Business
Boeing’s 737 Max Grounding Grinds On: CEO Daily
Good morning. Katherine Dunn here, filling in from London for Alan, who is on vacation this week. The saga of Boeing’s 737 Max continues, as the months-long grounding keeps rearing its head in the second-quarter results of airlines around the world. This morning, low-cost Irish carrier Ryanair, famous for its cheap European deals, announced that profits in Q2 were down 21%, and while the drop was hardly due to the grounding alone—in particular, Brexit-stressed Britons now need to be tempted into vacations with ever-cheaper flights—the company’s CFO said it is still in talks with Boeing to determine how the plane maker will provide compensation. Earlier this month, Ryanair said that it will fly 5 million fewer passengers next year due to delayed deliveries of the 737 Max; it had...
Boeing’s 737 Max Grounding Grinds On: CEO Daily
Good morning. Katherine Dunn here, filling in from London for Alan, who is on vacation this week. The saga of Boeing’s 737 Max continues, as the months-long grounding keeps rearing its head in the second-quarter results of airlines around the world. This morning, low-cost Irish carrier Ryanair, famous for its cheap European deals, announced that profits in Q2 were down 21%, and while the drop was hardly due to the grounding alone—in particular, Brexit-stressed Britons now need to be tempted into vacations with ever-cheaper flights—the company’s CFO said it is still in talks with Boeing to determine how the plane maker will provide compensation. Earlier this month, Ryanair said that it will fly 5 million fewer passengers next year due to delayed deliveries of the 737 Max; it had...
A New $6.2 Billion Takeover Bid Could Consolidate Europe’s Fierce Food Delivery Space
Takeaway.com NV made a 5 billion pound ($6.2 billion) bid for rival Just Eat Plc, continuing its consolidation push with a deal that would intensify competition with the likes of Uber Technologies Inc. in the food-delivery space. The Dutch company is offering an implied value of 731 pence for each Just Eat share, 15% more than the target company’s stock price on July 26, the day before talks first became public. The new company intends to remain based in Amsterdam, with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange. Just Eat shares rose as much as 26% to 799.4 pence in London, suggesting investors are betting that possible rival suitors might drive up the price of the asset. The food delivery industry in Europe has become a battleground, with rivals competing on prices and copying each ot...
Autonomous Trains Are Ready to Roll
If all goes as planned in August, a freight train will chug down a track near Pueblo, Colo.—entirely controlled by computers. Humans in the locomotive will merely observe, as the latest in artificial intelligence and sensor technology puts thousands of tons of steel through its paces. The experiment, on 48 miles of track at the railroad industry’s advanced testing ground, is a big step in the push for autonomous train technology. The outcome could fundamentally alter the railroad industry. While still a huge, highly profitable business, railroads move less freight than they did 10 years ago, and their biggest customer—the coal industry—is in long-term decline. Almost $700 billion in cargo moved by train in 2017, the latest government figures show, but trucks carried far more, ov...
Why the Fed Lowering Interest Rates Would Be a Mistake
Equity investors are euphoric about the Federal Reserve’s expected move to lower interest rates, after its four small increases in 2018. However, rates are still far below normal levels, so this move would create serious problems for government policy and investor choice. By keeping interest rates so low for so long, the Federal Reserve is losing its best monetary tool for fighting the next recession, and implicitly undermining Congressional efforts to constrain spending and preserve fiscal firepower. During this extended period, the Fed’s suppression of interest rates is also taking a heavy toll on bond investors: They can’t find relatively safe bonds with reasonable yields, so they are reaching for higher yields by buying very risky bonds. Whe...
