LONDON (Reuters) – British consumers’ spending on credit and debit cards slipped back slightly in the week to March 10 to match its average level in February 2020, weekly Bank of England CHAPS data published by the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday. Retail footfall in the week to March 12 was up 3%…
(Fixes typo in paragraph two) By Kantaro Komiya and Ju-min Park TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will impose sanctions on 15 Russian individuals and nine organisations, it said on Friday, among them defence officials and the state-owned arms exporter, Rosoboronexport. The sanctions, which include the freezing of assets, are Japan’s latest measures since Russia’s invasion of…
(Reuters) – The recent surge in COVID-19 cases across China is likely to have a minimal impact on the country’s GDP this year, two brokerages said in their reports, while adding it could hurt demand for some commodities. China reported 2,388 new local cases with confirmed symptoms on March 17, almost double the count a…
By Anshuman Daga, Pamela Barbaglia and Andres Gonzalez SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) – Global infrastructure funds have approached Vodafone to invest in its $16 billion mast company Vantage Towers but the telecoms giant’s preference is for an industry merger, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The bidders, which include investment firms Brookfield and Global Infrastructure Partners…
A look at the day ahead in markets from Dhara Ranasinghe. The end of the week is in sight and one thing is clear, central banks increasingly appear to be on different paths and investors are not entirely convinced that it’s the right one. So even as the Federal Reserve kicked off its rate hiking…
TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday that it would suspend operations on 18 lines at 11 domestic factories next week, mostly for three days, due to a parts shortage from suppliers hit by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake this week. It did not provide an estimate for lost production in its statement. (Reporting…
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s big manufacturers’ business mood likely turned less optimistic in the first quarter, as firms struggled with supply disruptions and surging energy prices after Russia launched its war in Ukraine, a Reuters poll showed. Other data next week is expected to show core consumer prices in Tokyo likely rose at the fastest…
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese manufacturers began restarting production at some of the plants that were halted following an earthquake that jolted the country’s northeast late on Wednesday. Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd, the top global supplier of ceramic capacitors used in smartphones and cars, said it is restarting production on Friday at two of four factories that…
By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan maintained its massive stimulus on Friday and warned of heightening risks to a fragile economic recovery from the Ukraine crisis, reinforcing expectations it will remain an outlier in the global shift towards tighter monetary policy. The BOJ’s dovish tone is in stark contrast with the…
By Kevin Buckland TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar headed for its first down week in six versus major peers on Friday, languishing near a one-week low, as investors continued to assess the impact of the start of the Federal Reserve’s rate tightening cycle this week. The safe-haven greenback also lost traction – while the…
