Goldman Sachs’ Schwartz set to retire
Goldman Sachs Group Inc said yesterday that Harvey Schwartz will retire from the bank, leaving David Solomon as sole president and chief operating officer and the most obvious successor to Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein.
The bank did not say why Schwartz was retiring. He was seen as one of two contenders along with Co-Chief Operating Officer Solomon to take over the top spot at what is considered as the most powerful US investment bank.
Schwartz, 53, has served in his current role since January 2017. He will retire on April 20.
Goldman shares were up nearly 1.4 percent to hit a lifetime high in morning trade.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Blankfein was expected to retire as soon as this year and the bank was not looking beyond Schwartz and Solomon to replace him. Goldman did not comment on the report.
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Apple and Google drop in annual ranking survey
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google corporate brands dropped in an annual survey while Amazon.com Inc maintained the top spot for the third consecutive year, and electric carmaker Telsa Inc rocketed higher after sending a red Roadster into space.
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IPhone maker Apple dropped to 29th from its previous position of No. 5, and Google dropped from 8th to No. 28. Apple had ranked No. 2 as recently as 2016, according to the annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient poll released yesterday.
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John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, said in an interview that the likely reason Apple and Google fell was that they have not introduced as many attention-grabbing products as they did in past years, such as when Google rolled out free offerings like its Google Docs word processor or Google Maps and Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, iPhone and iPad. "Google and Apple, at this moment, are sort of in valleys,” Gerzema said. “We’re not quite to self-driving cars yet. We’re not yet seeing all the things in artificial intelligence they’re going to do."
Meanwhile, Amazon.com held on to the No. 1 spot, which it has kept for five years with the exception of 2015, when it slipped to No. 2. Gerzema attributed Amazon’s ranking to its expanding footprint in consumers’ lives into areas like groceries via its Whole Foods acquisition.
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CSRC fines firm record US$870m for price fixing
The China Securities Regulatory Commission has fined a company a record 5.5 billion yuan (US$870 million) for manipulating stock prices of listed firms, the regulator said yesterday.
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The huge fine was imposed on Xiamen Beibadao Logistics Group, a private company, which made 945 million yuan by using over 300 trading accounts to manipulate the stock prices of listed companies including two banks, Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank Co Ltd and Jiangsu Jiangyin Rural Commercial Bank, and an industrial firm Guangdong Hoshion Aluminium Co Ltd.
Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank jumped sharply by over 600 percent from 4.37 yuan to 30.41 yuan in two months since it was listed in January 2017.
The CSRC revealed the penalty at a press conference today at which it also made public that it had investigated a case of information disclosure and second case involving another market manipulation.
The penalty for Beibadao Group is not an exceptional case because an equities trader was fined 54 million yuan for manipulating 15 stocks to make a profit of 27 million yuan in December last year.
The CSRC said they will stick to strict supervision in line with the law to serve the capital market and to develop an open and fair market environment.
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15 Chinese cities record stable housing markets
Housing markets in China’s 15 major cities stayed generally stable in February as tightening policies to curb speculation have been consistently implemented, data released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
Twelve of the 15 cities, including first-tier ones and key second-tier cities, saw declines of 0.1 percent to 0.6 percent in new home prices from January. Prices in two cities were flat from a month earlier, and Tianjin was the only city where prices rose month on month, according to the bureau, which monitors property prices in 70 Chinese cities.
“Stability extended in the country's 15 hottest housing markets as differentiated policies to curb speculation continued to take effect,” said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the bureau.
In the four first-tier cities, new home prices in Shanghai lost 0.2 percent from January while Beijing’s shed 0.3 percent, Guangzhou’s fell 0.4 percent and Shenzhen’s dipped 0.6 percent.
On an annual basis, prices in nine cities shed by between 0.3 percent and 2.5 percent, five cities saw rises of between 0.6 percent and 3.1 percent while one was flat from a year earlier, according to the bureau.
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Shanghai economy grows steadily
SHANGHAI’S economy grew steadily in February as industrial output, consumer prices and foreign trade all rose.
Its foreign trade increased 8.9 percent to 239.47 billion yuan (US$37.84 billion) from the same month last year, according to Shanghai Statistics Bureau.
Imports rose 2.5 percent to 141.62 billion yuan while exports jumped sharply by 19.7 percent to 97.86 billion yuan compared to February last year. For January-February, the city’s total foreign trade rose 10.2 percent from a year earlier to 529.17 billion yuan. Shipments to Japan jumped 59.8 percent to 11.64 billion yuan in February. Exports to the United States rose 12.5 percent and those to the European Union gained 11.1 percent. Shanghai’s foreign direct investment grew 12.9 percent in contract value while capital that’s invested surged 30.8 percent in February.
