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☆ London stocks open lower as inflation data deepens rate hike concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Pressured by a firm sterling , the export-oriented FTSE 100 (.FTSE) was down 0.5% at 0710 GMT. The FTSE 250 (.FTMC) mid-cap index shed 0.7%. After data showed consumer inflation was unchanged at 8.7% in May, contrary to expectations of a slight fall, traders ramped up their bets of a 50 basis point (bps) BoE rate hike on Thursday from the 25 bps hike anticipated earlier. In a testimony later in the day, Powell is poised to be questioned on the future of rate hikes by the world's most influential central bank. Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia CheemaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Jerome Powell, BoE, Powell, homebuilder, Ankika Biswas, Sonia Cheema Organizations: Bank of England, Federal, FTSE, Berkeley Group Holdings, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Stocks making the biggest premarket moves: Alibaba, Dice Therapeutics, Avis and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Atmus Filtration Technologies — Shares of the air filtration company rose more than 2% after a slew of analysts initiated coverage with bullish ratings, including JPMorgan. The bank said Atmus trades at a "deep discounted valuation vs. peers, despite >80% of aftermarket mix, while its planned expansion into industrial filtration should bridge the valuation gap vs. direct filtration peers over time." Avis Budget — Shares added 3.5% in light volume following an upgrade by Morgan Stanley to overweight from equal weight. Philip Morris International — Shares of the tobacco company rose 1.5% in premarket trading after Citi upgraded Philip Morris to buy from neutral. Carnival — Shares moved 1.5% higher in the premarket, building on gains made last week when it was the S&P 500's best performer.

Persons: Daniel Zhang, Eddie Wu, Alibaba's, Eli Lilly, Morgan Stanley, Adam Jonas, Jonas, Avis, Philip Morris, —, Jesse Pound Organizations: Alibaba, Holding, JPMorgan, Avis Budget, Citi, Warner Bros Discovery Locations: Beijing, China, —

☆ Philippines says China's Yadea to invest $1 bln in e-motorcycle plant
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MANILA, June 15 (Reuters) - China's Yadea Group Holdings (1585.HK), one of the world's biggest electric two-wheeled vehicle makers, plans to invest about $1 billion in an e-motorcycle factory in the Philippines, the country's investment promotions agency chief said on Thursday. Yadea is one of a several electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers looking at the Southeast Asian nation for expansion of their manufacturing sites, Tereso Panga, director-general of government-run Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), told reporters. The Philippines is also touting its abundance of nickel, copper and cobalt, which are key raw materials for the EV industry. American and British electric vehicle firms are also scouting for battery and e-motorcycle manufacturing sites, Panga said. PEZA targets a 10% increase in investment approvals this year from 140.7 billion pesos ($2.51 billion) in 2022.

Persons: Yadea, Tereso Panga, Panga, Neil Jerome Morales, Martin Petty Organizations: Yadea, Holdings, HK, Economic Zone Authority, ASEAN Automotive Federation, Thomson Locations: MANILA, Philippines, China, Vietnam, Batangas, Manila, Thailand, Indonesia, British

☆ SoftBank prepares new round of layoffs at Vision Fund, Reuters reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

SoftBank's Vision Fund posted a record loss in the year ended Mar. The flagship tech investment unit has been hit by the falling prices of tech stocks. SoftBank Group Corp is planning a fresh round of layoffs at its Vision Fund investment arm, two people familiar with the matter said, the latest cost-cutting move at the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank's Vision Fund unit, which has booked heavy investment losses, had headcount of 349 at the end of March, according to a company report. It cushioned the investment loss at the Vision Fund unit by selling down its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Persons: ByteDance Organizations: Vision, Mar, SoftBank, Corp, Vision Fund, Fund, International, Alibaba, Holding Locations: U.S, China

SAN FRANCISCO, June 12 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is planning a fresh round of layoffs at its Vision Fund investment arm, two people familiar with the matter said, the latest cost-cutting move at the Japanese conglomerate. SoftBank's Vision Fund unit, which has booked heavy investment losses, had headcount of 349 at the end of March, according to a company report. If finalized, this would follow the elimination of about 150 jobs globally at the investing arm and SoftBank Group International in September. It cushioned the investment loss at the Vision Fund unit by selling down its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK). Vision Fund 2's portfolio was worth $31 billion at end-March compared with an acquisition cost of $49.9 billion.

