Marketplace by Bloomberg - International Herald Tribune
Business news from Bloomberg Asia from The International Herald Tribune, the world's daily newspaper online.
- Online gambling dispute goes far beyond Antigua and U.S.
The World Trade Organization is to decide soon on a demand from Antigua and Barbuda for $3.4 billion in annual compensation from the United States, whose law banning Americans from wagering on Internet gaming sites was ruled illegal by the WTO in 2005. - BP exhausts $1.6 billion reserve for explosion claims
BP reached out-of-court settlements of all death cases and most serious-injury claims before the current trial, where workers are seeking $1 billion. It said it faced unknown costs for the remaining claims. - Mizuho quits market for U.S. CDOs
Sales of collateralized debt obligations have plunged as U.S. homeowner defaults sparked unprecedented downgrades and record bank write-downs. - Schwab attracts $12.1 billion as rival E*Trade loses clients
Investors pulled $6 billion out of E*Trade last month, reacting to a report by a Citigroup analyst who said the company faced a 15 percent chance of bankruptcy because of mortgage-related losses. - Canadian commercial paper remains frozen
A group representing investors holding about $35.5 billion worth of frozen asset-backed commercial paper missed a second deadline for restructuring the debt into longer-term notes. - Does more data yield better investment decisions?
Academic research shows that more information does not necessarily imply better information. - Movers: Companies in the news
The board of Harvard Bioscience has unanimously rejected an unsolicited offer from the company's largest shareholder, Skystone Advisors, which offered to buy the company, a maker of drug-discovery tools, for $5 a share.
- Shakers: Business personalities in the news
David Kessler, a former U.S. drug regulator, said he was fired as dean of the Medical School at the University of California at San Francisco after pointing out that a university fund had $100 million less than he was told it would have when he joined the school.
- World economy faces double threat of recession and inflation
The U.S. housing slump, coupled with a tightening of credit by banks, has brought the U.S. economy "close to stall speed," according to Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, even as energy and food prices rise worldwide. - Ailing Raptor hedge fund losing clients
Raptor had about $8 billion in assets before the withdrawals of more than $1 billion. The fund dropped 3.1 percent in November. - Insider buying hints at a rebound for retail
Consumer confidence is falling, the odds of a recession have risen, analysts predict the worst holiday shopping since 2002 - and retail industry executives are buying their companies' shares like never before. - Inflation is the focus as dollar recovers
The dollar rose against the euro and yen last week as growing inflation reduced bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve would lower borrowing costs next year. - Spread widens between Japanese and U.S. 10-year bonds
The difference in yield between Japanese and U.S. 10-year bonds climbed last week to the widest in a month on signs that inflation was a bigger threat in the United States than in Japan. - Wheat hits record as weather threatens Argentine crop
Wheat rose to a fresh high as a dry spell threatened crops in Argentina and renewed concern that the world's farmers might fail to deliver enough. - More data not always the best
Academic research shows that more information does not necessarily imply better information for investing - except perhaps when computers are used to process the data. - Gulf Finance to build Indian business park
Gulf Finance House, an Islamic investment bank based in Bahrain, announced a $10 billion investment on building an energy, telecommunications and software city to tap demand in India for offices and homes. - Mizuho stops trading and sale of U.S. CDOs
Mizuho Financial, the second-biggest Japanese bank by assets, last week stopped trading and helping create U.S. collateralized debt obligations containing asset-backed securities or high-yield corporate loans. - Tenaga pushes for price increases
Tenaga Nasional, the biggest power utility in Malaysia, wants the government to let it raise electricity prices every year for a decade to compensate for a planned reduction in fuel subsidies. - China to be a top market for Eli Lilly
The drugmaker is set to have most of its non-U.S. sales in China in 10 years as demand there rises for drugs to treat diseases like diabetes and depression. - ICICI and Indian investors buy stake in commodity bourse
ICICI Bank's venture unit led Indian investors buying 9.55 percent of Multi Commodity Exchange of India, securing a share in the third-biggest gold bourse in the world before the government sets rules for foreign stakes. - The (unavoidable) rise of the baht
Letting the baht rise is a nod to the reality that, like it or not, Asian currencies are in demand. For all the Thai efforts to cap the baht, the most likely direction for Asian exchange rates and equities is up.