Headlines

The eurozone’s manufacturers are beginning to rein in spending and delay hiring plans as trade tensions between the US and China escalate, according to a poll of business sentiment, the Financial Times reported. The purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, fell to a four-month low of 54.2 in September, down from 54.5 in August on weaker export sales, according to a poll released on Friday. Separate readings showed that new orders fell to a two-year low and firms have become reluctant to take on new staff.

Germany’s powerhouse manufacturing sector extended its slowdown into September, early data showed on Friday, but its service sector bucked the trend with growth remaining robust, the Financial Times reported. The flash manufacturing purchasing manager’s index for the eurozone’s largest economy fell to a 25-month low to 53.7 according to IHS Markit, which compiles the data. That was a dramatic fall in the pace of growth reported by executives from the previous month, when the index stood at 55.9. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had only expected a very slight drop to 55.7.

Nasdaq's Nordic commodities exchange has reached agreement on the sale of assets belonging to a private trader who defaulted on his commitments last week, it said on Friday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Einar Aas, a Norwegian derivatives trader who made large bets on the power market, left a 114 million euro ($134 million) hole in Nasdaq's Nordic clearing house buffers when his funds ran out. Within just two working days of the default, members of the exchange, and Nasdaq itself, were forced to replenish the funds in order to continue trading.

When Chinese businessman Yuan Yafei met British Prime Minister Theresa May in Shanghai this February, he vowed to keep pushing for further economic collaboration between China and the U.K., where his Sanpower Group owned the 169-year-old department-store chain, House of Fraser. But only six weeks later, Yuan’s group was pulling back from the U.K., beginning a months-long bid to sell the retailer that had been battered by online rivals, a weakening pound and mounting costs, Bloomberg News reported.

One of India’s most acquisitive companies is buying up cement kilns across the country, going from big to bigger. It’s got the right plan, but who’s buying the cement and actually building? Ultratech Cement Ltd. is one of the world’s biggest cement manufacturers, with the capacity to put out 90 million tons a year from plants sprinkled across India, Bloomberg News reported. It purchased distressed assets from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. and is battling to buy even more out of bankruptcy. Ultratech is taking a smart tack in India’s fragmented cement industry: consolidation.

Dubai’s flagship airline Emirates is looking at taking over unprofitable neighbor Etihad, according to four people familiar with the matter, in a move that would create the world’s biggest carrier by passenger traffic. The talks, which are at a preliminary stage, would see Emirates acquire the main airline business of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, which would keep its maintenance arm, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is confidential, Bloomberg News reported. The negotiations could yet fall through, they said.

Turkey’s finance minister tried to rebuild shattered market confidence in his government’s ability to manage the economy by promising to cut public spending by nearly $10bn in a sweeping austerity programme that would put the brakes on growth, the Financial Times reported. The announcement by Berat Albayrak, who was put in charge of the economy two months ago by his father-in-law, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, comes just a week after a surprise decision by the central bank to sharply raise interest rates in the face of a mounting currency crisis.

Geopolitical tensions will take centre stage in London’s law courts after a legal ruling opened the door to a case that could have major implications for the sovereign debt markets, the Financial Times reported. The English Court of Appeal last week ruled that a $3bn dispute between Ukraine and Russia over the non-payment of bonds should go to a full trial.

Eurozone consumer confidence fell sharply in September to hit its lowest level in more than a year, in the latest sign of lingering weakness in the region’s economy, the Financial Times reported. A flash estimate showed the official consumer confidence indicator published by the European Commission dropped to minus 2.9 from minus 1 in August. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a smaller decline to minus 2. Confidence has not been below that level since May 2017.

Indian billionaire Rana Kapoor is being forced from the helm of Yes Bank, the lender he has led since founding it in 2004, as regulators tighten their oversight of the Indian financial sector, the Financial Times reported. The board of Yes Bank, the country’s fourth-largest private-sector bank by assets, had proposed that Mr Kapoor’s term as chief be extended until the end of August 2021. But the Reserve Bank of India has decided that Mr Kapoor, 61, may stay only until the end of January 2019, Yes Bank said in a stock exchange announcement, without giving further details.