Headlines

The euro is trading near its lowest level against the dollar in nine months as investors bet that the eurozone will maintain lower interest rates and have a slower economic recovery than the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Central Bank has indicated that it intends to keep financial conditions loose for the foreseeable future as it cushions the eurozone’s economic recovery. In contrast, Federal Reserve officials have signaled they are on track to begin reversing their easy-money policies later this year.

A takeover of Morrisons by either of its two suitors could "materially weaken" the security of the supermarket's pension schemes if no additional protection were agreed, the trustees said in a letter to the company published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The British retailer is at the heart of a $9.5 billion bidding war between U.S. private equity groups Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) and a consortium led by SoftBank owned Fortress Investment Group.

Country Garden Holdings Co.’s half-year profit rebounded as China’s largest residential developer by sales pointed to an uncertain outlook with curbs on property prices escalating in the world’s second-biggest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Core net profit, which adjusts for property revaluations, gained 4.2% to 15.2 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier, the Foshan-based company said Tuesday. Revenue surged 27% to 235 billion yuan.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to introduce a two-year ban on foreign home buyers to tackle housing affordability in Canada if he’s re-elected, Bloomberg News reported. The proposed restriction is an attempt to cool a housing market that has soared during the Covid-19 pandemic. Surging prices have become a central issue in the campaign for the Sept. 20 vote, in which Trudeau hopes to regain a majority in parliament, with all three major parties promising crackdowns. “You shouldn’t lose a bidding war on your home to speculators.

Indonesia's central bank will purchase government bonds worth up to 439 trillion rupiah ($30.46 billion) in 2021 and 2022 to provide cheaper financing for the government's COVID-19 relief measures, senior officials said, Reuters reported. The fiscal deficit financing scheme is similar to an agreement Bank Indonesia had with the finance ministry last year to fund ballooning health care and welfare bills amid the pandemic, which authorities said was a one-off measure. Investors and economists have raised concerns about the scheme's effects on inflation and the rupiah.

South Africa’s finance industry recorded the largest decrease in employment in the second quarter, pushing the nation’s jobless rate to the highest in the world, Bloomberg News reported. The number of people employed in the finance industry plunged by 278,000 to 2.25 million in the three months through June, Statistics South Africa said in a report released Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. The official unemployment rate rose to 34.4%, the highest on a global list of 82 countries monitored by Bloomberg.

Half or more of Japan’s huge government debt doesn’t really exist. And even if it does, the country needs a lot more of it. Those are a couple of the arguments being heard in Tokyo as the rich world’s most-indebted government relative to its size prepares for a new round of spending this fall that could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported. Japan often serves as a tryout venue for policies that later debut on the world economy’s biggest stage, the U.S.

Britain's competition regulator said on Monday it has started its investigation into whether business information provider S&P Global's $44 billion purchase of London-based peer IHS Markit Ltd would hurt competition, Reuters reported. S&P Global last year agreed to buy IHS Markit, creating a new data powerhouse serving Wall Street and the corporate world. The Competition and Markets Authority said it has set a deadline of Oct. 19 for its phase 1 decision. The regulator had invited comments from interested parties in June.

Chinese bourses have halted more than 40 initial public offerings (IPOs) in Shanghai and Shenzhen amid a regulatory probe into several intermediaries in the deals, according to official exchange disclosures, Reuters reported. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange suspended more than 30 IPOs, including public share sale plans by BYD Co.'s chip unit, on Aug. 18, according to exchange filings. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has pressed the pause button on eight IPOs targeting the city's tech-focused STAR Market since Aug. 19.

Business activity in the euro zone grew strongly this month, only dipping from July's two-decade high monthly pace, as a rapid COVID-19 vaccination drive allowed more firms to reopen and customers to venture out, a survey showed, Reuters reported. Without ongoing supply chain disruptions, activity could have expanded faster, but fears new coronavirus strains may lead to renewed restrictions continued to dent optimism. IHS Markit's Flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index, seen as a guide to economic health, fell to 59.5 in August from 60.2 last month.