Yahoo Finance Plus Shares of Roche are popping after its coronavirus test received FDA approval. Senior Scholar at John Hopkins Center for Health Security Dr. Amesh Adalja joins Seana Smith on The Ticker to discuss.
(Bloomberg) -- Reliance Industries Ltd., controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, bought Stoke Park Ltd. for $79 million, adding an iconic locale that’s been the setting for two James Bond films to its portfolio of tourism properties.A wholly owned unit of Reliance Industries will buy Stoke Park, which owns and manages a hotel, sports and leisure facilities in Buckinghamshire, for 57 million pounds ($79 million), said an exchange filing late Thursday. The acquisition will add to Reliance’s consumer and hospitality assets, the filing said.The property’s rolling golf course has been famous since James Bond played a game with Auric Goldfinger there in the 1964 blockbuster. Since then, the estate with the Georgian-era mansion set in the midst of 300 acres of parkland has also been a backdrop in productions like “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and Netflix Inc.’s British Royal Family drama “The Crown”.In real life, its 49 luxury bedrooms and suites, 27-hole championshop golf course, 13 tennis courts and 14 acres of private gardens attracts wealthy tourists from across the world.The latest marquee acquisition for Ambani’s retail-to-refining conglomerate marks its pivot toward consumer offerings and yet another high-profile British brand purchase. Reliance bought struggling U.K.-based toy store chain Hamleys in 2019 and is seeking to revive it.Flush with $27 billion in fresh capital after selling stakes in Reliance’s retail and digital units last year, Ambani is helming a transformation as he seeks to build consumer services into a equal-sized pillar for Reliance Industries, paring dependence on profits from its traditional oil refining business. Acquiring marquee global brands underscores that strategy.Private GardensAlthough the Stoke Park estate has a recorded history of over 900 years, it was used as a private residence until 1908, according to its official website.Ambani has a net worth of $71.5 billion, making him the 13th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.The group “will look to enhance the sports and leisure facilities at this heritage site,” Reliance said in the filing. Ambani’s conglomerate has equity holding in EIH Ltd., which runs the chain of five star Oberoi Hotels.The U.K. is emerging as a real estate hotspot for wealthy Indians. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of the Serum Institute of India Ltd. -- the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world -- agreed to rent a property in Mayfair for about 50,000 pounds ($69,300) a week, a record for the exclusive London neighborhood, Bloomberg reported last month.(Updates with details throughout.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin declined for the seventh time in eight days, extending losses after President Joe Biden was said to propose almost doubling the capital-gains tax for the wealthy.The slide pushed Bitcoin down as much as 5.8% to about $48,596 as it continued to lose momentum. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Tallbacken Capital Advisors LLC had recently warned there was potential for further downside after the largest cryptocurrency fell back from its record high of $64,870 on April 14 and took out key technical levels.“Bitcoin has slipped below the 50-day moving average support that it held sacrosanct through this rally,” said Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange. “It looks like there is more downside here.”Read more: Wall Street Starts to See Weakness Emerge in Bitcoin ChartsTax concerns may be weighing, too. U.S. investors in the digital asset, which has advanced more than 70% this year despite its recent pullback, already face a capital gains tax if they sell the cryptocurrency after holding it for more than a year. But the coin’s been one of the best-performing assets in recent years -- anyone who bought a year ago is sitting on a nearly 575% gain. For investors who bought in April 2019, it’s roughly 800%.“One of the biggest things you have to worry about is that the things with the biggest gains are going to be most susceptible to selling,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co. “It doesn’t mean people will dump wholesale, dump 100% of their positions, but you have some people who have huge money in this and, therefore, a big jump in the capital gains tax, they’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table.”The IRS has stepped up enforcement of tax collection on crypto sales. The agency -- which began asking crypto users to disclose transactions on their 2019 individual tax returns -- asks taxpayers whether they “received, sold, sent, exchanged or otherwise acquired any financial interest in any digital currency.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -A key gauge of Asian shares rose on Friday, supported by gains in China and a decision by the European Central Bank to maintain stimulus, while investors largely shrugged off the impact of a possible U.S. capital gains tax hike. The ECB's decision to leave policy on hold came despite its prediction of a strong rebound in the euro zone economy from mid-year as COVID-19 infections are brought under control. "There were a couple of subtle acknowledgements today that an upgrade to forecasts is likely coming at the June 10 meeting," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank.
