Headlines

Japan’s industrial output contracted in November and partially reversed the previous month’s gain, while retail sales slowed sharply as increasing global risks drag on demand and threaten the country’s export-reliant economy, Reuters reported. The 1.1 percent month-on-month fall, pressured by a pullback in production of general purpose machinery, compared with a median market forecast of a 1.9 percent decline, following a 2.9 percent increase in October, the data showed. While the latest figure was better than expected, the outlook pointed to a bumpier road for Japanese manufacturers.

E-commerce giant JD.com Inc. is revamping operations in what analysts said is a bid to calm investors about the company’s plunging stock price and heavy reliance on its founder, the Wall Street Journal reported. JD Mall, the company’s main revenue-generating unit, will be restructured into three business departments, according to an internal document seen by the Journal. Responsibilities will be divided into platforms directly serving customers, business support services and infrastructure control and risk management, the document said.

The latest investigation by Tokyo prosecutors into Nissan Motor Co.’s Carlos Ghosn centers on his relationship with a Saudi Arabian businessman, Khaled Al Juffali, who runs part of Nissan’s Middle East business, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some of the people said that payments by Nissan to a Juffali company — on which prosecutors have cast suspicion — were for legitimate business purposes. Ghosn was initially arrested in Tokyo on Nov. 19 and charged Dec. 10 with underreporting his income on Nissan’s financial statements.

Russian aluminum company Rusal said today that it has appointed independent non-executive director Jean-Pierre Thomas as its new chairman as part of an agreed restructuring in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported. The previous chairman, Matthias Warnig, stepped down earlier this week after six years at the world’s largest aluminum producer outside China. His resignation was a condition of the deal.Jean-Pierre Thomas was elected by the board as chairman with effect from Jan. 1, Rusal said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said yesterday that rising protectionism and trade wars and the unpredictability of the U.S. administration have greatly contributed to global oil price volatility over the past two years, Reuters reported. Oil prices have been volatile, falling by more than a third this quarter, partly due to rising oil production in the U.S. “All these uncertainties, which are now on the market: how China will behave, how India will behave... trade wars and unpredictability on the part of the U.S. administration...

U.S. cannabis retailer Green Growth Brands Ltd. is planning to launch a hostile takeover bid for Aphria Inc. that values the Canadian marijuana producer at almost C$2.8 billion ($2.1 billion), Bloomberg News reported. Columbus, Ohio-based Green Growth plans to offer C$11 per share in an all-stock bid for Aphria, according to a statement Thursday. That’s a 46 percent premium over Aphria’s closing price on Monday.

Argentina bond investors couldn’t catch a break in 2018, with yields on the country’s debt soaring even after the government took out a record $56 billion credit line with the International Monetary Fund in an effort to bolster public finances, Bloomberg News reported. The average yield on sovereign notes from the country has almost doubled this year to 11 percent, and now tops the 10.9 percent rate on overseas securities from much smaller Ecuador, which has the dubious distinction of having the second-most defaults in the world since 1800.