiece of his economic agenda has revived some of the same battles among Democrats over the same tax and spending proposals that have bedeviled the plan for months.
-
Apple Replaces PR Head With Company Veteran After Eight Months
Apple Inc. communications chief Stella Low is leaving the tech giant after holding the job for just eight months, marking one of the briefest tenures for a company vice president in recent history.
-
Biden’s Team Says It’s on Alert for Omicron Disruptions in China
The Biden administration is monitoring real-time data obtained from businesses operating in China to determine whether outbreaks of the omicron variant of coronavirus pose a risk to U.S. supply chains, an administration official said.
-
Loan Funds Draw Biggest Inflow Ever as Buyers Seek Rate Cover
(Bloomberg) -- Funds that invest in U.S. leveraged loans registered the largest cash haul on record as investors contend with interest rate hikes that may arrive within just a few months.
-
France to Relax Covid Rules in Bet Omicron Is Peaking
(Bloomberg) -- France will relax some Covid-19 restrictions from early next month in a bet the pandemic will recede thanks to faster inoculations and plans to shut the unvaccinated out of most social activities.
-
Twitter Users Can Now Add Verified NFTs as Profile Photos
(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. users can now use an NFT as the profile picture on their account, part of a push to allow more users to show off digital art and encourage people to sign up for the company’s subscription product.
-
Senator Brown Makes Pitch for Climate Action by the Fed
Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown said the Federal Reserve should act to ensure financial institutions are taking into account climate change risks, as he defended President Joe Biden’s three new picks for the Fed board, including vice chair of supervision nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin.
-
Carlyle Weighs $2 Billion Sale of Defense Firm Titan
(Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group Inc. is considering a sale of Titan Acquisition Holdings and is working with an adviser on an auction process for the military contractor, according to people familiar with the matter.
-
Fed Takes Key Step Forward in Deciding on Digital-Coin Issuance
The Federal Reserve took a key step toward the possible issuance of a U.S. digital currency, a move that the central bank said could dramatically alter the American financial system.
-
Vision Fund CEO Says Private Markets Are ‘Overvalued’
Rajeev Misra warned that tech valuations have risen faster than is warranted.
-
Bank of America’s Job Cuts Offer a Road Map for Navigating Higher Costs
The biggest U.S. banks received a clear message in recent days: Runaway expenses won’t cut it.
-
John Deere Is Facing a Farmer Revolt
First its workers demanded and won better wages. Now its customers are suing for the right to repair their machines, endangering a key revenue stream.
-
Merck’s Clyburn Joining IFF Adds to Ranks of Black CEOs in S&P 500
Clyburn was once seen as possible successor to drugmaker’s Kenneth Frazier
-
U.S. Hospital Staffing Improves as Rural States Still Struggle
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. hospital-staffing shortage exacerbated by the latest Covid-19 wave is showing signs of easing, but many West Coast and rural states are still seeing the worst of it.
-
Paris Hilton Is Back and Moving the Party to the Metaverse
Paris Hilton feels her time has come -- again.
-
A Slimmed-Down Biden Plan With Climate Focus Divides Progressives
Progressives are divided over President Joe Biden’s willingness to break off $550 billion in climate spending from his moribund Build Back Better plan as separate legislation, despite the popularity of the provisions.
-
Hollywood Producer Who Scammed BlackRock Fund Pleads Guilty
(Bloomberg) -- Hollywood producer William Sadleir will have to give up his 10,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion and other assets after admitting to scamming a BlackRock Inc. trust out of more than $30 million it had invested in his business.
-
AmEx Redesigns $695-a-Year Platinum Card With Mehretu, Wiley Art
(Bloomberg) -- American Express Co. is adding new art to its high-end Platinum card just months after revamping its rewards.
-
A Quarter of U.S. Adults Are Too Lazy, New CDC Map Shows
Agency warns that lack of physical activity can lead to premature death
-
U.S. Commercial-Property Deals Hit a Record High Last Year
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. commercial real estate deals reached a record high of $809 billion last year as the market rebounded from the depths of the pandemic, according to Real Capital Analytics.
-
Bitcoin’s Correlation With Tech Strengthens as Risk Appetite Returns
(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin is proving once again that its long-touted classification as an uncorrelated asset is more folklore than fact.
-
Former Bank of America FX Trader Founds Asset Manager in Brazil
The former head of Brazil local currency trading at Bank of America Corp. is launching a new asset-management firm in Latin America’s largest economy.
-
Wells Fargo Gets 2015 Regulatory Order Lifted in Win for Scharf
(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. got another regulatory order lifted, the latest sign of progress for Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf’s quest to turn around the scandal-plagued bank.
-
Senate Judiciary Committee Clears Tech-Focused Antitrust Bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the antitrust bill aimed at Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, bringing the measure one step closer to consideration by the full Senate.
-
Omicron’s Spread Through U.S. Cities Is Shown in Wastewater Study
Signs of the omicron variant that’s fueling a worldwide surge in Covid-19 cases were present in the U.S. a week or more before it first appeared in California, and spread widely in the weeks afterwards, according to a study showing the power of wastewater analysis for tracking outbreaks.