Why the Fed Lowering Interest Rates Would Be a Mistake
Equity investors are euphoric about the Federal Reserve’s expected move to lower interest rates, after its four small increases in 2018. However, rates are still far below normal levels, so this move would create serious problems for government policy and investor choice. By keeping interest rates so low for so long, the Federal Reserve is losing its best monetary tool for fighting the next recession, and implicitly undermining Congressional efforts to constrain spending and preserve fiscal firepower. During this extended period, the Fed’s suppression of interest rates is also taking a heavy toll on bond investors: They can’t find relatively safe bonds with reasonable yields, so they are reaching for higher yields by buying very risky bonds. Whe...
Jack Ma’s Online Bank Is Leading a Quiet Revolution in Chinese Lending
Jack Ma’s online bank is leading a quiet revolution in the way China lends to small businesses, taking aim at a credit bottleneck that has held back Asia’s largest economy for decades. Using real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyzes more than 3,000 variables, Ma’s four-year-old MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 million small companies. Borrowers apply with a few taps on a smartphone and receive cash almost instantly if they’re approved. The whole process takes three minutes and involves zero human bankers. The default rate so far: about 1%. The financial-technology boom that turned China into the world’s biggest market for electronic payments is now changing how banks interact with companies that drive most of the nation’s econom...
Jack Ma’s Online Bank Is Leading a Quiet Revolution in Chinese Lending
Jack Ma’s online bank is leading a quiet revolution in the way China lends to small businesses, taking aim at a credit bottleneck that has held back Asia’s largest economy for decades. Using real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyzes more than 3,000 variables, Ma’s four-year-old MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 million small companies. Borrowers apply with a few taps on a smartphone and receive cash almost instantly if they’re approved. The whole process takes three minutes and involves zero human bankers. The default rate so far: about 1%. The financial-technology boom that turned China into the world’s biggest market for electronic payments is now changing how banks interact with companies that drive most of the nation’s econom...
Jack Ma’s Online Bank Is Leading a Quiet Revolution in Chinese Lending
Jack Ma’s online bank is leading a quiet revolution in the way China lends to small businesses, taking aim at a credit bottleneck that has held back Asia’s largest economy for decades. Using real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyzes more than 3,000 variables, Ma’s four-year-old MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 million small companies. Borrowers apply with a few taps on a smartphone and receive cash almost instantly if they’re approved. The whole process takes three minutes and involves zero human bankers. The default rate so far: about 1%. The financial-technology boom that turned China into the world’s biggest market for electronic payments is now changing how banks interact with companies that drive most of the nation’s econom...
Trump to Nominate John Ratcliffe to Replace Dan Coats as National Intelligence Director
President Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Representative John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence, replacing Dan Coats, who he said would depart the office on Aug. 15. The president announced the personnel changes on Twitter and said he’d name an acting director shortly. Ratcliffe’s nomination will be subject to approval by the Senate. Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpI am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence. A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves. Dan Coats, the current Director, will…. Sent via Twitter for iPhone. View original tweet. Coats repeatedly disagreed with Trump on key national security claim...
Trump to Nominate John Ratcliffe to Replace Dan Coats as National Intelligence Director
President Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Representative John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence, replacing Dan Coats, who he said would depart the office on Aug. 15. The president announced the personnel changes on Twitter and said he’d name an acting director shortly. Ratcliffe’s nomination will be subject to approval by the Senate. Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpI am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence. A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves. Dan Coats, the current Director, will…. Sent via Twitter for iPhone. View original tweet. Coats repeatedly disagreed with Trump on key national security claim...
Why the Fed Lowering Interest Rates Would Be a Mistake
Equity investors are euphoric about the Federal Reserve’s expected move to lower interest rates, after its four small increases in 2018. However, rates are still far below normal levels, so this move would create serious problems for government policy and investor choice. By keeping interest rates so low for so long, the Federal Reserve is losing its best monetary tool for fighting the next recession, and implicitly undermining Congressional efforts to constrain spending and preserve fiscal firepower. During this extended period, the Fed’s suppression of interest rates is also taking a heavy toll on bond investors: They can’t find relatively safe bonds with reasonable yields, so they are reaching for higher yields by buying very risky bonds. Whe...