WORLD
Top EM fund beating 96% of peers is betting on AI theme
Northcape Capital Global Emerging Markets Fund has loaded up on shares of telecommunications and IT servicing firms which are seen as prime beneficiaries of the global shift to AI technology.
WORLD
Twitter turning into X is set to kill billions in brand value
On Sunday, in the middle of a quiet summer weekend, Elon Musk decreed that Twitter’s product name would be changed to “X,” and that he is getting rid of the bird logo and all the associated words, including “tweet.”
WORLD
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may signal plan to exit China pact during US visit
Meloni is set to discuss the issue when she meets US President Joe Biden at the White House later this week, the people said, cautioning that a final decision has not been taken yet.
BUSINESS
ITC dethrones India Unilever unit to become No. 1 consumer stock
The cigarette maker has rallied more than 70% in the last 12 months to outperform all other Nifty 50 stocks.
BUSINESS
India blocks $1 billion bid by China’s BYD to set up EV factory
The Indian government dismissed the plan from BYD and Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd. on national security concerns, the people said, asking not to be identified as the decision is not yet public. The use of Chinese homegrown technology is a concern, one of the people said.
BUSINESS
Billionaire GA Reddy courts world’s rich on contrarian office bet
The Reddy family’s GAR Corp. is looking to raise as much as $200 million from family offices and sovereign wealth funds by selling a minority stake in one of Hyderabad’s biggest commercial developments, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
BUSINESS
The bear market has nearly been erased, fewer than 20 months after it began
And yet fewer than 20 months after it began, the bear market that engulfed the S&P 500 is a mere 260 points from being completely erased.
WORLD
Fed, Netflix earnings cast clouds over 2023’s tech-stock surge
At the same time, strong employment data underscored worries that the Federal Reserve may not be on the verge of ending its most aggressive monetary policy tightening in decades.
WORLD
Fed readies another rate hike in pivotal week for Central Banks
While the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank are each expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, the greater focus will be on signaling from policy makers on whether more hikes are likely — or if they plan an extended pause.
WORLD
US economic soft landing hinges on Fed’s tolerance of inflation
The aim: To slow the economy enough to reduce inflation to its 2% target over time, without crashing the US into a recession — a proverbial soft landing.
WORLD
Alibaba to stay on sidelines of Ant’s $6 billion stock buyback
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has decided not to sell any part of its one-third stake in Ant Group Co. during the Chinese fintech leader’s imminent share buyback, saying it wants to maintain its slice of an important partner. Alibaba said in an exchange filing it won’t take part in Ant’s plan to buy back as much as 7.6% of its stock, which the latter’s board has approved. That decision comes after the e-commerce company and Temasek Holdings Pte said they were considering unloading part of the stakes during the program. Ant, a fintech pioneer that once dominated online spheres from mobile payments to money management, has lost much of its value since regulators scrapped what would have been a record IPO at the eleventh hour in 2020. Singapore’s state investment firm, for one, seeks a better understanding of how Ant arrived at its repurchase valuation of about 567.1 billion yuan ($78.9 billion). That’s almost 70% lower than an estimated $280 billion market capitalization in 2020. Chinese regulators are wrapping up a two-year crackdown on the country’s once-freewheeling technology giants after slapping more than $1 billion of fines on Ant and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in July. Ant has completed its overhaul ordered by Beijing, though that pinched profitability and sapped growth at a sprawling platform that spanned lending and insurance to asset management. Ant’s Alipay remains a central payment method on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall online shopping platforms, and a key customer of its $11 billion cloud business. The company is seeking to shore up the bottom line of its six main divisions, which are set to split six ways to create several independent corporations, most of which can then pursue their own funding and eventual market debuts. what Bloomberg Intelligence Says Alibaba’s decision not to sell back any of its Ant Group shares to the fintech firm raises the likelihood that the latter’s contribution to cloud revenue received by Alibaba will hit a record high in fiscal 2024. Last year, Ant paid 52% more cloud fees to Alibaba and contributed nearly 11% of its cloud revenue vs. 7.4% in the previous year. - Catherine Lim and Francis Chan, analysts “Given that Ant Group continues to be an important strategic partner to Alibaba Group’s various businesses, Alibaba Group has decided that it will not sell any shares to Ant Group under the proposed share repurchase, so as to maintain its shareholding in Ant Group,” the company said in its brief filing.
WORLD
El Niño threat looks underpriced as emerging-market bonds rally
The periodic weather pattern that is currently forming in the Pacific Ocean typically results in hotter, drier conditions and therefore higher food prices in affected nations, giving policymakers more reason to keep pushing up borrowing costs.
BUSINESS
MSCI says India Index slump caused by incorrect security price
The MSCI India Index slumped about 9 percent mid-day local time even as the Nifty 50 Index, the benchmark gauge of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., was down about 1 percent.
BUSINESS
Indian billionaire buys Russian-linked London mansion for £113 million
The mansion was owned as recently as two years ago by Goncharenko, the former deputy chief executive officer of Gazprom Invest Yug, a subsidiary of the Russian state-run energy firm.
TRENDS
Apple’s soccer deal might ask too much of Messi
Lionel Messi's debut in US’s Major League Soccer on Friday, July 21, will surely draw new subscribers, but it will take more than one player to make the MLS a streaming hit.
WORLD
Half a century after Franco, the far-right is returning in Spain
There’s an hour till sunset and it’s still close to 40C as the DJ wraps up a set of old school Spanish punk and Argentine rock beneath the walls of the old city.
WORLD
Selloffs, inequality, China tension: Here are the next big risks
The yields on China’s 15- and 20-year government bonds tumbled to the lowest since 2002 this week, while those for 30-year notes are hovering near levels unseen since 2005. Transaction volume for longer-dated securities has surged to a multi-year high.
WORLD
China is drilling another 10,000-meter hole, this one for gas
China National Petroleum Corp. on Thursday began drilling the Shendi Chuanke 1 Well in Sichuan province, with a designed depth of 10,520 meters (6.5 miles), Xinhua News Agency reported.
WORLD
China’s first-ever Lithium futures tumble on trading debut
Lithium carbonate on the Guangzhou Futures Exchange fell below the base settlement price of 246,000 yuan ($34,263) a ton on Friday, data from the bourse show.
WORLD
China introduces more measures to increase car consumption
The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning body, set out 10 steps, including lower costs for electric-vehicle charging and extending tax breaks, though it didn’t disclose specific figures.
WORLD
FTC to pause Microsoft merger trial, opening door to settlement talks
The step is a win for Microsoft and Activision as they seek to close the largest-ever gaming deal despite regulatory challenges in the US and the UK.
WORLD
World’s best airport Changi sees traffic soar to over 5 million
Singapore’s Changi Airport, ranked the best in the world, saw passenger traffic surge close to pre-pandemic levels last month amid summer travel demand.
BUSINESS
Selena Gomez sells $70 million of Blush a year as brand booms
Selena Gomez keeps beating the odds.
TRENDS
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is not your typical summer blockbuster: Review
Billed as a spectacle, Oppenheimer is talkier than one might expect from the director of Dark Knight and Inception, best known for his visual feats.