Persons: ByteDance, SoftBank, SoftBank's, Krystal Hu, Sam Nussey, Kenneth Li, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: FRANCISCO, SoftBank Group Corp, Vision Fund, Fund, SoftBank, International, Vision, Alibaba, Holding, HK, Intel, Thomson Locations: U.S, China, The Cambridge, England, San Francisco, Tokyo

☆ The top Hollywood exec made $498 million in the last 5 years—384 times as much as the average writer
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Jennifer Liu | In Jljenniferliu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

That's a staggering 384 times the average pay of a Hollywood writer. Overall, average pay for Hollywood's top execs climbed to $28 million in 2021, up 53% from 2018 (and roughly 108 times the average writer's pay) according to the analysis, which uses compensation data from the research firm Equilar and includes stock options, base salaries, bonuses and other perks. Meanwhile, average pay for Hollywood writers has remained virtually flat at about $260,000 as 2021, the Times reports. Hollywood executive pay dropped in 2022 due to stock market volatility and investor pressure to make streaming profitable. From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay grew by 1,460%, adjusted for inflation, versus just 18.1% for the typical worker.

Persons: David Zaslav, That's, Ari Emanuel, Reed Hastings, Bob Iger, Walt, Ted Sarandos, Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Brian Roberts, Joseph Ianniello, Patrick Whitesell, Kaitlin Fontana, Kelly Evans Organizations: Hollywood, Los Angeles Times, Warner Bros, Discovery Inc, Times, Writers Guild of America, Endeavor Group Holdings Inc, Netflix, Walt Disney Co, Fox Corp, Comcast Corp, Paramount Global, Endeavor, Paramount, Disney, Company, WGA, Alliance, Television Producers, LA Times, Economic, Comcast, CNBC Locations: U.S, California

[1/5] TANAKA whose real name is Kim Kyung-wook, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, May 16, 2023. Now Kim exemplifies the changing attitudes of young Koreans as ties with Japan thaw. DEMAND REBOUNDThe quarrels are being left behind as the enthusiasm of young Koreans fuels a sharp rebound in demand for Japanese consumer products. That compared with a 90% drop in imports of Japanese beer in 2019, when the intensifying feuds made it an early target of a sweeping boycott. "China is clearly less preferred than countries like the United States and Japan," Kim said, citing Beijing's curbs on freedom in Hong Kong and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Persons: TANAKA, Kim Kyung, Kim Hong, Ji, Jeong, Tanaka, idolises, I've, it's, Kim, Fumio Kishida, Yoon Suk, James Kim, Hyonhee Shin, Heekyong Yang, Jimin Jung, Daewoung Kim, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, South, Korea's, Relations, Asahi Group Holdings, Costco, Hankook Research, Asan Institute, Policy Studies, Thomson Locations: Seoul, South Korea, Ji SEOUL, South Korean, Japan, Tokyo, Korean, China, Russia, North Korea, United States, Hong Kong

☆ China's Baidu launches $145 million venture capital AI fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHANGHAI, May 31 (Reuters) - Chinese search giant Baidu Inc (9988.HK) will set up a venture capital fund of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back start-ups focused on content generated by artificial intelligence applications, it said on Wednesday. The company will also launch a competition for developers to build applications off its ERNIE large language model (LLM) or integrate the model into their existing products, it added. E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) was among the other Chinese companies that followed quickly. In response to the surge of LLMs, China published draft regulations in April on the use of generative AI. ($1=6.9121 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Josh Horwitz, Samuel Shen and Jason Xue; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Ernie Bot, Josh Horwitz, Samuel Shen, Jason Xue, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Baidu Inc, HK, Baidu, Alibaba, Holding, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, China, United States

☆ Japan’s largest brewer sets its sights on China — again
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Charmaine Jacob | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Japan's Asahi Group Holdings has plans to dive back into the China market as it looks to revive investments in the world's largest beer market. The company divested from China years ago due to the lack of "premiumized products" and "very low" prices at that time, Katsuki said. In 2017, Asahi announced it would sell its nearly 20% stake in China's Tsingtao Brewery to Fosun Group and its subsidiaries. "But with the entry of the international brands and also craft beer, the premium segment in China is now really taking off and growing substantially." "Asahi Super Dry has the largest sales already from the China market now and it's growing double digits every year, so we want to continue to really invest into this premium market," he added.