(Bloomberg) -- China has already started buying U.S. corn from the harvest that farmers will start gathering in the fall, in the latest sign of tight global supplies.The Asian nation, the world’s largest commodity importer, bought American corn for shipment in the fourth quarter, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the deals are private. Crops for the fall harvest are currently just being planted and traders estimate sales to China were at least 1 million metric tons.Chicago corn futures rose by the most allowed by the exchange. The contract for July delivery surged as much as 25 cents, or 4.1%, to reach $6.315 a bushel, the highest for a most-active contract since 2013.China is rebuilding its hog herd faster than expected after a deadly pig disease shrunk animal numbers in the past few years. The rebound is fueling demand for corn to feed the animals. As the nation restores pork output with more modern agriculture practices, backyard farmers are being replaced by professional operations known as hog hotels, which usually feed more grains to pigs instead of table scraps. There’s also speculation China is stockpiling crops.U.S. exporters have already sold more than 20 million tons of corn to China for delivery this season, an all-time high, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency hasn’t yet published data for any deals for next season, but it’s possible that some may have already been concluded and haven’t been reported.The surge in demand for U.S. supplies comes as dry conditions threaten crops in Brazil. The two nations are No. 1 and 2 for global corn shipments. While China doesn’t often buy large amounts from Brazil, the situation is still tightening the global supply picture. Importers typically turn to South America for supply during the next few months before the U.S. harvest starts in the fall.China is forecast to import 28 million tons from all countries in the 2020-2021 season, the USDA’s Being office said in a report this week. While purchases are expected to drop to 15 million tons the following year, it’s still double a quota set by the World Trade Organization that allows firms in China to import the grain at a lower duty rate.(Updates with rise in corn prices in third paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- Parduman Gupta, father of embattled metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, has moved out of the U.K., just as the pair’s GFG Alliance teeters on the brink following the collapse of its largest lender Greensill Capital.The senior Gupta has changed his country of usual residence from Britain to India, according to several filings made over the past few weeks at Companies House, the business registry. He owns Simec Group, the branch of the business empire which deals in renewable energy, shipping and mining, and was founded by the magnate as an export-and-import house in India.It’s not clear where Parduman Gupta is currently, but a spokesman for Companies House said that a company director must list their country of residence, and that this “should correspond with their usual residential address.” A spokesman for GFG Alliance, a loose grouping of companies owned by the father and son, declined to comment.Sanjeev Gupta has also been absent for several months from the U.K., where GFG owns numerous steel and aluminum plants and employs around 5,000 people. He said on recent podcasts for GFG employees that he left the U.K. for Dubai before Christmas, and hasn’t returned since.“Dubai is the perfect location for me and my family to operate out of for now,” Gupta said on a April 16 podcast, citing the city’s time zone.But he said that he was keen to be on the move again. “As soon as Covid travel restrictions in the U.K. and Australia and Europe are lifted I will definitely be trying to get in front of the customers and employees around the world.”‘Very Opaque’GFG last month asked the U.K. government for a 170 million-pound ($235 million) bailout, but the request was rebuffed. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told a parliamentary committee last week that it would be “very irresponsible” to give taxpayers’ money to the group, describing it as “very, very opaque” and having “liabilities that nobody seems to have got to the bottom of.”GFG has borrowed about $5 billion from Greensill, and is desperately seeking fresh financing, which Sanjeev Gupta is coordinating from Dubai.Some progress has been made. Three lenders are in talks to refinance one of his Australian steel mills, while a private equity firm has positioned itself to buy two of the group’s aluminum plants.Still, other parts of the business are facing difficulties. Three French units were put into voluntary administration last week, while other parts of GFG in France and Belgium have sought protection from their creditors.Gupta said on the April 16 podcast that some of his U.K. assets were “struggling at the moment with the lack of funding.” He called on GFG employees to be “brave,” but warned of “some difficult decisions” to come.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Parts of the bank had not fully implemented systems to keep pace with Archegos' fast growth when Archegos bets on a collection of stocks swelled leading up to its March collapse, the report said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein and Lara Warner, the bank's recently departed chief risk officer, became aware of the Archegos exposure in the days leading up to the forced liquidation of the fund, the report said. Credit Suisse declined to comment on the WSJ report.
