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☆ The owner of Uniqlo is boosting pay for Japan employees by up to 40% as inflation bites
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hong Kong CNN —Fast Retailing, the Japanese giant that owns popular clothing brands Uniqlo and Theory, will start paying its employees much more this year. The company announced Wednesday that it would boost salaries in Japan by up to 40%, acknowledging that “remuneration levels have remained low” in the country in recent years. “Inflation in Japan is a factor in our considerations,” a Fast Retailing spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday. But the company is generally more focused on aligning “each employee’s remuneration with global standards, to be able to increase our competitiveness,” the representative added. The retailer has also been hiking pay for staff in some of its overseas markets, leading to pay bumps ranging from 5% to 25%, the spokesperson said.

☆ Main Street is buying stocks while Wall Street sells: What gives?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But not all traders are on the same ride — the large, institutional investors on Wall Street have shuffled away from markets while Main Street’s retail investors are still strapped in. But despite this year’s lackluster market, investors bought $800 billion of Exchange Traded Funds which are baskets of stocks typically purchased by retail investors. However, Main Street is holding on to its stocks while Wall Street is running for the hills. One simple explanation is that institutional investors are responsible for vast amounts of money that belong to other people. “Respect, for retail investors, is in short supply,” wrote Azalea Micottis at Informa Financial Intelligence, in a recent note.

☆ China steps up support for private sector to boost Covid-hit economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —Beijing has vowed to go all out next year to save its Covid-hit economy by boosting consumption and loosening control over private industry, including the struggling tech and property sectors. Covid infections are surging in China after leaders unexpectedly eased its restrictive Covid policy earlier this month. Stabilizing economic growth is the top priority for 2023, according to an official readout following the conclusion of the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), a key annual meeting of top leaders, which ended Friday. “We need to encourage and support the private sector economy and private enterprise in terms of policy and public opinion,” the statement said. A shopping mall is decorated with rabbit stickers to welcome the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, on December 10, 2022 in Beijing, China.

Prices for LNG — a chilled, liquid form of gas that can be transported via sea tankers — are tightly linked to prices for Europe’s natural gas delivered by pipelines. Gas prices spiked to a record high of around €345 ($367) per megawatt hour in August, after Moscow reduced gas deliveries to the continent. TTF gas futures fell back 5% on Monday to hit €107 ($114) per megawatt hour. Other EU measures have included gas storage requirements and a price cap of $60 a barrel on seaborne Russian oil. Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy and one of its largest importers of natural gas, had been the most notable holdout before Monday’s announcement.

Hong Kong CNN —James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has premiered in China, 13 years after the original film took the country by storm. A poster of film 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is seen at a cinema on December 11, 2022 in Beijing, China. I immersed myself in the plot and enjoyed an unprecedented audio-visual feast.”Shot in the armThe “Way of Water” is expected to buoy China’s pandemic-depressed box office. By mid-December, China’s box office reached only 28.8 billion yuan ($4.1 billion), down nearly 40% from last year. The “Way of Water” accounted for 80% of screenings scheduled for Friday, the Maoyan data showed.

☆ Russian rouble firms near 60 vs dollar as tax period nears
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

(Reuters) - The Russian rouble was trading higher on Monday, holding close to last week’s level of 60 against the U.S. dollar as domestic exporters prepared to buy roubles ahead of a new tax period. FILE PHOTO: Russian rouble coin is seen in this illustration taken April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationThe rouble was up 0.45% against the dollar to 60.27 by 0830 GMT. Export-focused firms usually convert foreign exchange revenues into roubles to pay domestic liabilities, which supports the Russian currency. The dollar-denominated RTS index was last up 1% at 1,169.83, while the rouble-based MOEX Russian index climbed 0.92% to 2,237.85.

☆ Xi’s ‘action men’ now lead China’s military. Here’s what that means for Taiwan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Brad Lendon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The rhetoric from both sides and Beijing’s recent maneuvers have stoked fears that an attempted Chinese military takeover of Taiwan could be next on the horizon. Besides that joint command experience, He possesses another key attribute sought in top PLA leadership – field experience in hostile situations. Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said He was one of Xi’s “action men” on the military commission. Zhang served on the previous military commission and has been retained and promoted despite being past the unofficial retirement age of 68. There’s just too much work to be done with Xi’s military modernization to achieve good odds of success, they said.

Persons: Xi Jinping’s, Xi, –, Tsai Ing, ”, James Char, ” Char, Weidong, Nancy Pelosi, Rod Lee, Lee, Xi Jinping, ” Lee, Carl Schuster, Zhang Youxia, Zhang, Xi’s, Meia Nouwens, Joel Wuthnow, he’s, ” Wuthnow, Zhang’s, Li Shangfu, Wuthnow, There’s, “, Char Organizations: CNN, Central Military Commission, Communist Party’s National, People’s Liberation Army, PLA, Chinese Communist Party, China Program, Institute of Defense, Strategic Studies, Theater Command, Eastern Theater Command, US Air Force Air, China Aerospace Studies Institute, People’s Armed Police, Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Center, Chinese Military Affairs, US National Defense University, Party, US Air University Locations: China, Taiwan, Beijing, Taiwan Strait, Asia, Singapore, India

☆ China's yuan ends at 28-month low despite fresh policy step, nears daily lower limit
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s yuan finished domestic trading session at a new 28-month low against the dollar on Monday, near its downside trading limit, despite the central bank taking steps to rein in the currency’s weakness. FILE PHOTO: Chinese yuan banknotes are seen in this illustration picture taken April 25, 2022. However, the midpoint continued to come in much stronger than market projections for the 23rd straight trading session, traders and analysts said. The official daily midpoint fixing limits the onshore yuan to trade in a narrow range of 2% above or below, and Monday’s guidance kept the range to between 6.8892 and 7.1704. The onshore yuan hit an intraday low of 7.1690, 14 pips away from the lower end of the trading band.

☆ U.S. dollar strength creating 'untenable' situation that risks financial crisis -Morgan Stanley
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A man counts U.S. dollar banknotes at an exchange shop in Beirut, Lebanon March 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File PhotoNEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The recent rally in the U.S. dollar is creating an “untenable situation" for riskier assets that could end in a financial or economic crisis, strategists at Morgan Stanley warned in a note Monday. The dollar index hit a new two-decade high Monday as the pound hit an all-time low against the greenback. The S&P 500 fell 1% on Monday and it is close to its year low. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by David Randall; Editing by Andrea RicciOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s renewed nuclear threats has raised fears that his plans for escalation in Ukraine may not be limited to mobilizing more troops. Desperate for a victory, the Russian leader allied his nuclear threats and call-up of reservists to a plan to annex occupied territory in Ukraine’s east and south. “Creating more ‘Russian’ territory is an attempt to scare the West because Russian nuclear doctrine has always maintained that nuclear weapons would only be used in defense of Russia directly. In fact, when Ukraine launched attacks on annexed Crimea this summer, a territory Moscow considers Russian, Putin did not reach for the nuclear button, O’Brien noted. And that victory, Putin hopes, could come through eroding Ukraine’s international support,” Giles said.

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