By Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton YICHUN, China (Reuters) – Down a steep dirt road from the Baishi Huashan lithium mine in southern China, trucks laden with silvery grey ore rumble towards a cluster of smelters in the valley below that have sprung up to cash in on the electric vehicle battery boom. The city…
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s top government spokesperson said on Thursday that volatile moves in the currency markets were undesirable and that authorities were closely watching the market and ready to take “appropriate” action as needed. “It is important for foreign exchange markets to move in a stable manner reflecting fundamentals, and excessive changes are undesirable,”…
BEIJING (Reuters) – Property investment in China fell at a faster pace in January-May, dropping 7.2% from the same period a year earlier, official data showed on Thursday, adding to concerns about the outlook for the world’s second-biggest economy. The figure compared with a 6.2% annual decline in January-April. Property sales by floor area declined…
SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s central bank cut the borrowing cost of its medium-term policy loans for the first time in 10 months on Thursday, in line with expectations, as Beijing ramps up stimulus measures to shore up a shaky economic recovery. The move comes just days after it lowered two key short-term policy rates, a…
By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand slipped into recession as the economy shrank in the first quarter, data showed on Thursday, reducing the risk the central bank would need to hike interest rates further but creating a new headwind for the government’s re-election hopes. Gross domestic product (GDP) matched analysts’ expectations of a 0.1%…
By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Laura Matthews NEW YORK (Reuters) – Options on several U.S.-listed Chinese exchange traded funds have drawn bullish flows in recent days as some traders take advantage of a slump in bullish sentiment on Chinese companies to place contrarian upside bets. The bullish trades occur as investors, who started this year…
By Laurie Chen BEIJING (Reuters) – Strikes at Chinese factories have surged to a seven-year high and are expected to become more frequent as weak global demand forces exporters to cut workers’ pay and shut down plants, one rights group and economists say. Exports and factory output in the world’s second-largest economy tumbled in May,…
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – A group of 17 music publishers sued Twitter in Nashville, Tennessee, federal court on Wednesday, accusing the company of enabling thousands of copyright violations by allowing users to post music without a license. Twitter drives user engagement with “countless infringing copies of musical compositions,” the lawsuit said. Members of the…
By Ariba Shahid (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s recently presented budget, a blow for the cash-strapped country which has only two weeks left until its bailout programme expires. Pakistan has barely enough currency reserves to cover one month’s imports. It had hoped to have $1.1 billion of…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday called on the U.S. government to urge India to end a media crackdown and release six detained journalists. A statement from CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg ahead of a state visit to Washington next week by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there had been an…