The report by government-controlled Anadolu Agency comes a week after the country’s central bank announced it was banning the use of crypto for payments.
(Bloomberg) -- One of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges said it lacked the financial strength to continue operations, leaving hundreds of thousands of investors fearing their savings have evaporated as authorities sought to locate the company’s 27-year-old founder, who fled the country.Confusion reigned about how many users of the Thodex exchange were affected and how much money was at stake. In a statement from an unknown location, Thodex Chief Executive Officer Faruk Fatih Ozer promised to repay investors and to return to Turkey to face justice after he did. The government moved to block the company’s accounts and police raided its head office in Istanbul.Losses could be as high as $2 billion, according to Haberturk newspaper, and a lawyer for the victims said the money invested by about 390,000 active users had become “irretrievable.” Both figures have been disputed by Ozer. About 30,000 users have been impacted, he said in a statement on the company’s website on Thursday.While authorities and customers tried to work out the details of what happened, a senior official in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office called for rapid regulation of the crypto market. Globally, the surge in the prices of digital tokens has been accompanied by convictions and regulatory measures after various scams tied to trading platforms.The Turkish government should take action “as soon as possible,” Cemil Ertem, a senior economic adviser to Erdogan, told Bloomberg. “Pyramid schemes are being established. Turkey will undoubtedly carry out a regulation that’s in line with its economy but also by following global developments.”Alternative InvestmentsThodex was part of the cryptocurrency boom that has drawn in legions of Turks seeking to protect their savings from rampant inflation and an unstable currency. Inflation hit 16.2% in March, more than three times the central bank’s target of 5%. The Turkish lira has weakened 10% against the dollar this year, its ninth consecutive year of losses.The government spent a massive $165 billion in foreign-exchange reserves over the past two years, Erdogan revealed on Wednesday, part of a futile effort to prop up the national currency. Concern about the country’s dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, which are negative when money borrowed by the government from private banks via swap agreements are factored in, has fueled concern about both lira and dollar deposits -- and pushed savers into alternative investment vehicles.Last Friday, the volume of trade in Turkish crypto markets tripled to over $1.2 billion from a week earlier, according to data published by coingecko.com, which tracks data on price, volume and market value on crypto markets. That compares with an average daily trading volume in the Turkish stock market’s benchmark index of about $3.1 billion.“One can establish a crypto exchange with just 50,000 liras (about $6,000) in capital,” Oguz Evren Kilic, a lawyer representing Thodex users, said by phone. “There’s a huge regulatory gap in this field.”Ozer didn’t respond to multiple calls to his mobile phone. The company’s call center also didn’t pick up calls. Bedirhan Oguz Basibuyuk, Thodex’s lawyer, told Bloomberg he doesn’t know where Ozer is but that he’s not in Turkey. Demiroren News Agency reported that he fled to Albania on Tuesday, publishing what it said was a photo of him at Istanbul’s airport.Dogecoin CampaignLast month, Thodex initiated a campaign to boost membership by offering millions of free Dogecoins to new registrants. Its website says 4 million of the coins were distributed, though many people have taken to social media to complain they never received them.“I was born as one of the three siblings of a civil servant,” Ozer said in his statement, adding that he’s a high-school dropout. As the company ran into financial trouble, he said he thought about either committing suicide or giving himself up to authorities, but both of those options meant clients’ assets would never be retrieved.“So I decided to stay alive and fight, work and repay my debts to you,” he said. “The day I repay all my debt, I will return to my country and give myself in to justice.”(Updates with new lede, government agency action, details throughout.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Dimon says a 'booming economy will justify today's prices.'
President Joe Biden will roll out a plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, including the largest-ever increase in levies on investment gains, to fund about $1 trillion in childcare, universal pre-kindergarten education and paid leave for workers, sources familiar with the proposal said. The plan is part of the White House's push for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax system to make rich people and big companies pay more and help foot the bill for Biden's ambitious economic agenda. The proposal calls for increasing the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, the sources said this week.