The tertiary industry accounted for 97.6 percent of the city’s total FDI contract value as it sealed 256 FDI projects worth US$394.7 million, up 19.1 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, the city's value-added industrial output in January-February jumped 9 percent from a year earlier to 548.68 billion yuan, up from the 7.3 percent rise in the same period last year.
Of the city’s six key industrial sectors, the output of biological medicine grew fastest by 15.7 percent to 16.24 billion yuan year on year, while the output of high-quality steel manufacturing fell 5.9 percent and that of petrochemical and fine chemicals shed 0.2 percent.
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China seeks voice over global oil pricing with yuan crude futures
CHINA launched yuan-denominated oil futures contracts in Shanghai yesterday in a move to help domestic producers hedge crude price fluctuations and win for the country a greater voice over oil pricing.
Trading started at 9am at Shanghai International Energy Exchange, also known as INE and a unit of the Shanghai Futures Exchange. By the 3pm close INE had conducted 42,300 transactions worth 18.3 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion).
The first trading day got off to a good start, with the most traded contract for September delivery rising 3.34 percent to 429.9 yuan by 3pm.
Investors can trade between 9am and 11:30am, and 1:30pm to 3pm, as well as from 9pm to 2:30am during working days, with each contract’s volume being 1,000 barrels.
China imported 420 million tons of crude last year, taking up 69 percent of its total consumption, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
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UN and Alibaba to empower e-commerce entrepreneurs
THE United Nations agency dealing with trade and development has teamed up in Hangzhou with the Alibaba Group in a special 11-day course to empower over five years 1,000 e-commerce entrepreneurs from developing countries.
Thirty-seven e-commerce entrepreneurs from Asia have enrolled at the UN Conference on Trade and Development and Alibaba Business School’s eFounders Initiative at the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, UNCTAD said.
The 11-day course is part of a commitment by Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group and a UNCTAD special adviser.
“We want to reach out to youth and include them in the work we do for inclusive and sustainable economic growth,” said Arlette Verploegh, coordinator for the eFounders Initiative at UNCTAD.
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Platform to drive intelligent autos
CHINA is building a national-level innovation platform to further accelerate the development of intelligent vehicles, the National Development and Reform Commission said during a seminar held in Beijing yesterday.
“The platform will be established in order to solve the problems and obstacles in the development of intelligent vehicles and ensure the effective implementation of national strategies,” said Nian Yong, director-general department of industry of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a connected and automated vehicle international seminar.
The NDRC plan envisages the platform to comprise government department officials, industry professionals and scholars as well as auto companies. The nation’s top economic planner said that through the platform, China hopes to attract key enterprises, encourage overseas mergers and acquisitions and enhance research and development capabilities of intelligent vehicles.
“At present, China has started preparing for intelligent vehicles which includes strengthening intellectual property protection, emphasizing supervision and law enforcement, enhancing a credit system, talent training, supporting cross-border mergers and acquisitions and encouraging foreign-invested companies to participate in the development of an intelligent and connected vehicle industry,” Nian said.
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PBOC to clean up various virtual currencies in 2018
China’s central bank said it would clean up various sorts of virtual currencies in 2018, its latest effort to step up financial supervision.
Last September, Chinese authorities including the People’s Bank of China ordered a ban on initial coin offerings, in which technology startups issue their own digital coins to investors to access funds, and shut down all virtual currency exchanges in the country.
The tough measures led to a sharp decline in virtual currency transaction volumes in China, according to Financial News, a publication run by the PBOC.
PBOC deputy governor Fan Yifei said the bank will step up reform and innovation and continue to steadily carry forward the central bank’s research and development of digital currency.
To ensure order in the circulation of the yuan, the PBOC will tighten supervision and strengthen quality management and control, according to an online statement released yesterday.
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Manufacturers shift to high gear in March as demand increases
GROWTH in China’s manufacturing sector picked up more than expected in March as authorities lifted winter industrial pollution restrictions and steel mills cranked up production as construction activity swings back into high gear.
The official Purchasing Managers’ Index released on Saturday rose to 51.5 in March, from 50.3 in February, and was well above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast the reading would pick up slightly to 50.5. February’s figure had been the lowest in 18 months, but many analysts suspected it was due to disruptions related to the long Lunar New Year holidays.
The March survey showed manufacturers shifted into higher gear as seasonal demand picked up. The sub-index for output jumped to 53.1 from 50.3 in February, while total new orders rose to 53.3 from 51.0 and export orders climbed to 51.3 from 49.0.
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