Headlines

Denmark’s biggest pension fund, ATP, is taking a major hit on its 2.3 billion-krone ($324 million) stake in troubled battery maker Northvolt AB, Danish broadcaster DR reported, according to Bloomberg News. ATP is one of the largest owners in Northvolt with a stake of about 5%. The value of that holding “probably won’t be very far from zero,” the asset manager’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Praestegaard told DR in an interview, stopping short of giving a specific amount for the writedown. “By far most of the investment is gone,” Praestegaard said, according to DR.

A Tokushima-based startup that produced edible crickets has suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy after facing criticism over the use of its product in school lunches, it has been learned, the Japan News reported. Gryllus Inc. filed for bankruptcy at the Tokushima District Court on Nov. 7 with debts of about ¥153 million. The company had suffered poor performance after receiving criticism online due to the public’s resistance to the idea of eating insects.

China's industrial output rose 5.4% from a year earlier in November, quickening from October's 5.3% growth, signalling tentative stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy as recent stimulus measures start to gain traction, Reuters reported. Data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics beat expectations for a 5.3% rise in a Reuters poll of 26 analysts. Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, grew 3.0% in November, down from a 4.8% rise in October. Analysts had predicted a 4.6% expansion.

China's home prices fell at the slowest pace in 17 months in November, with the crisis-hit property market showing signs of stabilising in some major cities amid government efforts to revive the real estate sector, Reuters reported. New home prices were down 0.1% in November from a month earlier, the slowest decline since June last year, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data on Monday. Prices dropped 0.5% in October from a month earlier. In annual terms, new home prices fell 5.7% after a 5.9% drop the previous month.

The European Central Bank is likely to continue to lower its key interest rate as the threat of U.S. tariffs clouds already weak growth prospects, President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Policymakers at the eurozone’s central bank lowered the key rate for their third straight meeting Thursday. In a speech in Lithuania, Lagarde said further cuts are on the way. “The direction of travel is clear and we expect to lower interest rates further,” she said.

Germany's economic downturn eased slightly in December but business activity still contracted for a sixth month running, according to a survey published on Monday, Reuters reported. The HCOB German flash composite Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, rose to 47.8 from 47.2 in November, but remained in contraction territory. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 47.8. The business activity index for Germany's services sector rose to 51.0 in December from 49.3 in November, beating the forecast of 49.4. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Private-sector business activity in France shrank for a fourth month as the fall of the government over a budget dispute sapped confidence, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global’s Composite Purchasing Managers Index came in at 46.7 in December, staying below the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction. Still, it’s an improvement from last month and also a bit better than the median estimate among analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing and services also stayed in contractionary territory, though the latter exceeded expectations.

Pakistan cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in more than two years as easing inflation provides room for the central bank to boost growth, Bloomberg News reported. The State Bank of Pakistan lowered the target rate by 200 basis points to 13%, the central bank said in a statement Monday. All the 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the move, with 26 forecasting the exact measure. Interest rate has dropped to the lowest since April 2022.

Japan’s biggest bank apologized Monday for the alleged theft by an employee of more than 1 billion yen ($6.6 million) from customers’ safe deposit boxes, the Associated Press reported. The bank, formally known as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., said Monday that it was investigating and that verified thefts from about 20 of the 60 clients thought to have been affected amounted to 300 million yen (nearly $2 million). Compensation was being worked out, it said.

Thames Water is offering sweeteners to its most senior creditors in exchange for their support for its plan to raise £3 billion ($3.8 billion) of emergency cash, Bloomberg News reported. The beleaguered utility has modified its restructuring plan and has now offered to pay additional fees to the providers of its interest rate and index swaps, according to a statement by Thames Water on Friday. With these additional premiums the company is expecting — based on previous discussions — a sufficient majority of its derivatives counterparties to give the green light to its proposal.