(Bloomberg) -- The implosion of Archegos is giving thousands of secretive family offices the greatest challenge to their privacy in a decade. They won’t give it up without a fight.Some lawmakers, regulators and consumer advocates are pushing to expose the inner workings of family offices, which are closely held and lightly regulated yet manage an estimated $6 trillion for the ultra-rich globally.The changes the reform advocates seek would require U.S. family offices to register as investment advisers and publicly report holdings on a quarterly basis, as most other types of investment firms must.Such data could alert regulators, investors and other Wall Street players to hidden risks, yet it could also reveal proprietary information to rivals.Those advocating greater regulation are optimistic that new Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who has a tough-on-Wall-Street reputation, will see things their way. “The rationale for the exemption of family offices is clearly indefensible now, and we think the SEC will change this quickly,” said Dennis Kelleher, CEO of advocacy group Better Markets.The SEC already is in the midst of a separate review to potentially increase what all investment firms, including family offices, must disclose about their holdings, Bloomberg has reported. The new disclosures could include firms’ derivatives positions and which stocks they are shorting.Family office representatives are pushing back. They say they’re preparing for their biggest lobbying effort since they successfully avoided inclusion in tough new regulations following the 2008 financial crisis. Their strategy: Insist that Archegos’s family-office setup was irrelevant to its implosion.“What Archegos did and the fact they got themselves in trouble had nothing to do with the family-office structure,” said Brian Reardon, a lobbyist for the Private Investor Coalition, which advocates for family offices in Washington.The late March meltdown of Archegos Capital Management LP, helmed by former hedge-fund manager Bill Hwang, touched off the lobbying skirmish. After being barred from the hedge fund industry for insider trading, Hwang started a family office in 2013 and eventually parlayed $200 million into about $20 billion in assets, using a highly leveraged portfolio concentrated in a handful of stocks.Earlier: God and Man Collide in Bill Hwang’s Dueling Lives on Wall StreetThe subsequent blowup revealed that neither regulators nor brokers had any idea how large Archegos’s positions had become.“The losses are bad,” said Andrew Park, senior policy analyst for Americans for Financial Reform. “But the biggest stunner is these losses all came from a firm that nobody was aware of until a few weeks ago.” His group has called on the SEC to examine whether the family office registration exemption is creating “regulatory blindspots.”The large-bank brokerages that had to unwind the Archegos positions, including Morgan Stanley, Nomura Holdings Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG, lost billions of dollars, leading some bank executives to also call for increased scrutiny.“Frankly, the transparency and lack of disclosure relating to those institutions is just different from the hedge fund institutions. And that’s something I’m sure the SEC is going to be looking at,” said Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman in an April 16 earnings call. “Better information is always good in rooting out where potential problems can be.”Reardon of the Private Investor Coalition said his group plans to speak with the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and lawmakers to argue why some of the disclosures advocates have called for aren’t needed.Angelo Robles, founder of the Family Office Association, is also preparing for action. He said he plans to contact law firms and U.S. senators if regulators take an aggressive stance on family offices. “The fallout will likely be more regulation on swaps,” said Robles, whose Greenwich, Connecticut-based group has more than 200 members worldwide, referring to the type of derivative Archegos often used.The banks have said they can absorb the losses, but the shock that a little-known family office could have such an effect is serving as a rallying cry for Wall Street reform advocates.Kelleher of Better Markets said he’s already pressed his case with SEC staff, in part arguing that more public disclosure of family office sizes and positions could help prevent them from becoming a risk to the financial system.Lawmakers have also shown interest. Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, who leads the Senate Banking Committee, has asked Archegos’s brokers to disclose information about their family office dealings.Family offices serving a single family and with no outside clients generally don’t need to register with the SEC as investment advisers. The rationale for the exemption is that they only serve one wealthy client who doesn’t need the protections afforded to investors in other funds.In addition, offices with less than $100 million in assets or that manage funds only for one person can avoid regularly disclosing their holdings to the SEC.Offices that serve more family members must file their holdings with the SEC, but can ask for, and often receive, an exemption allowing them to keep the filing confidential.Even those reports, like those of hedge funds and mutual funds, usually only include direct ownership of stocks and not derivatives positions, like the total return swaps that led to Archegos’s downfall.Large banks brokered the stock swaps for Archegos for a fee. Such swaps allowed the firm to spend relatively small amounts -- it essentially used borrowed money to build a huge portfolio -- while keeping its ownership of individual stocks hidden.If the SEC moves to require all investment firms, including family offices, to disclose derivatives and short positions, that wouldn’t necessarily dent the privacy of family offices if they’re still able to file holdings confidentially with the SEC.The lack of disclosure has allowed some family offices to adopt similarly complex strategies without drawing scrutiny. Complying with fewer regulations, meantime, has helped lead a number of hedge fund managers to convert their firms into family offices.BlueCrest Capital Management, for example, returned money to investors in 2016 to focus on managing the wealth of its billionaire co-founder Michael Platt, his partners and employees. John Paulson said last year he’s converting his Paulson & Co. hedge fund into a family office, following a similar move by Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors.Family offices have proliferated this century, partly due to the boom in tech billionaires. More than 10,000 family offices globally manage the wealth of a single family, with at least half having started this century, according to EY.A 2019 estimate by researcher Campden Wealth valued family office assets at almost $6 trillion globally, larger than the entire hedge fund industry. Because most families tightly guard the extent of their wealth and very few public records are available to track their assets, the exact figure could be higher or lower.It’s rare for family offices to take on as much risk as Archegos. But hedge funds that convert to family offices are more likely to keep their trading strategies, which often employ leveraged bets that can have a broader market effect.Some family offices lately have also launched so-called blank-check firms -- shell companies whose purpose is to raise money from investors and eventually to acquire other companies.Part of the Private Investor Coalition’s plan is to tell regulators that they already have the tools they need to pinpoint threats to the financial system, Reardon said. The SEC is in the process of implementing a long-delayed rule that would require all funds, including family offices, to privately disclose some of their derivatives positions to the agency. In theory, that would have made it possible for the SEC to see what Archegos was doing.But requiring Archegos to register as an investment adviser wouldn’t have prevented the blow-up, said Reardon, whose coalition formed in 2009 to ensure the offices would be exempt from such registration.If regulators do crack down on family offices in the U.S., some might simply decide to leave the country.“In reality, the typical single family office is a small team of highly mobile individuals,” said Keith Johnston, chief executive officer of SFO Alliance, a London-based investment club for single-family offices. “There is the danger that if they consider themselves over-regulated they will simply move staff or headquarters to those jurisdictions where they are not.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
It claims Liberty owes debts from the acquisition of Tata's speciality steels business, a report says.
(Bloomberg) -- Huobi Technology Holdings Ltd. has launched four cryptocurrency-related funds targeting $100 million in total assets by September, the latest attempt to ride a stunning rally in digital assets.Huobi Tech is rolling out four funds including ones that will virtually track Bitcoin and Ether prices, allowing investors to bet on the coins without actually holding any currency. It’s the latest so-called crypto tracker after similar funds have launched around the world. The firm already has secured $50 million in commitments across the four funds.The offerings also include an active fund investing in a basket of virtual assets, and a private equity fund dedicated to investment in the crypto mining sector. In March, Huobi Tech obtained a license from the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong to manage and distribute funds invested solely in crypto -- the first such approval after Arrano Capital.“Virtual assets have become established as a strong category in alternative investment, and more players will compete in this arena,” Huobi Tech finance chief Zhang Li said during a Zoom interview from Beijing. “For professional investors who still have concerns about things like security and tax filing, they will opt to buy our funds rather than holding coins themselves.”The new Hong Kong license and funds highlight 38-year-old Huobi founder Leon Li’s endeavor to ensure his crypto empire, whose main exchange unit has drawn scrutiny over the years from Beijing, complies with regulations as it expands into adjacent arenas.The move also come as mainstream financial companies embrace crypto after Bitcoin’s value took off in October. However, some still warn of a bubble, and volatility and regulatory risk around the globe remain concerns for the asset class.Longer term, Zhang said she expects the firm to provide a full suite of crypto-related services including custody, without specifying details.Read more: The Crypto Mogul Who’s Got the Ear of China’s Central BankFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices climbed on Friday, buoyed by hopes demand will recover as economic growth picks up and lockdowns ease, but worries about India's surging second wave of COVID-19 cases limited gains. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped 45 cents, or 0.7%, to $61.88 a barrel, also after an 8 cent rise on Thursday. "Oil prices rebounded for a second day as a lower-than-expected U.S. jobless claims data buoyed the energy demand outlook in North America," said Margaret Yang, a strategist at Singapore-based DailyFX.