Persons: We've, Atsushi Katsuki, CNBC's Martin Soong, we're, Katsuki Organizations: Japan's Asahi Group Holdings, Asahi, Fosun Group Locations: China, Tsingtao

☆ Factbox: Penalties imposed on Australian companies over the recent years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Here are some of the major penalties imposed by the regulators:AMP LTD (AMP.AX)Troubled Australian wealth manager AMP Ltd was fined a court-mandated penalty of A$24 million in May for billing dead clients for insurance and financial advice. In October 2022, ANZ was penalised A$25 million for failing to provide certain benefits it had agreed to give customers. In October 2022, CBA's trading unit was fined A$20 million for compliance failures in delivering financial services. NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK (NAB.AX)National Australia Bank, the country's second-largest bank, was charged A$18.5 million penalty in August 2021 by a court for issuing misleading fee disclosure statements or none at all. WESTPAC BANKING CORP (WBC.AX)Australia's third-biggest lender, Westpac Banking Corp was ordered to pay A$113 million in penalties in April 2022 for multiple compliance failures across its businesses.

☆ Abu Dhabi's Mubadala to buy majority stake in Fortress Investment from SoftBank
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 22 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Co will acquire a majority stake in U.S. asset manager Fortress Investment Group from Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Mubadala and Fortress Investment said in a joint statement on Monday. After the completion of the deal, Fortress' management will own a 30% stake in the company, while Mubadala Capital will hold the rest, according to the statement. Fortress management will hold a class of equity that entails it to appoint a majority of seats on the board. Fortress will appoint Drew McKnight and Joshua Pack as co-CEOs and Pete Briger as chairman, the companies said.

☆ Asian stocks inch up on US debt ceiling hopes, Nikkei hits 33-year high
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO) rose 0.66%, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) continued its ascent, rising to its highest since August 1990, during the country's so-called bubble era. Futures indicated European stocks were set to open higher, with Eurostoxx 50 futures up 0.44%, German DAX futures up 0.41% and FTSE futures up 0.23%. China's blue-chip CSI300 Index (.CSI300) rose 0.20%, while the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) was up 0.13%, having reversed from earlier losses. Hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers continued with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard saying inflation was not cooling fast enough to allow the Fed to pause its interest-rate hike campaign. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar rose 0.029% and was wedged near a two-month high.

☆ Asian shares mixed as China growth worries crimp U.S. debt ceiling optimism
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) eased 0.20% but was set to eke out a gain of 0.19% for the week. Data in the week underscored that China's economy lost momentum at the beginning of the second quarter, stoking worries over the wobbly post-COVID-19 recovery. Investor attention has been firmly on the negotiations over U.S. debt ceiling and increasing hopes that a deal could be reached sent U.S. shares higher overnight . Hawkish rhetoric from Fed speakers continued with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard saying inflation was not cooling fast enough to allow the Fed to pause its interest-rate hike campaign. U.S. crude fell 0.14% to $71.76 per barrel and Brent was at $75.78, down 0.11% on the day.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, who advises President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, also urged allies not to fear that a tougher sanctions clampdown could drive some countries closer to Russia, describing such a worry as overblown. He was speaking in an interview from Kyiv as world leaders meet to discuss new sanctions measures and how to prevent Russia and companies in third countries from circumventing sanctions imposed after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year. “We are grateful for all the support we have received from our allies and we have seen some positive signals on the latest sanctions packages under consideration," Vlasiuk said. Tinkoff and Rosselkhozbank have already been excluded from the SWIFT global payments system, but other banks have been subjected to full blocking sanctions. “Russian banks who provide financial services to Russian soldiers fighting an unlawful war of aggression on Ukrainian soil should face the toughest possible sanctions from our allies," Vlasiuk said.

☆ Alibaba misses revenue estimate, approves cloud unit spinoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We would love nothing more than to see one of these little Alibabas...becoming another big Alibaba, as big as the group company is right now," said Alibaba Group chairman Daniel Zhang on an earnings call. Alibaba logged revenue of 208.20 billion yuan ($30.12 billion) for the three months ended in March, compared with a Refinitiv consensus estimate of 210.3 billion yuan. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 23.52 billion yuan for the quarter, reversing a year earlier loss of 16.24 billion yuan. Revenue for Alibaba's cloud division in the recent quarter was 18.6 billion yuan, down 2% year-on-year. The company has opened up registration to test the technology to enterprise customers of Alibaba Cloud.

☆ Alibaba fourth-quarter revenue rises 2%
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 18 (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK), said on Thursday that fourth-quarter revenue climbed 2%, missing expectations. The 208.20 billion yuan ($30.12 billion) logged for the three months ended in March compares with a Refinitiv consensus estimate of 210.3 billion yuan drawn from 26 analysts. Chinese consumer spending has gained some momentum since the country abandoned draconian zero-COVID policies late last year, but still remains relatively muted amid a wobbly economic recovery. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 23.52 billion yuan, compared with a loss of 16.24 billion yuan. Revenue for the full year climbed 2% to 868.69 billion yuan, marking its slowest rate of growth since the company went public in 2014.

