Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under pressure over how he will resolve a long-running dispute regarding a nationalized bank and its former oligarch owner. How he proceeds could be a “deal-breaker” as to whether Ukraine’s international creditor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), gives the country a further much-needed aid program, experts say. The dispute centers […] Read more
Some people will do just about anything to buy their first home. Just under 10% of homeowners surveyed by Bankrate.com, a personal finance website, said they took out money from their retirement savings to help cover the down payment and closing costs on their first dwelling. The site polled a total of 2,582 adults from […] Read more
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed less than expected in July as the trade war between the United States and China drags on. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said Wednesday the U.S. international trade deficit came in at $54 billion for July. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the deficit to narrow to $53.48 billion. […] Read more
As more video-streaming services flood the market, professional sports leagues are finding themselves in an increasingly precarious situations, because they’re not included in the packages. At this week’s Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, some of the top sports executives gathered to discuss the future of sports. We spoke to the commissioners of […] Read more
Got extra stuff? Got extra space? A new company is ready to make a match. Neighbor, based in Salt Lake City, connects homeowners online with people who need storage space. Its CEO says the barely 2-year-old company is already seeing 500% annual growth. “Currently there are more storage facilities in the U.S. than there are […] Read more
American and Chinese investors’ appetite to deploy capital into each other’s projects and deals has dropped to a five-year low as trade tensions propelled the decoupling of the two economies. Investment between the United States and China plunged 18 per cent to US$13 billion in the first six months of 2019 and reached the lowest […] Read more
After rising the previous week, interest rates fell back again last week, but consumers were not enthused. Overall mortgage application volume fell 1.9% for the week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was still 34% higher than a year earlier, thanks to a stronger refinance market this year. The average contract […] Read more
China suddenly added a new member to its negotiating team — the country’s commerce minister, Zhong Shan, who is seen as a hard-liner by many officials in Washington. “The U.S. side has provoked economic and trade frictions against us and violated the principles of the WTO. It is typical of unilateralism and protectionism. … We […] Read more
China could learn a lesson for its possible digital currency issuance from the Hong Kong monetary system that allows “commercial entities” to issue banknotes backed by their own private currency assets, former central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said. Zhou, who served as the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) for over 15 years […] Read more
According to global real estate consultant JLL, although the US-China trade war has cast a shadow over Hong Kong’s economy, the industrial property market continues to be a bright spot. Driven by expansion requirements from logistics companies, demand for industrial property remained largely intact in May with several large transactions being recorded. In the leasing […] Read more
