By William James LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and South Korea will on Monday sign an agreement to reinforce pandemic-damaged supply lines for key products like semiconductors, with trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan due to host her counterpart Yeo Han-koo in London. The ministers will also begin work on an improved trade deal as Britain looks to…

By Shashwat Awasthi (Reuters) – Australia and New Zealand Banking Group on Monday joined rival Westpac in flagging lower margins and warned of a first-half hit from “softer” performance in its markets business, sending its shares to a near one-year low. ANZ did not disclose a profit figure for the quarter and said group net…

By Anshuman Daga SINGAPORE (Reuters) – After years of struggling to emerge from the shadows of regional rivals, Singapore Exchange is looking to establish itself as the hub for blank-cheque firms, riding on regulatory overhaul, support by state firms, and a tech boom in its back yard.     Encouraged by the flurry of Southeast Asian…

(Reuters) – James Hardie, the world’s largest fibre cement maker, on Monday raised its annual profit forecast for the fourth time this fiscal year, and guided to even higher earnings next year, driven by a boom in the housing sector in North America. New home sales in the United States, which makes up 70% of…

By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wild swings in stocks and a sharp run-up in government bond yields are putting the spotlight on next week’s U.S. inflation data, as investors brace for more volatility across assets. A turbulent week in markets ended with a surge in Treasury yields to their highest level in more than…

By Toby Sterling and Bart H. Meijer AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Klaas Knot, the Dutch central bank president and a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, said on Sunday he expects the ECB to raise interest rates in the fourth quarter of this year. In an interview on Dutch television programme Buitenhof, Knot, known…

BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen does not expect the global shortage of semiconductors to end this year although it should further ease slightly in the second half, a board member was quoted as saying by industry magazine Automobilwoche. “The volatile situation will affect us at least beyond the first half of this year,” Murat Aksel, the…

BERLIN (Reuters) – Luxury carmaker Porsche AG expects another record year for sales despite the global semiconductor chip shortage, its sales chief was quoted as saying by industry magazine Automobilwoche. “When I look at the current orders, I’m confident for 2022. Growth in sales could reach a similarly high level this year as in 2021,”…

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s GlobalWafers Co Ltd said on Sunday that funds for a failed 4.35-billion-euro ($4.98 billion) takeover of German chip supplier Siltronic would go into capacity expansion instead. GlobalWafers said in a statement it expected total capital expenditure to reach T$100 billion ($3.6 billion) between 2022 and 2024, including “substantial greenfield investments”. “While…