A beautiful, colorful aerial view of the Mumbai skyline during twilight from Kuri Road, on February 16, 2022 in Mumbai, India.Prateek Chorjee | Hindustan Times | Getty ImagesAsia-Pacific markets were largely range-bound on Thursday after Wall Street's technology-fueled rally dissipated, with investors focusing on Japan's spring wage negotiations and wholesale inflation data in India.Wage negotiations in Japan concluded on Wednesday, and the first comprehensive estimate is due on Friday. Reports from local media indicated that large companies had offered “significant” pay increases.Strong wage increases could pave the way for the Bank of Japan to begin unwinding its ultra-loose monetary policy,…
Author: ricardofrancois
Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.It is common in the City of London that CFOs make the best board chairs. They are seen as having smaller egos (at least compared to some CEOs who are good at the table), detail-oriented, understanding of risk management, and intensely focused on the bottom line. But these days chief financial officers are increasingly being tapped for the executive role – from Margherita della Valle at Vodafone to Murray Auchincloss at BP, both of whom got the top job at a time…
Sixteen members of the Orange County Police Department's Special Operations Team were injured Wednesday afternoon in an explosion at an FBI training facility in Irvine, according to authorities.The explosion occurred around 1 p.m. in a small building at the Jerry Crow Regional Tactical Training Facility, according to Sheriff's Sgt. Frank Gonzalez. He added that the SWAT team was conducting its annual joint training with the bomb squad at that time. The FBI was not involved and provided them with exercise facilities. Fifteen people were taken to hospitals. One person suffered a leg injury that required surgery but was not life-threatening.…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up for myFT Digest of UK house prices – delivered straight to your inbox.UK estate agents are more optimistic about near-term growth in house prices in about two years, according to a closely watched survey published on Thursday that also points to more properties coming onto the market. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its 12-month house price forecast, which measures the difference between the percentage of estate agents anticipating a rise and fall in house prices, doubled to 36 last month from 18 in January.The reading – which was the highest since…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up for the pensions industry's myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.Thousands of members of collapsed retailer Debenhams' pension scheme are set to have their pension benefits restored under a ground-breaking deal for the emerging UK “super fund” market.More than 10,000 Debenhams pension plan members were transferred to the UK's Pension Protection Scheme in 2019, following the collapse of the 240-year-old retail group. The so-called pension lifeboat takes control of the assets and liabilities of pension schemes in failed companies. But thousands of former Debenhams employees then suffered reductions in their expected retirement…
One undeniable trend from this year's Modex conference: suddenly everyone was into unloading trucks. The last couple of years have gone from a select few companies to everyone in and around warehouse robotics looking to address the problem. Most solutions are some variation on a basic theme: a robotic arm attached to a movable base that can be moved in and out of boxes. Then there's TruckBot. When I first saw the system, which debuted last year, it took me a minute to understand what I was looking at. As we looked down from the mezzanine conference rooms of the…
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gained a reputation as a conspiracy theorist.It's possible he's conspiring to get another such person on the ticket with him. And famous for that.The Kennedy campaign told the Times that the 70-year-old is considering New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura as running mates, along with others on the short list. The New York Times was the first to publish the news.Citing “two people familiar with the discussions,” the New York Times also reported that Kennedy reached out to Rodgers and Ventura and “both welcomed…
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the “Financial Stability Oversight Board's Annual Report” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 6, 2024.Amanda Andrade Rhodes | ReutersTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday praised President Joe Biden's investment in electric vehicles for accelerating the sector, even as the industry cools off its years-long hot streak.Yellen touted Biden's electric vehicle measures in Kentucky at a new $49 million electric vehicle battery plant built by Advanced Nano Products, the battery supplier that will get tax credits from Biden's inflation-reducing law for the new clean energy…
The House of Representatives' lopsided vote Wednesday in favor of a bill that would ban TikTok in the United States unless it is freed from Chinese control suggests that the wildly popular short-video app may soon join Netscape and Myspace in the dustbin of history.But the situation is much more complicated than that. Policymakers agree that TikTok poses unique threats to privacy and security because of the Chinese government's influence over its owner, Beijing-based ByteDance. But the app has a powerful, if recently converted, backer in former President Trump, meaning Republicans who typically support any bill to reduce Chinese influence…
Sacramento — Gov. Gavin Newsom should have learned this four years ago: Don't try to persuade voters to increase government spending in a primary.Especially Sacramento spending.Newsom's Proposition 1 — a proposal to pump more money into treating homeless people with mental illness, drug addiction or alcohol addiction — may finally pass after the vote count is completed. But as of this writing, it's still very close, with the yes or no votes nearly equal.Newsom must be shocked.In January, the cocky governor told Times reporter Taryn Luna in an interview: “I think he's going to win by a landslide. Period. Period.”Typical…