Posts by Mark Darwin
European shares subdued as luxury stocks, miners weigh
EUROPEAN shares were subdued on Friday, limited by weakness in luxury and mining stocks in a dour end to a week dominated by the start to a busy earnings season alongside geopolitical jitters. The pan-European Stoxx 600 finished flat at 614.38 points, with the luxury index falling 3.2 per cent and logging its biggest daily fall since…
Read MoreGreat Marketing Is Broken—and I’m Fixing Access
Marketing shouldn’t be a luxury item. Yet for too many brands, that’s how it’s priced, packaged, and delivered. My view is simple: great marketing is unfairly out of reach, and the industry’s structure keeps it that way. That’s not just bad for startups and mid-market companies—it’s bad for the entire economy. More than a decade…
Read MoreJPMorgan eclipses Dimensional as world’s biggest active ETF firm
The bank’s asset management arm currently controls nearly US$257 billion in active ETFs worldwide [NEW YORK] JPMorgan Asset Management has a new superlative: The firm now hails as the world’s largest issuer of actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The bank’s asset management arm currently controls nearly US$257 billion in active ETFs worldwide, according to data…
Read MoreIntel extends comeback as investors bet on foundry growth
The stock is up 31% to start 2026, the third-best performance in the S&P 500 Index [NEW YORK] Intel’s dramatic rally to start the year shows investors are increasingly optimistic about the chipmaker gaining new foundry customers, putting it back into the artificial intelligence trade it appeared to abandon in 2024. The stock is up…
Read MoreSIA, Air India ink pact for commercial cooperation
The airlines are exploring ways to enhance privileges beyond the current Star Alliance and KrisFlyer programmes [SINGAPORE] Singapore Airlines (SIA) has signed a commercial cooperation framework agreement with Air India that will build on existing partnerships between the two carriers. In a joint release on Friday (Jan 16), the two airlines said that this latest…
Read MoreAsean agrees on guidelines for quicker subsea cable fixes
Bloc updates existing 2019 guidelines with international best practices, while also harmonising repair protocols [SINGAPORE] Asean nations have moved to standardise the maintenance of the region’s subsea cables, endorsing a Singapore-led framework that recommends capping the permitted processing time for subsea cable repairs at 10 days. The Enhanced Asean Guidelines for Strengthening Resilience and Repair…
Read MoreForward guidance: Why it matters and how to get it right
With clear communication on anticipated earnings and business strategies, listed companies can signal confidence and build credibility INVESTORS do not just focus on a company’s past performance; they also buy into its future. In a market where confidence drives capital, forward guidance – the practice of sharing credible statements about future performance and strategy –…
Read MoreK-pop, Chinese games to drive Asia tech sector growth: Macquarie
[SINGAPORE] 2026 is poised to be a boom year for the Asian Internet sector, as companies pivot from consolidation to aggressive monetisation and ecosystem integration. The resurgence follows two challenging years of model building and infrastructure catch-up against Western competitors, analysts from Macquarie noted in a report released recently. The research firm identified 13 top…
Read MoreJapan’s Katayama says all options open on yen, including joint action with US
[TOKYO] Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on Friday Tokyo would not rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility, including coordinated intervention with the US, as the yen stayed around an 18-month low against the dollar. The yen weakened to as low as 159.45 per dollar this week, its softest level since…
Read MoreSeatrium end-customer gets reprieve after judge rejects Trump’s wind farm ban
The wind farms are collectively worth US$25 billion, according to an offshore wind advocacy group [WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump’s attempts to torpedo offshore wind farms suffered a second blow this week when a federal judge ruled on Thursday (Jan 15) that construction for the US$5 billion Empire Wind project off Long Island in New…
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