HONG KONG (AFP) ― China’s big spenders are reining in overt shows of wealth, shelving shopping trips in Hong Kong and Macau gambling sprees in the face of the Communist Party’s anti-corruption and frugality drive, analysts say.President Xi Jinping has launched a much-publicized graft crackdown since taking office last year with a series of high profile takedowns of party officials sending shockwaves through an elite who once did little to hide their prosperity.A related austerity drive ― orderin

Aug. 14, 2014

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said broker regulation needs a “major re-examination” to prevent funding shortfalls during a crisis, and New York Fed president William C. Dudley said the wholesale funding system must have greater stability. “Broker-dealers can experience significant funding problems during times of financial stress,” Rosengren said in remarks to a Fed conference on wholesale funding risk in New York. “Unfortunately that potential for problems has not been

Aug. 14, 2014

PARIS (AFP) ― The oil market is “eerily” calm despite conflicts in key regions, undermined by weak demand which is holding down oil prices, the IEA said on Tuesday.“Despite armed conflict in Libya, Iraq and Ukraine, the oil market today looks better supplied than expected, the International Energy Agency said lowering its forecasts for oil demand this year and next.There were even reports of “an oil glut” in the Atlantic basin, it said.“Oil prices seem almost eerily calm in the face of mounting

Aug. 13, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Apple primarily relies on white and Asian men for its top-paying technology jobs, feeding the perception that Silicon Valley’s economic boom is largely excluding women, blacks and Hispanics.A breakdown released Tuesday by Apple Inc. showed 54 percent of the company’s technology jobs in the U.S. are filled by whites and another 23 percent by Asians. Men make up 80 percent of Apple’s technology workforce throughout the world. The iPhone and iPad maker didn’t provide racial sta

Aug. 13, 2014

BEIJING (AFP) ― More than 1,000 companies in China’s auto sector, both domestic and foreign, are “involved” in anti-monopoly probes by the government, state media reported Wednesday.The China Daily quoted an official at the National Development and Reform Commission saying that probes into state-owned and Chinese owned private enterprises are also taking place.In recent months China has launched high-profile probes into alleged wrongdoings by a host of foreign firms in a range of different secto

Aug. 13, 2014

TOKYO (AP) ― The Japanese economy shrank during the second quarter, at an annual pace of 6.8 percent, according to government data, as spending got slammed by a tax raise that kicked in from April.Japan’s gross domestic product, or the total output of goods and services, contracted 1.7 percent during the April-June period from the previous quarter, on a quarterly basis. The results released Wednesday had been expected because the consumption-tax raise has weighed on spending. The question now is

Aug. 13, 2014

MUMBAI (AFP) ― U.S. property tycoon Donald Trump praised India’s new prime minister on Tuesday, saying foreign investors were returning to the country after years of slowing economic growth.The developer and television star predicted that “money will pour into India” as he briefed journalists on a new luxury apartment block in Mumbai dubbed “Trump Tower.”“I have not met him, but your new P.M. has done a fantastic job of bringing people together,” he told the journalists in India’s financial capi

Aug. 13, 2014

China’s antitrust crackdown signals a new era of regulatory scrutiny in the country and threatens to end the days when products from Audi sedans to Starbucks lattes generate fatter profits in Beijing than in London or New York. In the past month, Chinese antitrust authorities pressured at least seven carmakers to cut prices and raided the offices of software maker Microsoft Corp. The companies join Qualcomm Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and Danone among foreign-owned busines

Aug. 12, 2014

Apple iPads are displayed inside the company’s Omotesando store in Tokyo. (Bloomberg)Apple Inc.’s suppliers have started manufacturing new iPads, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as the company works to reinvigorate sales of the tablet computers after two straight quarters of declines. Mass production of a full-sized iPad with a 9.7-inch screen is already under way, with an unveiling projected for the end of this quarter or early next, said two of the people, who asked not to be

Aug. 12, 2014

MEXICO CITY (AP) ― President Enrique Pena Nieto signed into law on Monday new rules governing a historic opening of Mexico’s state-run oil, gas and electricity industries to foreign and private companies.Pena Nieto said the government will let potential investors know by Wednesday which blocks of gas and oil fields will be open for them. The state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has the right under the new rules to take first dibs and set aside some fields for itself. Pena Niet

Aug. 12, 2014

PARIS (AFP) ― Leading economies are showing a steady growth trend overall, although Britain is doing particularly well and Japan and Germany are showing signs of losing pace, the OECD said on Monday.The eurozone as a whole, and France, are on a stable growth path, the latest OECD data showed, contrasting with several recent indicators suggesting that France is lagging in the 18-member single-currency zone.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, grouping 34 advanced democracies

Aug. 12, 2014

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said sluggish labor supply growth is a “source of concern” because it may contribute to a slowdown in longer-run output of the economy, which also faces a drag from housing and “broad based” slowing across emerging markets. Falling labor-force participation largely reflects an aging population, though there’s “considerable uncertainty” about how much is due to the sluggish economy, Fischer said Monday in remarks prepared for delivery in Stockholm. Th

Aug. 12, 2014

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― India’s central bank governor said Sunday the country was on course to meet the bank’s targets on reduced inflation, adding that it was working with the new government on monetary policy.Reserve Bank of India Gov. Raghuram Rajan said the bank had started discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government on a monetary policy framework that includes measures to control inflation.The RBI on Tuesday left the benchmark repo rate, at which it lends to commercial b

Aug. 11, 2014

BNP Paribas chairman Baudouin Prot. (Bloomberg)BNP Paribas SA chairman Baudouin Prot may leave in the next few months and be succeeded by Jean Lemierre, a senior adviser at the French bank, Le Journal du Dimanche reported, without saying where it got the information. BNP Paribas last month posted its largest ever quarterly loss and replaced its compliance chief after a record fine for doing business with Sudan and other countries blacklisted by the U.S. BNP Paribas, based in Paris, was fined $8.

Aug. 11, 2014

BEIJING (AFP) ― China said Saturday that its Anti-Monopoly Law does not discriminate between foreign and domestic companies, as big name overseas enterprises have come under a series of high-profile investigations.The Ministry of Commerce issued a statement noting that foreign firms such as Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz have been probed as has the Chinese unit of a U.S. food supplier.Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said that anti-monopoly probes were meant to promote fair competition and protect c

Aug. 10, 2014