World

SINGAPORE :China has offloaded nearly four million barrels of Iranian crude oil into state reserve tanks in the southern port city of Zhanjiang over the past few weeks, a trade source and ship tracking specialist Vortexa Analytics said on Thursday. The move comes as world powers are locked in tough negotiations with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that will include the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. The former Trump administration pulled out of the deal and re-imposed sanctions. Iran, which sits on the world's fourth-largest oil reserves, relies heavily on oil revenue, but sanctions have prevented it from pumping at anywhere near capacity since 2018. The refilling of China's strategic petroleum reserves also comes ahead of a plan to release oil from its emergency stockpile...

HONG KONG : British fund manager abrdn is seeking a partner in China for its foray into the wealth management business, its chairman said, potentially joining a growing list of global financial firms eyeing a bigger share of that market. A string of foreign names including BlackRock, Amundi, Schroders, BNP Paribas, and UBS have moved towards forming majority-owned wealth management ventures since Beijing first permitted it in 2019. "In the wealth asset management space (in China), we would like to find the appropriate partner," Douglas Flint, chairman of the Edinburgh-based fund manager, created via a merger of asset managers Standard Life and Aberdeen in 2017, said. "Foreign majority ownership partnerships with Chinese institutions is the way that many firms are going in. That's certai...

WASHINGTON :World stocks rallied on Friday as investors turned their eyes toward corporate earnings and ignored geopolitical turmoil and Federal Reserve tightening concerns. Strong earnings from tech firms including Apple, which rose nearly 7per cent after reporting record sales over the holiday quarter, buoyed U.S. markets during the session. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher. However, the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 0.99per cent on the day for a fourth week of losses, weighed down by worries over the situation in Russia and Ukraine. [.N][EU] Economic data helped eased inflation fears, with U.S. data showing consumer spending and labor cost rises were weaker than expected in December. "The widely-watched employment cost index came in a touch softer than exp...

As local governments race to reclaim land ahead of a looming restructuring of China Evergrande Group, a wrecking ball headed for 39 apartment blocks on a tropical island at China's southern tip poses the latest threat for the embattled developer. The government of Danzhou, a city in the province of Hainan, has asked Evergrande to tear down what it says are illegal buildings within 10 days. The order was signed Dec. 30, meaning the company could start demolition work on the near-complete condos by Jan. 9. The Hainan order is among the most extreme in a spate of government actions to seize Evergande’s property and land holdings, underscoring risks to its most-prized assets as the firm prepares for what could be the largest restructuring ever in China. In recent months, at least 11 land pa...

BOSTON :Wall Street's headache over the potential of a relatively fast pullback from stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve lingered Thursday as stocks sold off again and government bond yields mostly marched higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 170.64 points, or 0.47per cent, to 36,236.47, the S&P 500 lost 4.53 points, or 0.10per cent, to 4,696.05 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.31 points, or 0.13per cent, to 15,080.87. Stocks fell sharply in Asia and Europe too after Wall Street's technology-heavy Nasdaq index plunged more than 3per cent on Wednesday. Minutes released on Wednesday from the Fed's December meeting https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-may-need-hike-rates-faster-reduce-balance-sheet-quickly-minutes-show-2022-01-05 had shown that a tight jobs market and unrele...

TOKYO : Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday, trading near seven-year highs hit last week, as investors bet supplies will stay tight, with a limited production hike by major oil producers and a strong post-pandemic recovery in fuel demand. Brent crude for April delivery was up 14 cents, or 0.2per cent at $89.40 a barrel at 0150 GMT. The front-month contract for March delivery expired on Monday at $91.21 a barrel, up 1.3per cent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 13 cents, or 0.2per cent, to $88.28 a barrel, having gained 1.5per cent in the previous day. The benchmarks hit their highest levels since October 2014 on Friday, at $91.70 and $88.84, respectively. They have gained about 17per cent in January, the biggest monthly gain since February 2021, amid a supply shortage and geopoli...

The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology decided Sunday to start pre-implantation screening of eggs fertilized in vitro for chromosomal abnormalities in April as part of fertility treatment. The society approved revisions to related internal rules at an extraordinary general meeting the same day. The pre-implantation screening will be carried out at about 100 certified institutions in Japan for couples who meet any of three conditions, including two or more miscarriages. The Japanese government will start public health insurance coverage for fertility treatment in April, including in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. The Central Social Insurance Medical Council, an advisory panel to the health minister, has said it plans to consider the pre-implantation screening o...

A group of young men was recently stopped at a security checkpoint in Yangon and asked to hand over their mobile phones. After being questioned about social media apps on their phones, one was fined for using a virtual private network (VPN). The crackdown on VPNs, which anonymise a user's Internet Protocol address and help bypass firewalls, is the latest attack on digital rights in Myanmar - alongside Internet shutdowns and growing surveillance - since a military coup on Feb 1, 2021. Authorities say the surveillance measures are part of a drive to improve governance and curb crime. Fearful of being tracked, citizens have turned off the location setting on their phones, and used encrypted messaging apps, VPNs and foreign SIM cards to communicate and organise protests, and document human ...

Thailand's Baiya Phytopharm wants to develop the country's first plant-based Covid vaccine. The start-up, founded by Dr. Suthira Taychakhoonavudh and Dr. Waranyoo Phoolcharoen in 2018, has been working on a vaccine using the leaves of an Australian tobacco plant. Suthira, a 37-year-old lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, told CNBC's "Managing Asia" that she and her team of scientists want to "make a difference" in changing Thailand from a vaccine importer to a vaccine maker. Baiya is the first Thai company to enter the university's CU Innovation Hub, a research center for start-ups, to develop technology to manufacture recombinant proteins that can produce medicines and vaccines. The three-year-old start-up is funded by grants from the Chulalongkorn University Alumni and the Thai gov...

Amazon.com Inc's recipe for the department store of the future includes algorithmic recommendations and what one corporate director called "a magic closet" in the fitting room. The online retailer is making another push to grow its fashion business, announcing on Thursday it will open its first-ever apparel store this year, with a tech twist. "We wouldn't do anything in physical retail unless we felt we could significantly improve the customer experience," said Simoina Vasen, a managing director. At 30,000 square feet (2,787 sq meters), the planned "Amazon Style" shop near Los Angeles is smaller than the typical department store. Model items are on the racks, and customers scan a code using Amazon's mobile app to select the color and size they would like. To try on the clothes, which are...