Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský is preparing a takeover bid for Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services, according to people familiar with the matter. Křetínský, a lawyer-turned-energy tycoon known as the “Czech Sphinx”, has built a
China’s first-quarter gross domestic product data has thrown into stark relief the effects of President Xi Jinping’s bet that a manufacturing boom can help the world’s second-largest economy overcome a prolonged slump in the property market. The National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday reported a 6.1 per cent rise in industrial production and a nearly
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. US President Joe Biden is pushing for tariffs to triple on Chinese steel and aluminium, as he seeks to boost union support in the swing state of Pennsylvania. In a meeting with United Steelworkers union
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Financial policymakers have urged hedge funds, pension investors and commodities traders to keep more liquid assets on hand and develop stress tests to better withstand shocks from extreme market moves. The Financial Stability Board, which
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK inflation slowed less than expected in March, fuelling the debate over how soon the Bank of England will start cutting interest rates. Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent, down
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Fund management myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Veteran fund manager Martin Gilbert faces an investor backlash over his role as executive chair of AssetCo and over a lack of diversity on the Aim-listed company’s all-male board at its annual meeting next week.
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Donald Trump has raised $75mn less for his presidential bid than Joe Biden and has 270,000 fewer unique donors now than at the same stage of his run for the White House four years ago.
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The writer is a science commentator As Madonna once warbled, we are living in a material world. Our species has named historic periods after bronze, stone and iron. Modern society runs on innovative materials, such
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Shakespeare’s green-eyed monster is stalking the biggest UK and European public companies. Top executives look across the Atlantic and see their American counterparts take home ever larger pay packages, and they are frankly jealous. Some
Israel fended off hundreds of drones and missiles fired by Iran on Saturday using an enviable combination of its own sophisticated air defences and the critical support of western powers and Arab partners. But Israel may not be able to pull off that performance and sustain crucial outside support forever — especially if the Jewish
When Barclays Bank froze Becky Webster’s account, cutting off access to her son’s state benefit payment for over a week last year, it was the 15th time the former NHS worker turned full-time escort had been refused a bank account, or had one closed down. In frustration she launched a petition calling on MPs to
In this article .BKX US10Y Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Regional bank earnings may expose critical weaknesses, according to Sheila Bair, former chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Their quarterly numbers begin hitting Wall Street this week. “I’m worried about a handful of them,” Bair told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Tuesday. “I
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A video of New Yorkers celebrating Joe Biden’s presidential win, a parody post describing Donald Trump as “dumb” and a call to “lock him up” were among the social media indiscretions unearthed by the former
Canada’s federal government wants its largest pension funds to invest more in domestic companies, and is hiring the former governor of the central bank to entice them. Stephen Poloz, who led the Bank of Canada from 2013 to 2020, has been given the task of convincing Canada’s pension funds, which manage more than C$4tn (US$2.9tn),
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has raised the possibility of further tax cuts before the next general election as he counts on recent reductions to national insurance and the prospect of lower interest rates to improve the
The size of the Internal Revenue Service budget and whether it should see an increase was part of the focus of a Tuesday Senate Finance Committee hearing during which IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel played defense against what some members of Congress have called over aggressive audits. Werfel’s written testimony included a request that IRA funding
Municipals were slightly weaker as the focus turned to a large new-issue day with deals upsized and accelerated. The asset class followed U.S. Treasuries to higher yields while equities closed the session up. Triple-A yields rose one to five basis points, depending on the curve, while UST yields rose up to four basis points. The
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak suffered a blow on Tuesday as dozens of Conservative MPs, including several ministers, voted against his flagship legislation to ban smoking by anyone in the UK born after 2009. The prime minister pledged
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass broadened her priorities from tackling homelessness and police officer retention, presenting a plan in her State of the City speech to comprehensively evaluate city departments to make them more effective as she wrestles with a $467 million deficit. The mayor will present her budget later this week. The city has
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell has said it is likely to take “longer than expected” for inflation to return to the central bank’s 2 per cent target and justify cuts to interest rates.
President Joe Biden signaled tentative federal support for a long-struggling high-speed train between Dallas and Houston using Japanese technology during a meeting last week with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Opponents of the controversial proposal, meanwhile, have urged the Department of Justice to investigate the project’s owner, Texas Central Partners LLC, for violations of the