UBS (UBS) lowered its price target for Nike (NKE) from $183 to $175. This follows a Chinese-led boycott of the brand for past statements criticizing China for alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs in the northern province of Xinjiang.
(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia became the first country to sell a dollar Sukuk linked to sustainable activities, adding to a growing number of issuers turning to debt financing for environmental and social projects.The Southeast Asian country priced $800 million of 10-year sustainability Islamic finance notes on Wednesday, Malaysia’s finance ministry said. The deal also included a $500 million 30-year tranche. The offering was oversubscribed by 6.4 times.Sustainable debt issuance rose 29% last year to a record $732 billion, according to figures from BloombergNEF. Indonesia sold green debt that complies with religious principles in 2018, making it the first country in the world to issue such securities, according to a United Nations Development Programme report.“Demand for ESG or sustainability-linked bonds continues to gain traction while there is still a limited supply” of such issuance from Southeast Asia, said Winson Phoon, head of fixed-income research at Maybank Kim Eng Securities in Singapore. “Adding the sustainability label helps widen further the investor base.”Spreads on both parts of the deal tightened during marketing, and the sustainability Sukuk sold at 50 basis points over Treasuries compared with initial price guidance of around 90 basis points. The deal resulted in the lowest-ever yield and spread for a U.S.-dollar Sukuk issuance by Malaysia, the finance ministry said.Malaysia is an infrequent issuer in overseas bond markets, last selling dollar debt in 2016. Its existing U.S. currency notes have a longer duration than Asian credit more broadly, which made them vulnerable to a selloff last quarter as yields spiked. They’ve since recouped some losses as interest rates retreated.Like governments around the globe, Malaysia has been tackling the impact of the pandemic, and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a 20 billion ringgit ($4.9 billion) stimulus package last month that included discounts on power bills, tax breaks and cash aid to the poor.Malaysia’s gross domestic product may expand 6% to 7.5% in 2021, its central bank said last month. That’s potentially slower than its earlier projection of 6.5%-7.5% growth, but still ahead of many of its neighbors.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
As BTC's price continues lower, one possible benefit is a decrease in the crypto's volatility.
French luxury house Chanel on Wednesday lost its trademark fight with Huawei Technologies after a top European court said their logos bear no similarity to each other. The dispute dated to 2017 when Huawei sought approval from the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), a trademark body, to register its computer hardware trademark which has two vertical interlocking semi-circles. Privately owned Chanel objected, saying that the design was similar to its registered French logo of two horizontal interlocking semi-circles used for its perfumes, cosmetics, costume jewellery, leather goods and clothing.
(Bloomberg) -- Bain Capital Credit, Oaktree Capital Group and White Oak Global Advisors are in talks to refinance some of Sanjeev Gupta’s borrowing from Greensill Capital at some of his Australian businesses.The funds have been carrying out due diligence to provide at least A$430 million ($333 million) to GFG Alliance’s Australian Mining and Primary Steel units, including the Whyalla steel mill in the south of the country, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the funds could conclude a deal with GFG as soon as early May, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. There is no certainty the talks will result in a deal, the people said.Officials at GFG and Oaktree declined to comment on the talks. Representatives for Bain and White Oak weren’t immediately available to comment.The financing would provide relief for Gupta as he attempts to secure the future of his teetering metals empire following the demise of Greensill, his largest backer, in March. Gupta’s GFG has borrowed about $5 billion from Greensill, of which some A$430 million was through a facility for the Australian Mining and Primary Steel business.Just How Big and Important Is Sanjeev Gupta’s Metals Empire?The refinancing of that facility would allow Gupta to fend off an attempt by Credit Suisse Group AG to wind up some of the Australian assets. The Swiss bank is seeking to push some GFG units into insolvency to recover part of the loans it made to the group through Greensill. A first hearing on the petition is scheduled for May 6.South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said on Sunday that he was hopeful a deal could be done before May 6.“When I spoke to Sanjeev Gupta this time last week he was increasingly confident that he will be able to get that credit arrangement in place,” Marshall said at a press conference.The Whyalla mill is a supplier to steel product manufacturer Infrabuild Australia Pty Ltd., GFG’s most profitable unit.