News Archive - 3 July 2016

>TOKYO Japanese companies' inflation expectations fell slightly in June from three months ago, the Bank of Japan's tankan survey showed, adding to growing doubts over its argument that aggressive money printing will accelerate price growth to its 2 percent goal.The data on inflation expectations came after Friday's tankan sentiment...

>SINGAPORE Singapore is rushing to reinvent itself as Asia's financial technology, or fintech, hub to fend off a regulatory threat to its wealth management industry and revive a sluggish economy.State funding, light-touch regulation and a recent move to allow start-ups to test financial products in a controlled environment have...

>TOKYO Asian shares shrugged off early losses and edged higher on Monday, while the Australian dollar was under pressure after no clear winner emerged from a weekend election. Activity across much of the region was subdued ahead of the U.S. Independence Day holiday, when financial and commodity markets will...

>London Brent crude for September delivery LCOc1 was up 17 cents at $50.52 a barrel by 2247 GMT on Sunday, after settling up 64 cents at $50.35 on Friday.NYMEX crude for August delivery CLc1 was up 5 cents at $49.04 a barrel, after closing up 66...

>The carmaker said late last month that prosecutors in Braunschweig were investigating Diess as part of a probe into whether Europe's carmaker violated disclosure and market manipulation rules by taking too long to inform investors it had cheated emissions tests."It's not up for debate," Diess told Sueddeutsche Zeitung in...

>The 13 included three foreigners, Dogan, a private news agency said.Three militants opened fire outside Ataturk airport's international arrivals terminal on Tuesday night before two of them entered the building and blew themselves up. A third militant detonated his explosives at the entrance. "The terrorist organization called Daesh, which...

>LONDON British finance minister George Osborne is planning to cut corporation tax to less than 15 percent in an attempt to offset the shock to investors of the country's decision to leave the European Union, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.Osborne was also quoted saying he would put more...

>NEW YORK Top lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties said on Sunday they trusted the Justice Department to appropriately handle its probe of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email server, after a heavily criticized meeting between Clinton's husband and the U.S. attorney general.Republican Senators Lindsey Graham...

>A report released on Friday by the so-called Quartet - United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia - called on Israel to stop its policy of building settlements on occupied land and restricting Palestinian development.Israeli policy "is steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution," it said. It...

>Relations between Pakistan and United States have been frayed over the past decade, with U.S. officials frustrated by what they term Islamabad's unwillingness to act against Islamist groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.Pakistan rejects harboring militants but says there are limits to how much...

>The sale smoothes the path for Midea's takeover of Kuka, which initially upset German politicians who feared a loss of important technology. The two companies have since addressed those concerns by agreeing a deal to keep its existing headquarters, factories and jobs.Midea has offered 4.5 billion euros for...

>The move would represent a temporary compromise between fiscal hawks, led by Germany, and champions of budget flexibility who are pushing for more leeway in times of lackluster growth, high unemployment and growing support for anti-EU parties. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last week openly urged not to fine Portugal...

>LONDON Facing the prospect of their first UK recession, Britain's small specialist lenders could struggle to cope with a downturn, especially in the small and medium-sized business sector that is their lifeblood.The promises of the so-called challenger banks, many just a few years old, to improve customer choice and...

>LONDON The United Kingdom is unlikely to try to lure international investment by becoming a tax haven after it leaves the European Union, according to an internal memo prepared by the body responsible for the drafting international tax rules.The head of tax at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and...

>JERUSALEM Facebook is doing its share to remove abusive content from the social network, it said on Sunday in an apparent rejection of Israeli allegations that it was uncooperative in stemming messages that might spur Palestinian violence.Beset by a 10-month-old surge in Palestinian street attacks, Israel says that Facebook...

>HONG KONG/LONDON As an international tribunal prepares to rule on Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea, officials in Washington, Tokyo and Southeast Asia are on tenterhooks.Yet, in the words of one senior Chinese official, Beijing does not care.On July 12, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in...

>"Brexit created a climate of uncertainty, financial uncertainty in the short-term, and the Central Bank can answer that, it already did," Coeure told a business conference in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence."We have instruments that we are ready to use, thank God we didn't have to use them...

>LONDON/FRANKFURT Shareholders of the London Stock Exchange will vote on Monday on whether to back a $27 billion merger with Deutsche Boerse, even though the deal may have to be tweaked following Britain's decision to leave the European Union.The two exchanges have insisted that their all-share merger to create...

>BAGHDAD At least 82 people were killed and 200 injured in two bombings that hit Baghdad around midnight Saturday, nearly all of them in a blast targeting a busy shopping area as they celebrated Ramadan, police and medical sources said Sunday.A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in...

>SYDNEY Australia could be a step closer to losing its vaunted triple A credit rating after a deeply divided electorate left the country in limbo and foreshadowed a hung parliament where no party holds outright power.The uncertain outcome of Saturday's federal election heightened fears Australia could be consigned to...

>"We shouldn't just put up with Brexit, we should forge ahead, it can be a good opportunity," Moscovici said, adding that the euro zone needed to complete its banking union by adding a deposit guarantee and financial backstops. "If the status quo is our only response, it won't be the...

>BRUSSELS After the self-inflicted wound of voting to quit the European Union, Britain's best option to limit the mutual economic and political damage could be called the "Hotel California" model. As in the 1977 Eagles hit, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave".Once...

>Europe's Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska last week called on Volkswagen to also compensate European owners of its diesel-powered cars, saying it would be unfair for them to be treated differently from U.S. customers just because of a different legal system."We have a different situation here (in Europe)," Matthias...