Business this week
《经济学人》2018年8月18日 刊
Stockmarkets wobbled amid worries about Turkey’s economic turmoil. After taking a battering in foreign-exchange markets the Turkish lira stabilised as the government brought in measures to stop short-selling of the currency and trumpeted a pledge of investment from Qatar. The episode spooked investors in other emerging markets. The Indian rupee hit a new low against the dollar. The Russian rouble and South African rand also had a stormy time.
A jury in California awarded $289m to a schools ground-keeper with cancer after finding that weedkiller he used had not adequately described the risks to human health. The weedkiller contained glyphosate and was made by Monsanto, a chemicals company that was recently taken over by Bayer. The German company’s share price plunged after the jury’s decision.
He has the credentials
Uber appointed a new chief security officer, nine months after it admitted that hackers had obtained the names of 57m passengers and drivers. Matt Olsen is a former general counsel of America’s National Security Agency. The firm also published its earnings for the second quarter. With gross bookings for its cars up by 41% compared with the same quarter last year, net revenue, after paying its drivers and other costs, surged to $2.8bn. Uber made another net loss, however.
Home Depot published its quarterly earnings. Seen as a bellwether for the American economy, the home-improvement retailer reported a big rise in net profit, to $3.5bn, and delivered an upbeat forecast.
House of Fraser, a British department-store chain, found a buyer just hours after going into administration. Sports Direct bought all the company’s 59 premises for £90m ($115m), including the stores that had been marked for closure. Mike Ashley, Sports Direct’s boss, said he wanted to turn the chain into the “Harrods of the high street”.
The euro zone’s economy grew by 2.2% in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. Although that allayed fears that a trade row with America would damage the region, it was the euro zone’s slowest rate of growth in over a year.
Britain’s inflation rate increased to 2.5% in the year to July, the first time it had quickened since November 2017. The biggest jumps in prices were to transport-related costs. Separate employment data showed that 300,000 more people were in work in the second quarter than a year earlier. The unemployment rate, at 4%, is at its lowest level since 1975. With the labour market so buoyant, zero-hours contracts fell by 12%.
New Zealand’s Parliament passed a law banning most foreign non-residents from buying existing homes. The measure targets mostly Chinese investors who have been speculating in property, and who are blamed for a housing crunch that has seen prices skyrocket in places like Auckland. Australians are exempted; other foreigners can still make limited purchases of new developments.
Curiouser and curiouser
Elon Musk put more flesh on his announcement that he intends to take Tesla private. He explained how he arrived at the buy-out price of $420 a share, and that the funding he had “secured” would come from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, which, he said, has talked to him about taking Tesla private. Mr Musk is still not off the hook about whether he followed the proper rules for disclosing his plans: the Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly subpoenaed Tesla’s directors.
Nio, a Chinese electric-carmaker, filed an IPO to list its American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Backed by Tencent, a big technology investment company, Nio is one of several startups in China with ambitions to compete with Tesla.
Meanwhile, Tencent reported a drop in quarterly net profit, a rare occurrence among China’s tech giants. The company’s gaming business has struggled to grow. That task has been made harder by Chinese regulators objecting to new titles. This week sales of Tencent’s newest game, “Monster Hunter: World”, were halted because regulators had received “complaints”.
A new high for business
Constellation Brands, an American drinks company which counts the Corona beer label among its assets, increased its stake in Canopy Growth, the world’s largest publicly traded cannabis company, to 38%. Canopy, which is based in Canada, wants to expand in countries that permit marijuana for medical use, and also in places where it is allowed for pleasure. Canadians will soon be able to buy the weed for recreational use following an act of Parliament that made it legal.
Aug 18th 2018
