Headlines

An Austrian court has thrown a wrench in attempts to restructure Signa Prime Selection AG, saying a creditor-backed plan to sell property held by Rene Benko’s flagship unit was “obviously not feasible,” Bloomberg News reported. The Vienna Higher Regional Court’s decision — which can be appealed — overruled an earlier approval of the plan, which envisions a protracted wind-down of the company under the supervision of a trustee.

China’s central bank has signed agreements with major brokers to borrow “hundreds of billions” of yuan worth of government bonds, a move analysts say is likely aimed at stabilizing plummeting long-term bond yields, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China has started to borrow medium and long-term notes from lenders, state media said Friday, now holds “hundreds of billions” of yuan worth of bonds. The central bank will borrow the bonds with no fixed term on an open-ended basis and sell them depending on market conditions, state media added.

Hungary’s stocks and currency fell after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government again resorted to its tactic of imposing special taxes on banks and other industries to plug gaps in its budget, Bloomberg News reported. It plans to keep current levels of windfall taxes on banks, energy and foreign-owned companies, despite earlier promises to lower them, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said on Monday. He said the measures would net the budget an additional 400 billion forint ($1.1 billion).

Israel’s central bank unveiled a new outlook that assumes the country faces a longer and more intense war, as it held interest rates for a fourth consecutive time, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Amir Yaron, speaking to reporters on Monday after leaving the benchmark at 4.5%, said officials now expect the conflict against Hamas in Gaza to wind down only in early 2025. The latest staff projections from the bank showed the key rate will probably be at 4.25% in the second quarter of 2025, a more hawkish path than implied earlier.

Hiring in Canada ground to a halt last month, pushing the unemployment rate to a fresh more than two-year high and taking some of the heat out of the recent surprise acceleration in inflation ahead of the central bank’s next rate decision, the Wall Street Journal reported. The job market was effectively stalled in June, with 1,400 jobs lost for the month, allowing the unemployment rate to climb 0.2 percentage point to 6.4%, Statistics Canada reported Friday. The result undershot market expectations for the addition of a modest 25,000 jobs and a unemployment rate of 6.3%.

Bank of England policy maker Jonathan Haskel signaled that he will vote to leave interest rates at a 16-year high in his final meeting next month, warning that a “tight and impaired” labor market will keep inflation too high, Bloomberg News reported. The official — who finishes his term on the Monetary Policy Committee at the end of August — said that he needs to see more evidence that underling price pressures are receding before backing cuts despite “encouraging signs” on inflation.

The International Monetary Fund is set to discuss a review of the fees it charges its biggest borrowers after some nations raised concerns that costs are becoming unreasonable due to higher interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. The IMF board, made up of a management official and 24 members representing the Washington-based crisis lender’s 190 countries, is set on Monday to weigh options to give nations a break on surcharges, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified without permission to speak publicly.

Bitcoin skidded anew on concern about possible sales of the token by creditors of the failed Mt. Gox exchange, fueling doubts about the remaining impetus in a crypto bull run that began last year, Bloomberg News reported. The largest digital asset slid as much as 5.2% on Monday to $54,313, some $19,000 below March’s record high. Smaller tokens such as Solana and Cardano traded higher. Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, which went bankrupt a decade ago after being hacked, is returning about $8 billion of Bitcoin to creditors in stages, spotlighting the potential for a wall of supply to come into the market.

Berlin-based food delivery giant Delivery Hero has warned investors it may "ultimately" face an antitrust fine of up to €400 million, Tech Crunch reported. The development, reported earlier by Reuters, follows unannounced raids by European Union authorities on the offices of Delivery Hero and its Spanish subsidiary Glovo back in July 2022 and November 2023. The EU did not name the companies at the time, though both confirmed the inspections had taken place.

Argentina’s Mercado Abierto Electronico and Matba-Rofex agreed to merge into a single exchange, creating the country’s largest futures and foreign-exchange market, Bloomberg News reported. The companies expect to make the announcement after the market closes on Monday. The new exchange will include agricultural transactions, peso futures against dollars and trading on bonds, including local treasury and central bank notes. Argentina’s foreign exchange and fixed income market volume has plummeted since the country reintroduced capital controls in 2019.