Trump admin to consider adding China's Ant Group to trade blacklist: Report

 

By Humeyra Pamuk, Alexandra Alper, Karen Freifeld and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has presented a proposition for the Trump organization to add China's Ant Group to an exchange boycott, as indicated by two individuals acquainted with the issue, before the budgetary innovation firm is scheduled to open up to the world.

It was not quickly clear when the U.S. government offices that conclude whether to add an organization to the alleged Entity List would survey the issue.

The move comes as China hardliners in the Trump organization are looking to make an impression on prevent U.S. financial specialists from participating in the first sale of stock for Ant. The double posting in Shanghai and Hong Kong could be worth up to a record $35 billion (27 billion pounds).

The most recent swipe at China additionally comes in the approach the Nov. 3 political race, in which U.S. President Donald Trump, following in the surveys against his Democratic adversary Joe Biden, has made an extreme way to deal with China a significant international strategy stage.

While the Alipay installment application is right now inaccessible for American clients in the United States, as indicated by a representative for Ant, Trump organization authorities dread the Chinese government could get to touchy financial information having a place with future U.S. clients.

An incredible security board known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) halted its $1.2 billion offer to purchase the cash move organization Moneygram in 2018 over public security hazards.

Asian indices drop as traders await US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech

Current Affairs

Equities stuttered in Asia on Wednesday as investors took a step back after recent gains, with focus now turning to a key speech by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Friday.
Rising hopes for China-US trade talks have provided a much-needed lift to markets over the past two days but with few fresh catalysts, dealers are keeping their powder dry ahead of Friday’s address.
After positive signals from US President Donald Trump and some of his top advisers on Monday over progress in the talks with Beijing, and an olive branch with the delay of a ban on Huawei purchases, there have been few developments for traders to buy on.
“Our trade-war headline inspired relief rally appears to have run its course as I suspect there is still a lot of nervousness among US investors as the global economic realities are just too hard to ignore,” said Stephen Innes at Valour Markets. Hong Kong added 0.2 per cent, Shanghai was barely moved and Tokyo ended down 0.3 per cent. Sydney fell almost one per cent, Singapore shed 0.3 per cent and Wellington was 0.9 per cent lower. Taipei finished flat and Seoul added 0.2 per cent. In early trade, London rose 0.5 per cent, Paris added 0.8 per cent and Frankfurt was
up 0.5 per cent.

The Fed released minutes of its July meeting later on Wednesday, which will provide an insight into its deliberations when cutting interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis. But Powell’s talk at the central bankers’ gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is the key event and will be closely pored over for clues about the bank’s plans for next month, with experts unable to agree on whether or not he will announce further cuts...Read More

Bengaluru, Gurgaon among top 5 locations in APAC for tech firms: Report

Economy News

Bengaluru and Gurugram are among the top 5 preferred destinations in Asia Pacific to set up offices by technology companies because of better business conditions as well as availability of engineers and real estate for growth, according to a report.

The report by property consultant CBRE said technology companies continue to fuel office demand in the APAC region, despite absence of any principal city or cluster of the same status as Silicon Valley. Technology sector accounted for 23 per cent of total leasing activity in 2018.The study has ranked 15 cities of Asia Pacific in three categories based on their performance with regard to business conditions, innovation environment, and cost and availability.

Business conditions and innovation environment were each given a weightage of 40 per cent while cost, a relatively less important consideration for tech firms, was given 20 per cent weightage.
"Leading cities are Beijing, Bengaluru, Shanghai, Singapore and Gurugram. These cities score highly in terms of business conditions and innovation environment, as well as providing costs and availability that are supportive for business growth," the report said.

These cities are preferred destinations for a wide range of traditional and new tech companies seeking to establish a base of operations in Asia Pacific.


 Hyderabad figures in the list of five competent cities along with Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tokyo and Seoul. These cities already host tech industry sub-sectors and demonstrate solid performance across most categories.Five 'supplement cities' are Hong Kong, Hsinchu, Sydney, Taipei and Auckland. These cities rate favourably on certain important aspects, but their most appropriate role is to serve as host for specific functions to complement larger hubs elsewhere in the region.

BMW to recall 360,000 cars in China over Takata airbags

Company News

Germany's BMW will recall 360,000 vehicles in China as part of the worldwide effort to root out defective airbags made by now-defunct Japanese supplier Takata, regulators in Beijing said.

Around 20 people have died in accidents linked to defects in Takata airbags since 2013, prompting a massive worldwide recall of at least 100 million cars from a wide range of manufacturers.
The recall will affect nearly 273,000 models built by BMW's joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Brilliance Automotive and more than 87,000 imported BMW cars, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said.

The agency said in statement posted on its website late Tuesday that a defect could cause the airbags to eject debris at passengers if deployed.

It did not mention any specific incidents caused by the BMW-installed airbags.

The China recall affects more than two dozen different BMW models built between 2000 and 2018, including several each in the i, X and M series, along with other models.

The suspect parts will be replaced for free, the notice said.Founded in 1933, Takata went out of business in 2017 because of the airbag crisis.The BMW announcement came as global carmakers were gathered for the Shanghai Auto Show amid a rare sales slump in the world's largest vehicle market.


 (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)