-
Epic Urges Appeals Court to Overturn Apple App Store Ruling
Epic Games Inc. urged a federal appeals court to aside a September ruling that mostly rejected the gaming company’s antitrust challenge to Apple Inc. over its App Store.
-
Bitcoin Mining’s Hearing in U.S. House Questions Power Usage
(Bloomberg) -- A U.S. House subcommittee hearing on “Cleaning Up Cryptocurrency” and the energy usage of blockchains kicked off Thursday with one representative calling the energy consumption of some Bitcoin mines “deeply concerning.”
-
New York MTA Gets a New Chief as Lieber Is Approved by State Senate
New York’s Senate confirmed Janno Lieber to head the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as the nation’s largest public transit system struggles to boost subway ridership and improve farebox collections.
-
Airbus Accuses Qatar Airways of Engineering A350 Grounding
Airbus SE turned up the heat in a dispute with one of its biggest customers, accusing Qatar Airways of instigating a local grounding of A350 jetliners in order to claim compensation over alleged surface defects.
-
U.K.’s High Gas Prices to Hurt Consumers All Year, Industry Group Says
(Bloomberg) -- High gas prices in the U.K. are going to endure for longer than expected and will cause pain for consumers and politicians for at least the rest of this year, according to the body that represents energy companies.
-
Ivanka Trump Asked to Cooperate on Capitol Riot Inquiry
(Bloomberg) -- Ivanka Trump has been asked to submit to an interview by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol on what she saw or heard about efforts to obstruct Congress’s counting of electoral votes.
-
Fed Officials Say Higher Immigration Could Ease U.S. Labor Shortage
(Bloomberg) -- Immigration, which slowed during the pandemic, could help ease a shortage of workers in the U.S. that’s pushed job vacancies to an all-time high, according to policy makers at the Federal Reserve.
-
U.S. Labor’s Watershed Year Failed to Boost Union Memberships
After a year marked by weekslong labor strikes and unprecedented movements to organize at some of the largest corporations in the U.S., unionization levels fell back to historic lows.
-
American Airlines Sues The Points Guy Over Its Rewards Management App
American Airlines Inc. is suing the Points Guy travel site for letting frequent flyers manage their miles outside the carrier’s own website.
-
American Gives Boeing Investors Reason to Cheer on Dreamliner
(Bloomberg) -- American Airlines Group Inc. expects to receive all 13 of its tardy 787 Dreamliners this year, offering some relief for Boeing Co. investors -- if not travelers. Most of the jets will arrive too late for the crucial summer travel season.
-
South Africa’s School Pass Rate Improves Amid Virus Disruption
(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s school pass rate showed a slight improvement in 2021, the second year in which learning was disrupted by restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
-
Trump Solicited Hedge Funds, Family Offices for $1 Billion PIPE
When former President Donald Trump said in December that his nascent media company was raising $1 billion from a diverse group of institutional investors, the announcement was highly unusual in that it omitted the participants’ names.
-
Analysts Chop Shopify Targets as E-Commerce Growth Slows
Analysts have pushed their price targets on Shopify Inc. to the lowest level since July after a swift and brutal correction in richly-valued technology stocks.
-
Bank of America Adds Neal Nisargand, Citi’s Kaushik Banerjee for Tech Investment Banking
Bank of America Corp. added Kaushik Banerjee and Neal Nisargand to its technology investment-banking team.
-
Economists See Increasing Signs Mexico’s Economy Is in Recession
Mexico has probably slipped into recession as early estimates show economic activity fell in December.
-
Trump Papers Sought by House Jan. 6 Panel to Be Released, Chairman Says
(Bloomberg) -- Potentially hundreds of pages of former President Donald Trump’s White House records being turned over to Congress will be made public, the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol said.
-
New York Airports Are Under 5G-Linked Storm Warnings Issued by FAA
Airports across the East Coast, including those around New York City, are under an advisory warning that poor weather combined with new 5G airwaves could lead to flight diversions.
-
Biden Says Russia to ‘Pay a Heavy Price’ If Forces Enter Ukraine
President Joe Biden said Russia will “pay a heavy price” if any of its forces move across the border with Ukraine, seeking to clarify his comments from a news conference a day earlier.
-
EU Faces Awkward Rebuttal Over Plan to Call Gas, Nuclear ‘Green’
Europe’s executive arm is facing an increasingly intense wave of pressure to abandon a proposal to add gas and nuclear power to its green rulebook.
-
SEC Rejects Bitcoin ETF Plan From Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Intercontinental Exchange’s NYSE Arca proposal for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund from Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital.
-
Pimco Says Treasuries ‘Becoming More Attractive’ After Selloff
(Bloomberg) -- Pimco may soon reconsider its underweight stance on long-duration government bonds that have already taken a big beating in the new-year selloff.
-
Walmart’s Top U.S. E-Commerce Executive to Leave Next Month
Walmart Inc.’s top U.S. e-commerce executive is departing less than 18 months after joining the company.
-
Have You Seen 200 Million Barrels of Oil Anywhere?
The International Energy Agency is trying to figure out where 200 million barrels of oil went.
-
Russia Proposes Crypto Crackdown. Bitcoin’s Reaction? No Problem
Russia’s central bank on Thursday proposed a complete ban on crypto mining and trading. Bitcoin’s reaction: No worries.