☆ Tencent cuts cloud service prices up to 40% to fend off rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said last month it would slash prices for some cloud products by up to 50%. Wei Yunfeng, a researcher at data firm IDC, said the price cuts were triggered in part by high sales targets despite slowing growth for the market. Alibaba's cloud revenue accounts for about 9% of its total revenue. James Mitchell, Tencent's chief strategy officer, told analysts on a call: "The impact of price cuts on Tencent as a whole is not notable." Moreover, price cuts only apply to its infrastructure-as-a-service business, which represent only a portion of Tencent's cloud services.

Asian markets, particularly China's, will be hoping this sparks a recovery from Wednesday's decline following yet another batch of sub-par Chinese economic indicators. The Chinese yuan fell below 7.00 per dollar for the first time in nearly six months and with GDP forecasts being slashed, analysts reckon the yuan could be poised for more weakness. Citi's Chinese economic surprises index had its biggest fall in two years and one of the steepest on record. Economists polled by Reuters expect the unemployment rate to hold steady at 3.5% and net new job growth to slow to 25,000. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Tencent slashes cloud service prices by up to 40% as price war intensifies
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, May 17 (Reuters) - Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) is cutting prices for cloud services by up to 40% from June amid similar moves from rivals that have plunged the sector into a price war. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said last month it will slash prices for some cloud products by up to 50%. Charlie Chai, an analyst at 86Research, said Chinese cloud service providers had in the past made efforts to avert a price war but "at the end of the day they still went down this path". Alibaba's cloud revenue accounts for about 9% of its total revenue. Tencent does not break out separate figures for cloud revenue.

World Wrestling Entertainment and Endeavor's UFC announced last month they would merge later this year. The new operation will be called TKO Group Holdings, a spokesperson for Endeavor confirmed Tuesday. Emanuel has said he intends to run "the same playbook" with WWE that Endeavor did with UFC, whose revenue surged 20% from 2021 to 2022. UFC and WWE will retain their respective names as part of TKO Group. "This is going to be UFC 2.0," Emanuel said in an interview that aired last month on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. accounting watchdog found unacceptable deficiencies in audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies performed by KPMG in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong, the government agency said on Wednesday. The deficiencies were so great that auditors failed to obtain enough evidence to substantiate companies' financial statements, PCAOB Chair Erica Williams told reporters on Wednesday. KPMG Huazhen in China said in a statement it has taken steps to address the issues the PCAOB had found. With its 2023 work, the PCAOB expects it will have inspected auditors representing 99% of the work in the region. The agency will continue to demand full access to do its work, Williams said.

[1/2] The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. The fourth-quarter earnings come after the Vision Fund unit posted four consecutive quarters of investment loss, with investors debating whether the value of privately held stakes have further to fall. Portfolio firms of the Vision Fund unit whose shares climbed during January-March include e-commerce firm Coupang Inc (CPNG.N) and robotics firm AutoStore Holdings Ltd (AUTO.OL). What matters is Arm for SoftBank to demonstrate it can get results as an investment company," said SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Satoru Kikuchi. Still, SoftBank executives are unlikely to offer meaningful new information about the Arm listing on Thursday, Kikuchi said.

☆ As earnings season winds down, investors turn to Tuesday's debt ceiling meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

With only a small fraction of the S & P 500 left to report quarterly earnings, investors are now turning their focus to another major hurdle for the markets and economy: the debt ceiling crisis. Earlier this week, we looked back to debt limit crisis of 2011 for potential lessons. The protracted fight ultimately ended in an agreement in early August of that year, but it was a choppy summertime ride for investors. Within the portfolio, Wynn Resorts will report Tuesday, after the closing bell, and Disney will report on Wednesday, after the closing bell. Estee Lauder (EL) and Emerson Electric (EMR) reported earnings before the opening bell.

☆ Alibaba's global online commerce arm weighs US IPO - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's (9988.HK), international online shopping unit is exploring a U.S. initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the matter. The e-commerce giant is in the early stages of consideration and the IPO's size is yet to be determined, the report added. The business group is in talks with banks that could potentially help prepare for the IPO next year, according to the report. However, in an emailed statement to Reuters, Alibaba Digital Commerce Group said, "Currently, there is no IPO plan". Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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