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Canada sent out a warning to investors this week that inflation still matters.In a surprise move, it accelerated the timetable for a possible interest-rate increase and began paring back its bond purchases on Wednesday. That made Canada the first major economy to signal its intent to reduce emergency levels of monetary stimulus.It’s a turn in policy by Governor Tiff Macklem that shows there’s a limit to how much he’s willing to test the upper boundaries of inflation, with new forecasts showing the central bank expects the biggest persistent overshoot of its 2% target in at least two decades. The question is whether Canada’s situation is unique, or foreshadowing the start of a global exit from stimulus.Markets, however, see it as an outlier so far.“Canada does give you a flavor of what happens when your trajectory is stronger than anticipated,” said Su-Lin Ong, head of Australian economic and fixed-income strategy at Royal Bank of Canada in Sydney.While the Canadian dollar jumped the most since June on Wednesday, the Bank of Canada’s big move didn’t cause much of a ripple effect in global markets. The MSCI benchmark for global stocks is trading within 1% of a record high. Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields have fallen below 1.6%, from 1.74% at the end of March, as investors pare expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise rates soon.‘Distinguishing Factors’Counterparts elsewhere, meanwhile, are resisting. At a decision Thursday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the institution isn’t discussing the phasing out of its emergency bond buying, while the Federal Reserve has long been adamant it won’t scale back the pace of its $120 billion-a-month bond purchases until it sees “substantial further progress” on employment and inflation.“Central banks of small economies can sometimes be canaries in the coal mine,” Krishna Guha, vice chairman at Washington-based Evercore ISI, said in a report to investors. “But while there are some elements of this decision that have an obvious read-across to other central banks, there are also distinguishing factors that caution against naive extrapolation.”Some analysts don’t even see the Canadian central bank taking a dramatically more aggressive policy stance, even after Wednesday’s move. At a press conference after the decision, Macklem emphasized the central bank’s commitment is not to raise interest rates before the economy fully recovers, and that any future hike would reflect economic conditions at the time.Macklem is right-sizing one of the more aggressive quantitative easing programs relative to the size of its bond market, in an economy also being supported by massive fiscal stimulus. The Bank of Canada owns more than 40% of outstanding federal government bonds, potentially distorting the market.“Canada is different. The amount of the bonds they are buying is huge,” Steve Englander, head of global G-10 FX research at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, said by phone. “The Fed doesn’t have that issue.”The economic fundamentals are also pretty solid. Canada’s jobs market has recouped 90% of losses during the pandemic, versus just over 60% of U.S. losses made up so far. Canada’s red-hot housing market is another worry.“The situation is sufficiently unique in Canada that I’m not sure it applies to the Fed, or ECB,” Jean-Francois Perrault, chief economist at Bank of Nova Scotia, said by phone. “Our labor market basically is back to where it was.”What Bloomberg Economics Says...“The Bank of Canada brought forward when it expects the economy’s excess slack to be absorbed, but the accompanying Monetary Policy Report includes discussion of several factors that could soften the need to pull forward a rate hike into 2022. We continue to think a rate move is likely to be delayed into the first quarter of 2023.”--Andrew Husby, economistFor a full report, see herePerhaps more consequential, the Bank of Canada’s mandate is narrow -- focused on a 2% inflation target, with some flexibility over timing. Consumer price gains are expected to be at or above that mark for more than 70% of the forecast horizon to the end of 2023, according to Bloomberg calculations on Bank of Canada data.Macklem justified his tolerance for above-target inflation this week by citing the central bank’s decision not to preemptively raise rates until a full recovery. It’s a policy that’s paralleled in the U.S.But the Fed is juggling a number of objectives. These include growing concerns about racial equity that suggest it’s waiting for the headline jobless number to drop even below estimates of full employment.A more accommodative approach was formalized in a policy review last year that now allows the Fed to explicitly overshoot 2% inflation moderately for some time. It’s an option the Bank of Canada is considering as it completes its own mandate renewal later this year.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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