World

The dollar edged higher across the board on Monday as concerns about the pandemic encouraged investors to seek a safe haven, and as they awaited more clues about the global economic recovery. With markets hyper-sensitive to any talk of early tapering, U.S. inflation data on Tuesday will be closely watched ahead of testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday and Thursday. "Market caution reigned at the start of the week, weighing on risk sentiment and boosting the U.S. dollar," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington. Reports from around the globe of surging infections of the Delta coronavirus variant also hurt investors' appetite for riskier assets. Investors will look to U.S. inflation data on Tuesday and Federal Rese...

If the Covid pandemic has proven any axiom, it's that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — and if you can't prevent or cure, insure. Travelers are taking that lesson to heart and, as they return to cars, planes and cruise ships, they're looking to hedge their bets by insuring trips, locking in prices and more — when, where and as easily as they can. And they're willing to pay for that peace of mind, according to travel app Hopper. "There's an enormous appetite for security and stability, and customers are willing to pay for this," said Hopper founder and CEO Frederic Lalonde. To help meet that need, Hopper announced Tuesday it's teaming with Amadeus to offer customers of the Madrid-based global distribution system and travel software giant its fintech insurance and price-fr...

BEIJING: Chinese factory activity stabilised in June, data showed Wednesday (Jun 30), but output was hit by supply shortages of key commodities and microchips as well as the coronavirus-induced closure of a key port that caused huge delivery delays. The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a key gauge of manufacturing activity in the world's second-largest economy, came in at 50.9 in June from May's 51.0, the National Bureau of Statistics said. While the reading has been edging down for three straight months, it appears to be levelling out. It was also broadly in line with forecasts and continued to stay above the 50 point mark that separates growth from expansion. China's economy is well on the recovery track after overcoming the impact of the virus early by imposing strict lockdowns ...

The world needs to be more ambitious and step up efforts to boost global technological cooperation, say Hoe Ee Khor and Suan Yong Foo. SINGAPORE: Heightened US-China tensions have raised the prospect of a deep global technology divide, potentially forcing other countries to choose which camp to join. There are plenty of grim scenarios involving irreconcilable splits between core technologies that power a wide range of products and services, from aircraft and automobiles to precision engineering for robotics and payment systems for e-commerce. Should these scenarios materialise, the world’s two largest economies will pour huge amounts of resources into a zero-sum race to control the cutting edge. Both the United States and China understand the central role of technology in driving t...

NEW YORK: Ether investment products and funds posted record outflows in the last week of June, bearing the brunt of negative sentiment on cryptocurrencies, according to data on Monday from digital asset manager CoinShares. Institutional investors took out US$50 million from investment products and funds on ether, the token used for the Ethereum blockchain. Ether suffered outflows for a fourth consecutive week, data showed. For the month of June, ether has lost roughly 22 per cent of its value against the dollar. On Monday, however, ether was up 5.4 per cent at US$2,091.96. Bitcoin products and funds, meanwhile, suffered a seventh straight week of outflows, totalling US$1.3 million. For the year, bitcoin outflows hit about US$490 million. The world's largest cryptocurrency was down ...

Two days ago, I spent six hours on encrypted apps with contacts inside the country trying to locate one – just one – oxygen concentrator for the mother of my friend, whom I will call “Ma Moon.” Her mother’s oxygen saturation rate had dropped precipitously in one day from 95 to 70. I do not know this for sure – in these circumstances, we know we cannot ask this question – but I think the family is being treated on a daily basis by doctors who have “gone underground” in a civil disobedience campaign. Medical professionals are among the most respected individuals in the country, and so their decision to oppose the February 1 military coup d’etat that took down the elected civilian government carried immense weight among the population. One estimate provided by public health experts in Mya...

SINGAPORE: Health Minister Ong Ye Kung spoke in Parliament on Tuesday (Jul 6) to address "false" statements surrounding free trade agreements (FTA) and the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). He was speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) to "put into context" the parliamentary questions that have been posed to the ministries concerning foreign professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET), FTAs and CECA. The speech is reproduced here in full: I am delivering this ministerial statement for two purposes. First, even before the General Election last July, the PSP (Progress Singapore Party) has repeatedly alleged that the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between S...

The U.S. dollar hovered near its strongest level since early April against the euro on Monday, as financial markets looked ahead to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week for clues on the timing of stimulus tapering. TOKYO: The safe-harbour yen and dollar started the week firmer against riskier currencies like the Aussie as rising COVID-19 cases and a decline in Asian equities set a cautious tone ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting this week. The yen rose about 0.5per cent to 81.08 per Australian dollar on Monday, while the dollar gained 0.2per cent to US$0.7351 per Aussie, approaching an almost eight-month high of US$0.72895 reached last week. Against the dollar, the yen added 0.2per cent to 110.32, helped by a decline in U.S. Treasury yields. The euro rose ...

Waging the tariff war may temporarily deflect attention away from structural problems in the US economy. But keeping the tariffs is a mistake, says a professor. SALEM, Oregon: US President Joe Biden wasted no time reversing many of the damaging policies introduced during the Trump presidency, with exception to trade. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai is expected to meet her Chinese counterpart to review the Phase One trade deal, but expectations for the talks are low. Biden lacks the political will to reverse course on Donald Trump’s trade policies, with bipartisan support for “being tough” on China and using the tariff war as leverage to demand structural change in China. Nonetheless, keeping the Trump tariffs is a mistake. First, the tariff war is based on a flawed economi...

SINGAPORE: She survived an early scare but Olympic veteran Feng Tianwei progressed to the fourth round of the table tennis women’s singles at Tokyo 2020 on Monday (Jul 26) after a 4-1 win over Spain’s Maria Xiao. At the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Feng got off to an uncharacteristically poor start as she lost the first game 8-11 to Xiao, who is ranked 72nd in the world. “It was the first game, and I was behind in the very beginning so I was rather nervous,” said Feng after the match. The second game was just as tight as the first, but just as the Singaporean looked as if she was in danger, she recovered and recorded a 12-10 win. “I’ve never met this opponent before, this is the first time. So I’m not familiar with her style, even though we made a lot of preparations. In the f...