Posts by Mark Darwin
History is useless for Wall Street pros betting on stock rally
Investors have a challenge in betting on the usual stock market rally that tends to arrive after a presidential election: With the S&P 500 Index on track for one of its best-ever starts to a year, history cannot be a guide this time. Buying US stocks into year-end following a vote is the classic trading…
Read MoreCanadian dollar notches biggest weekly gain since August
THE heavily shorted Canadian dollar steadied against its US counterpart on Friday (Nov 22), with the currency holding on to a weekly gain as upbeat domestic retail sales data contributed to reduced expectations for Bank of Canada (BOC) interest-rate cuts. The loonie was trading nearly unchanged at 1.3975 per US dollar, or 71.56 US cents,…
Read MoreWhat forcing Google to sell Chrome could mean
US ANTITRUST lawyers are calling on a judge to force the sale of Google’s Chrome browser to limit the company’s market clout in a move that would shake up the internet giant. On Wednesday (Nov 20), the US Department of Justice submitted its recommendation for the breakup to US District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who…
Read MoreNvidia stock surge means CEO’s foundation must double giving
NVIDIA’S surging share price has created a challenge for Jensen Huang’s charitable foundation: As the stock climbs, so does the amount of money it has to give away. The Jen-Hsun & Lori Huang Foundation saw its assets, which mostly consist of Nvidia shares, more than triple to US$3.4 billion at the end of 2023, according…
Read MoreAdani CFO says US charges linked to only one business contract
A US bribery indictment of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is linked to one contract of Adani Green Energy comprising some 10 per cent of its business, and none of the conglomerate’s other companies are accused of wrongdoing, the group’s chief financial officer said on Saturday (Nov 23). On Wednesday, Gautam Adani, one of the world’s…
Read MoreProcter & Gamble doubles down on China’s TikTok to reverse sales slump
PROCTER & Gamble (P&G) has been revamping its marketing and line-up of influencers on fast-growing Chinese shopping app Douyin in recent months, helping its Pantene shampoo lead growth in hair care on the platform. The Cincinnati-based company’s investments in better packaging for Pantene in China, and improved marketing on how much to use, has led…
Read MoreSamsung ordered to pay US$118 million for infringing Netlist patents
A FEDERAL jury in Marshall, Texas, on Friday (Nov 22) awarded computer memory company Netlist US$118 million in damages from Samsung Electronics in a patent lawsuit over technology for improving data processing in high-performance memory products. The verdict follows a US$303 million verdict against Samsung for Irvine, California-based Netlist in a related case last year.…
Read MoreAmazon doubles down on AI startup Anthropic with another US$4 billion
AMAZON pumped another US$4 billion into OpenAI competitor Anthropic, as the e-commerce giant goes up against Big Tech rivals in a race to capitalise on generative artificial intelligence technology. This doubles Amazon’s investment in the firm known for its GenAI chatbot Claude, but it remains a minority investor, the startup said on Friday (Nov 22).…
Read MoreSingapore stocks end Friday in the black as GDP growth exceeds expectations; STI up 0.2%
SINGAPORE stocks rose on Friday (Nov 22) as the Republic’s economy exceeded expectations for third-quarter growth, prompting the government to revise the year-on-year growth for Q3 upwards to 5.4 per cent and adjust the full-year growth forecast for 2024 to around 3.5 per cent. The upgrade in growth forecast for the full year takes into…
Read MoreChina’s bottled water billionaire lashes out at Pinduoduo, ByteDance
One of China’s richest people has taken aim at tech firms ByteDance and Pinduoduo for allegedly harming him and Chinese brands. Zhong Shanshan, 69, and his bottled water company Nongfu Springs have been under heavy pressure thanks to a price war and online personal attacks from nationalistic internet users that wiped billions of dollars off…
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