World

There's a broad perception that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell does not care one whit about corporate news. He's strictly a creature of broad government economic reports — the consumer price index, the producer price index, industrial production, retail sales and, of course, the nonfarm employment numbers. He also cares about what his fellow Fed people say. But for the most part, an earnings blowup is a tree falling in the woods: He's not around to hear it make a sound. If that's the case, then market participants should be selling anything that depends on the U.S. economy stabilizing here and forgetting about any company that needs acceleration. These growth stocks are simply casualties of the moment. If you want to own them, you must be prepared to take losses before you see any ...

Despite experiencing the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Malaysia has remained a resilient economic player that continues to support foreign business. Its most technologically advanced and diversified state of Selangor even managed to record an increase in manufacturing projects amid the worldwide economic slowdown. Dato’ Hasan Azhari bin Haji Idris, CEO of Invest Selangor Now, as the world begins to reopen, Selangor is seeking additional investment from Japanese and other foreign companies. The Japan Times spoke with Dato’ Hasan Azhari bin Haji Idris, CEO of Invest Selangor, to learn more about what makes Selangor such an attractive business environment. Could you provide us an overview of Selangor and its ties with Japan? Malaysia and Japan have a very strong trade relations...

SINGAPORE : Labour shortages and supply chain snarls are making it harder for airlines and lessors to return airplanes grounded during the pandemic to the skies as quickly as they would like, operators and maintenance providers say. A global squeeze on maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capacity is one of the factors contributing to higher airfares for travellers, as demand has rebounded faster than aircraft can be made available and costs are rising. "Some suppliers are coming out with double-digit escalations and surcharges," said Mahesh Kumar, chief executive of Asia Digital Engineering, the maintenance arm of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia. "The airlines keep increasing their fares but that is not a sustainable business," he added at the MRO Asia-Pacific conference in Singapor...

SOFIA : British-Belgian teenager became the youngest person to fly solo around the world on Wednesday after a five-month journey that saw him battle monsoon rains, searing heat and frustrating bureaucracy. Cheers went up as 17-year-old Mack Rutherford landed at an airfield near the Bulgarian capital Sofia after flying 54,124 km (33,631 miles) and visiting more than 30 countries since he departed from the same site in his Shark Aero microlight airplane on March 23. "There were many points in my journey where it would have been easy to give up...But I kept going, even when it seemed like I wouldn't be able to make it to the end," he said. His journey broke two Guinness World records, including one set by his sister Zara, 19, who handed him one of the certificates on the tarmac. "Amazing ...

SINGAPORE: For more than a year, a supervisor at Marks & Spencer noted down customers' credit card details, which he used to buy almost S$9,000 worth of meals. Teo Kai Seng, 29, was on Monday (Aug 29) jailed for three months after pleading guilty to three charges under the Computer Misuse Act. Eight similar charges were considered for sentencing. The court heard that Teo worked at Marks & Spencer from 2016 to 2021. He was promoted to supervisor at the One Raffles Place outlet in March 2020. Around the time of his promotion, Teo started taking down the credit card details of customers while their card payments were being processed at the cashier. He did this whenever he attended to customers at the cash register and there were only two other staff members working in the kitchen and the ...

BENGALURU : The Philippine central bank will likely opt for a half-point interest rate rise on Thursday to support a weakening currency and blunt its effect on imported inflation, a Reuters poll of economists showed. Down more than 11 per cent for the year, the Philippines peso is one of Asia's worst-performing currencies. Its poor showing against the U.S. dollar, propped up by an aggressive Federal Reserve set to deliver another 75 basis point rise on Wednesday, has led to a record trade deficit and higher inflation. To shore up the currency and tame inflation the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has already raised its policy rate by 175 basis points since May. Over 60 per cent majority of economists polled, or 13 of 21, expected a 50 basis point rise to 4.25 per cent at its Sept. 22 ...

SHANGHAI :United Imaging Healthcare Co's shares surged as much as 75 per cent in their Shanghai debut on Monday after the Chinese firm's $1.6 billion initial public offering (IPO), the biggest on China's tech-focused STAR Market so far this year. The jump came after strong demand during the share sale, the third-largest listing in China this year, as investors pinpointed the diagnostic imaging device manufacturer as a safe haven amid gloomy prospects for growth in the country, analysts said. Shares in the company, the biggest domestic player in its field, ended the session 65 per cent higher at 181.2 yuan. Yang Hongxun, analyst at investment consultancy Shandong Shenguang, said the surge was fuelled by both the company's fundamentals and ample market liquidity - big offerings have flour...

In 1967, John "Chickie" Donohue was sitting at a Manhattan bar with his buddies thinking up a way he could support his friends from the neighbourhood who were fighting in the Vietnam war. The US Marine Corps veteran and merchant seaman decides there is no better way than to head into the war zone to deliver them American beer. Zac Efron stars as Chickie, a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War who spent his time lazing at his parents house and drinking at the local bar, in director Peter Farrelly's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Green Book (2018). The Greatest Beer Run Ever, featuring stars Billy Murray and Russell Crowe, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday (Sep 13) with screaming fans lining the streets. "Most Vietnam War movies, that I know of, are told from...

NEW YORK :Crude prices edged up about 1 per cent on Thursday after dropping to a seven-month low in the prior session as some technical traders bought the dip and Russia threatened to halt oil and gas exports to some buyers. That price increase came despite a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories, news that the United States was weighing the need for more crude releases from strategic reserves and concerns China's COVID-19 lockdown extensions and rising global interest rates would slow economic activity and hit fuel demand. U.S. crude stockpiles surged by nearly 9 million barrels last week due to a combination of increased imports and ongoing releases from government emergency reserves, the Energy Information Administration said. [EIA/S] The hefty build compares with the 250,000-barr...

Things sure look different from Italia! Yes, I do take vacations. And yes, they almost always lead to dramatic declines that have me called back or called in. Not this time. This time it was a rout. An oversold rout as, once again, the S & P Short Range Oscillator got it right: We were at the outer limits of a very oversold market. My favorite market indicator was at minus 7.82% on Friday after a wicked few weeks. (Anything below a minus 4% is flashing an oversold signal.) The excellent news here? We are still oversold at minus 5.78%, which is usually the sign of a powerful rally with more room to run, rather than one that is running out of gas. That's rather amazing given the proximity of the Federal Reserve's next rate-hike decision in two weeks, and a couple days from the next Consumer ...