Chinese e-tailer JD.com on Thursday relaunched its Paipai online marketplace, opening a new front in its escalating battle against the country's e-commerce market leader Alibaba Group Holding. Paipai's relaunch marks the first time that JD.com, the No 2 player by market share, has directly taken on Alibaba's core e-commerce offering, Taobao. Paipai and Taobao both provide an online marketplaces for consumers and small businesses to sell goods to one another.
Updated 6 Years ago

Reuters - Tesla Motors Inc said on Wednesday it will name its planned small car, intended to move the electric car maker into a broader consumer segment, the Model 3. The vehicle will go on sale in 2017 and compete with BMW's 3 Series sedans. The Model 3 will be priced starting at $35,000, or half the starting price of Tesla's first mass-market car, the Model S sedan.
Updated 6 Years ago

President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on some of Russia's biggest firms for the first time, striking at the heart of Vladimir Putin's powerbase by targeting companies closest to him over Moscow's failure to curb violence in Ukraine. In the latest escalation of the conflict on the Ukrainian-Russian frontier, Kiev said a Russian jet had shot down one of its warplanes, its strongest accusation yet of direct Russian military involvement in the war. A Ukrainian military spokesman said the pilot of the SU-25 fighter ejected to safety.
Updated 6 Years ago

Hong Kong's leader formally asked Beijing to allow electoral reform, paving the way for a city-wide leadership election in the free-wheeling Asian financial hub in 2017. The devil remains in the details, however, with Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying offering no firm proposal and the city's democrats fearing they will be shut out of the poll once Beijing's Communist Party leadership approves an election plan.
Updated 6 Years ago

US stocks fell sharply lower today, with the S&P 500 posting its biggest one-day percentage drop since April 10 on news that a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet crashed near the Ukraine-Russia border. Investors sold stocks in a move to avoid risk and poured some money into safe-haven investments like gold and US government bonds as the crash stoked concerns that the conflict in Ukraine might widen after US sanctions against Russia were announced late Wednesday.
Updated 6 Years ago

Copper slipped to a 16-day low on Thursday on concerns over Chinese financial markets. The red metal closed at US$3.189/lb in London, down more than three cents to finish at its lowest point since July 1. The fall comes amid worries over Chinese financing capabilities after a local construction firm said it may default on a 400mn yuan (US$64.5mn) payment on the nation's bond market, as well as news that Industrial & Commercial Bank of China has applied for the right to not settle a letter of credit in response to a fraud investigation at China's Qingdao port.
Updated 6 Years ago

India is seeking bids from banks to help sell a stake valued at 177 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) inOil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), the nation’s biggest energy explorer. The government asked banks to submit documents by Aug. 6, according to a notice on the disinvestment department’s website in New Delhi yesterday. Companies are required to quote the fee they will charge to manage the sale. As many as five banks will be hired, the department said.
Updated 6 Years ago

The Federal Reserve may have to raise rates more quickly than planned as unemployment falls and inflation quickens, said James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed. “If macroeconomic conditions continue to improve at the current pace, the normalization process may need to begin sooner rather than later,” Bullard said in a speech today in Owensboro,Kentucky. He doesn’t vote on monetary policy this year.
Updated 6 Years ago

Junk bond investors have had enough of borrowers in Europe eroding safeguards as sales of the high-yield, high-risk debt surge to a record $110 billion. Representatives from at least six firms met in London last week with the Association for Financial Markets in Europe to discuss reinforcing language in documents governing bond sales that protect investors, according to Gary Simmons, director of the group’s high-yield division. Legal & General Investment Management, Castle Hill Asset Management and Pioneer Investments are among money managers listed as members, according to AFME.
Updated 6 Years ago

The new US sanctions against Russian energy and banks have stolen headlines, but the companies have all made statements that damage will be minimal. The sanctions stipulate the companies cannot use US financial institutions for any loans over a 90-day period, limiting them only to only short-term lending, effectively blocking them from the US debt market. However, this is the most severe punishment: the sanctioned will still be able to participate in dollar clearing as well as trading with US entities.
Updated 6 Years ago