French luxury group LVMH on Monday became the first European company to hit a $500bn market capitalisation, boosted by Chinese consumers’ appetite for luxury goods following Beijing’s decision to lift all coronavirus-related restrictions. Shares in the Paris-listed company, whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Dior, edged up 0.3 per cent to €903.7 to achieve a
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Dominic Raab, who quit as the UK’s deputy prime minister on Friday, is both the victim, and the beneficiary, of his unusual industry. He is a beneficiary because, long before his ministerial career was brought to an end by allegations of bullying, his administrative record would surely have halted it elsewhere. Raab attributed the reaction
Visiting Washington last week, it was striking how commonplace talk of war between the US and China has become. That discussion has been fed by loose-lipped statements from American generals musing about potential dates for the opening of hostilities. Those comments, while unwise, did not spring from nowhere. They are a reflection of the broader
Asian markets sold off on Monday on the expectation of tight US restrictions on investments in China, while European stocks were steady ahead of first-quarter results from the world’s biggest tech companies this week. The region-wide Stoxx 600 added less than 0.1 per cent in early trading and London’s FTSE 100 fell by the same
Credit Suisse suffered SFr61.2bn ($68.6bn) of asset outflows in the first quarter as clients fled the stricken bank, exposing the scale of the task UBS now faces after taking over its Swiss rival. The speed with which clients deserted Credit Suisse was the chief reason Swiss authorities stepped in last month to orchestrate a rescue
Santander is in talks to hire several of Credit Suisse’s most senior investment bankers in New York, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Spanish bank seeks to capitalise on the Swiss lender’s emergency rescue by UBS. Santander has held discussions with bankers including David Hermer, Credit Suisse’s global head of equity and
To those caught in its path, the cycle of rumour and panic that destroyed Silicon Valley Bank struck as violently as a tornado. “The speed of the world has changed,” said Sam Altman, the technology executive behind the artificial intelligence phenomenon ChatGPT, shortly after a historic bank run in which customers tried to withdraw at
Apple has considerably more global reach and consumer trust than most banks. Is it any wonder, then, that it is slowly but surely turning into a financial institution? Even before it co-launched, with Goldman Sachs, a market-leading savings account that pays 415 times the lowest rate at old line institutions such as Chase or Bank
A Vanuatu government envoy was at a fishing summit in Ecuador this year when he claims to have had a surprising encounter: two men linked with an obscure Panamanian company who said they represented his country. Saade Makhlouf’s alleged discovery in February, on the sidelines of a gathering of an agency that oversees south Pacific
Long-awaited legislation to toughen up laws on sexual harassment in the workplace looks set to be shelved after a flurry of amendments from Conservative peers that has choked its progress through the UK parliament. The government-backed private members’ bill is designed to ensure companies take “all reasonable steps” to proactively prevent sexual harassment in workplaces,
Construction of the UK’s largest solar and battery storage plant has begun after the company developing it won the highest government subsidy yet for a sun-powered energy scheme. Project Fortress, which is being built on 890 acres of countryside at Cleve Hill near Faversham in Kent, was granted development consent in May 2020 and was
Rishi Sunak will hold the first of a series of summits with UK corporate leaders on Monday as his ruling Conservative party seeks to repair the damage done by the Brexit years and fend off Labour’s attempts to become the party of business. The debut of the “Business Connect” forum, which will bring together 200
Several countries, including the UK, US and Italy, have begun evacuations from Sudan, after a week of fighting between the country’s armed forces and a paramilitary group. British prime minister Rishi Sunak said “UK armed forces have completed a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families”. The White House said it had
Jeff Shell is leaving as chief executive of NBCUniversal after an investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct with a female colleague, parent company Comcast said on Sunday. Shell, who has served as the top executive of the media network since January 2020, said in a statement provided by Comcast that he “had an inappropriate relationship with
The White House has asked South Korea to urge its chipmakers not to fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans Idaho-based Micron from selling chips, as it tries to rally allies to counter Chinese economic influence. The US made the request as President Yoon Suk-yeol prepares to travel to Washington for a state
Brazil’s president is touring the Iberian peninsula in an attempt to boost ties with the EU, but his persistent claims that both Russia and Ukraine are responsible for the ongoing war highlight the bloc’s difficulty in winning over the global south. During his stay in Portugal, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that Ukraine “does
European governments have reacted with anger and dismay to comments by a Chinese diplomat questioning the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who regained their independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, have said they will summon Chinese diplomats on Monday to complain about
The writer is chair of Rockefeller International Today commentators overwhelmingly agree that a weakening US dollar cannot possibly lose its status as the world’s dominant currency because there is “no alternative” on the visible horizon. Perhaps, but don’t tell that to the many countries racing to find an alternative, and such complacency will only accelerate their
The Labour party has suspended Diane Abbott, a key ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, after she suggested Jewish people had never been “subject to racism” in a letter to a UK newspaper. The swift action comes just weeks after Corbyn was blocked from standing in future as a Labour candidate after his own refusal
The steady stream of European leaders visiting Beijing recently comes with a risk. Europe’s eagerness must make it look increasingly in China’s eyes like a demandeur — the party in diplomatic relations that cannot wait for the other to propose something, but has to come asking. But what exactly is Europe asking for? It is
The UK state-backed insurance scheme designed to help keep the live events sector going through the coronavirus pandemic paid out just one claim of £180,500, while generating almost £6mn in premiums, according to official data. The “live events reinsurance scheme”, which was set up in September 2021 and wound up a year later, paid out