Headlines

Bermuda-based offshore drilling company Seadrill Limited has announced that a new, independent, seven-member board of directors will assume leadership of the new parent company of the Seadrill group upon emergence from chapter 11, the Royal Gazette reported. The company said that it received confirmation of its plan of reorganisation on October 26 and is targeting emergence early in 2022. Julie Johnson Robertson is chairwoman of the board, and Mark McCollum will chair the audit committee.

The Turkish lira tumbled to a record low after the central bank cut borrowing costs for a third straight month, a move that risks further undermining price stability while eroding what little confidence investors had in the nation’s policy makers, Bloomberg News reported. The lira fell as much as 6% to 11.3118 against the dollar, the biggest decline in eight months. Officials cut the one-week repo rate by 100 basis points to 15%, in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, and said they would consider ending the easing cycle next month.

Inflation could "become more sticky" in some parts of the world if supply chain disruptions continue or inflation expectations become de-anchored, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday, Reuters reported. In the United States, the world's largest economy, inflation is expected to move down in 2022, but policymakers should remain vigilant given upside risks, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told a regular briefing. "Continued high levels of U.S. inflation may necessitate a more front-loaded policy response, which would pose a systemic downside for both the U.S.

The European Commission said Thursday that it could approve aid to fund production of semiconductors in the 27-nation bloc amid a global chip shortage and intense worldwide competition to fill the need, the Associated Press reported. The EU’s executive arm expects that the scarcity of semiconductors — a key component in everything from smartphones to cars — will last, affecting the region’s economy. Automakers have been among the hardest hit by the shortage, which has slowed or halted production.

Surging inflation and rising bond yields are set to offer a shot in the arm for Canadian banks' profit margins, which have languished during the pandemic, but an aggressive response by central banks could derail a nascent lending recovery and increase defaults, investors and analysts said, Reuters reported. Canadian banks' loan growth outside of mortgages all but disappeared during the pandemic as lockdowns and surging deposits slowed consumer and business borrowing. Although spending has increased after lockdowns were lifted, that has so far failed to translate into robust credit growth.

Commentators are contemplating whether we’re witnessing a bubble in EVs and whether investors are taking big risks by betting on Tesla at these levels, or by piling into unproven challengers, Bloomberg News reported. Consider the wager investors just made on a Munich-based business that’s been trying for years to commercialize solar electric vehicles. Sono Group went public Wednesday at $15 a share and more than doubled in its debut. Along with Rivian, Lucid and last year’s EV stock entrants Nikola and Lordstown Motors, Sono made its market debut before reporting revenue.

German prosecutors have widened their investigation at automotive supplier Continental AG to include former Chief Executive Elmar Degenhart and finance chief Wolfgang Schaefer, whose surprise departure was announced late on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The car parts maker is one of the manufacturers under investigation on suspicion of hiding illegal levels of pollution following a regulatory clampdown on toxic fumes triggered by Volkswagen's 2015 admission that it had cheated emissions tests.

China plans to let property companies resume issuance of asset-backed securities, ending a three-month market freeze as authorities move to insulate higher-rated developers from an industrywide funding crunch, Bloomberg News reported. Financial regulators recently told Chinese exchanges that “high quality” developers can apply to issue new ABS to repay outstanding debt, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. A unit of state-owned developer China Resources Land plans to issue 520 million yuan ($81.5 million) of ABS this week.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a ban on debt packager referral fees in a bid to protect consumers, YahooFinance reported. The UK watchdog said on Wednesday that debt packagers – who are regulated providers of debt advice and refer customers on to other providers of debt solutions – should not be allowed to be paid a commission. Under the current setup, they rely on 90% of their income from referral fees paid by these other firms.

Inflation in Britain rose to its highest level in nearly a decade in October after soaring energy prices hit household bills, the New York Times reported. The Consumer Price Index rose to 4.2 percent from a year earlier, the highest since November 2011, and up from 3.1 percent in September, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. The price increases were more than twice the central bank’s target of 2 percent, increasing the likelihood that policymakers will go ahead with the interest rate increases they have signaled are coming.