BUSINESS
Palm Oil’s slump set to deepen after Indonesia lifts export ban
Indonesia’s ban, which was imposed since April 28, was one of the biggest acts of crop protectionism since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which stymied exports of sunflower oil and worsened a global shortage.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk’s Twitter deal proceeding, not 'on hold', Executives tell staff
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and head of policy, also told workers at an all-hands meeting that there is “no such thing as a deal being on hold,” according to people who attended the meeting. She was pushing back on claims from Elon Musk over the past week that he is pausing the deal while he learns more about the number of bots and spam accounts on the social-media service.
WORLD
China in talks with Russia to buy oil for strategic reserves
Refiners in China have been quietly buying Russian crude since the invasion, even as a Covid-19 resurgence dents consumption in the world’s biggest crude importer.
BUSINESS
Age of scarcity begins with $1.6 trillion hit to world economy
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s Covid Zero lockdowns are disrupting supply chains, hammering growth and pushing inflation to forty-year highs. They’re the chief reasons why Bloomberg Economics has lopped $1.6 trillion off its forecast for global GDP in 2022.
BUSINESS
Stocks rout deepens as economy concerns pile up
Bets that robust earnings can help investors weather this year’s turbulence were thrown in doubt after US consumer titans signaled growing impact of high inflation on margins and consumer spending. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve officials reaffirmed that tighter monetary policy lies ahead, and investors fretted over stagflation risks.
BUSINESS
Once a high-flyer, CIO Plotkin shuts Melvin Hedge Fund after short squeeze by Redditors
Plotkin’s abrupt decision, announced in a letter to clients Wednesday, ends his attempt at a long-shot comeback funded by some of Wall Street’s biggest players. The effort showed initial promise last year but unraveled in recent weeks as he racked up new losses and frustrated backers with a short-lived plan to reimpose fees.
BUSINESS
Target shares hit by worst rout since 1987’s black Monday
Operating profit will amount to only about 6% of sales this year, 2 percentage points below the previous forecast, Target said Wednesday. And the company’s first-quarter adjusted profit missed the lowest of 23 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
BUSINESS
US rebound call ‘proved wrong,’ Cantor strategist concedes
The S&P 500 plunged more than 4% Wednesday, headed for the biggest rout in almost two years, after consumer stalwarts from Target Corp. to Walmart Inc. reported shrinking profit margins.
BUSINESS
Tata in buyout talks with as many as five consumer brands
A “significant amount” of the Mumbai-based firm’s future growth will come from inorganic expansion, Tata Consumer Products’ Chief Executive Officer Sunil D’Souza said in an interview.
BUSINESS
Aramco-style dividend is what LIC investors seek post flop debut
The 65-year-old insurer, a household name in the country known as LIC, raised $2.7 billion last week in the country’s biggest initial public offering.
BUSINESS
Apple executive who left over return-to-office policy joins Google AI unit
Ian Goodfellow, who oversaw machine learning and artificial intelligence at Apple, left the iPhone maker in recent weeks, citing the lack of flexibility in its work policies.
BUSINESS
China, US are racing to make billions from mining the Moon's minerals
Just like in the era of Sputnik and Apollo more than half a century ago, world leaders are again racing to achieve dominance in outer space.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk has a bigger problem than Twitter bots: A huge debt burden
The package, drummed up in a rush and signed by banks before the end of the billionaire’s beloved April 20 weed holiday, will leave the social media platform with an annual interest expense approaching $1 billion, giving the company an alarmingly small margin for error.
BUSINESS
Twitter board says it plans to enforce Elon Musk merger agreement
“We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement,” the board said Tuesday in a statement to Bloomberg News. Directors voted earlier to unanimously recommended that shareholders approve Musk’s $54.20-a-share offer.
BUSINESS
Saudi Aramco weighs IPO of trading unit amid oil boom
Aramco, which recently became the world’s most valuable company, could sell a 30% stake in the division
BUSINESS
BOE chief Andrew Bailey sees ‘apocalyptic’ risk from soaring food prices
“That is a major worry not just for this country but for the developing world,” Bailey said at a hearing in Parliament in London on Monday.
BUSINESS
A crypto first? What happens when a blockchain like Terra dies
Along the way, incentives for various parties to support the chain evaporated, sending the ecosystem that nurtured more than 110 applications connected with more than 4 million digital wallets into disarray.
BUSINESS
World’s top enabler of Financial Secrecy is the United States
That’s according to research by the Tax Justice Network, which ranked countries by the extent their financial and legal systems help people and entities conceal ownership of assets.
BUSINESS
Warren Buffett exits Wells Fargo stake, ending decades-long bet on bank
The billionaire investor ended his long-running bet on Wells Fargo during the first quarter, according to a filing Monday from his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Berkshire also reported new stakes in banking giant Citigroup Inc. and in auto lender Ally Financial Inc.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk sees US as ‘probably’ in recession lasting up to 18 months
“These things pass and then there will be boom times again,” Musk told the All-In Summit in Miami Beach, according to a live-streamed video of his remarks posted by a Twitter user. “It’ll probably be some tough-going for, I don’t know, a year, maybe 12-18 months.”
WORLD
Sri Lanka stumbles towards its first default on foreign debt
The island nation could be formally declared in default if it fails to make an interest payment to bondholders before Wednesday, when the 30-day grace period for missed coupons on dollar bonds ends. That would mark its first default.
BUSINESS
Sri Lanka crisis | Govt plans to sell national airline to check losses
The government proposes to privatise Sri Lankan Airlines, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a televised address to the nation Monday.
BUSINESS
$11 trillion and counting: Global stock slump may not be over
The selloff in the MSCI ACWI Index has dramatically lowered valuations of companies across the US and Europe, but strategists ranging from Michael Wilson at Morgan Stanley to Robert Buckland at Citigroup Inc. expect stocks to fall further amid worries of high inflation, hawkish central banks and slowing economic growth, especially in the US.
BUSINESS
China to limit ‘excessive’ incentives for bankers in pay curbs
Incentives and short-term rewards that are too big will trigger compliance risks, according to recent guidelines published by the Securities Association of China.
