Author: Press Room

One thing to start: Happy New Year everyone! I’m Brooke Masters, the US financial editor. Harriet Agnew is on a much deserved sabbatical, so Laurence Fletcher, the FT’s hedge fund correspondent, and I will be taking turns writing the newsletter for the next month. Ten trends to watchNow that most people are back to work after the holidays, it seems like a good time to talk about the issues the industry will confront in 2023.Cost Pressures Rise: Many asset managers face a reckoning as falling markets force them to cut costs and make tough decisions about where to invest for…

CNN  —  A Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2026 would result in thousands of casualties among Chinese, United States, Taiwanese and Japanese forces, and it would be unlikely to result in a victory for Beijing, according to a prominent independent Washington think tank, which conducted war game simulations of a possible conflict that is preoccupying military and political leaders in Asia and Washington. A war over Taiwan could leave a victorious US military in as crippled a state as the Chinese forces it defeated. At the end of the conflict, at least two US aircraft carriers would lie at the…

Bollywood actor and promoter of the startup Ultraviolette Automotive Private Limited, Dulquer Salmaan (C) along with the founders, Chief Executive Officer Narayan Subramaniam (R) and Chief Technology Officer Niraj Rajmohan pose for a photograph during the unveiling of F77, India’s first high performance electric motorcycle designed and developed by the company, in Bangalore on November 13, 2019.Manjunath Kiran | AFP | Getty ImagesWhen most people think about electric vehicles, they think cars.From brands like Tesla and Rivian in the United States, to Nio and XPeng in China, global sales of electric vehicles have surged. Two million EVs were sold in…

CNN  —  Kevin McCarthy faces the first test of his capacity to cling onto power on Monday after he effectively gutted the House speakership of much of its authority so he could secure his dream job. McCarthy finally won the gavel on the 15th ballot early Saturday morning amid chaotic scenes after pleading with holdouts to relent and caving to the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus with repeated concessions. Now, the new speaker must manage his conference in his first order of business: Attempting to pass a package of House rules that is effectively a ransom on power required by his…

More than 7,000 nurses at two major New York City hospitals walked off the job Monday, arguing immense staffing shortages are causing widespread burnout and hindering their ability to properly care for their patients. The nurses say they are working long hours in unsafe conditions without enough pay – a refrain echoed by several other nurses strikes across the country over the past year. The union representing the nurses said an offer of 19% pay hikes isn’t enough to solve staffing shortages. This is the latest in a series of strikes in the health care industry in recent years. Those…

Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave the world its first look at the iPhone — as well as a glimpse into a radically different future of personal computing and communications — on this day in history, Jan. 9, 2007. “It’s not just the bestselling gadget ever created: It’s probably the most influential one, too,” Wired wrote in a 2018 retrospective of the first decade of the iPhone. “Its influence goes far beyond other phones — the infrastructure that made the iPhone also enabled drones, smart-home gadgets, wearables and self-driving cars.”ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JAN. 8, 1790, GEORGE WASHINGTON DELIVERS FIRST-EVER STATE OF…

Experts joke that some Russian-mined gold in British vaults “is so old it has double-headed Imperial eagles stamped on it”. Ownership shifted into non-Russian hands decades ago, they say. But investors are worried that Russian gold could be used for sanctions busting. The London Bullion Market Association is therefore registering it all.The anxiety of investors is apt. Gold is the currency of fear and distrust. The financial systems of the democratic west and authoritarian east are pulling apart amid mutual recriminations. That extends the potential role of gold for national reserves and for transactions where no questions need be asked.Investment…

Last year’s big drop in the share price of Tesla, Amazon, Apple and Facebook owner Meta has helped deliver bumper profits for investors betting against US stock markets in a sharp reversal of their recent fortunes.Short sellers — investors who believe an asset is overvalued and its price will fall — lost about $572bn in US markets between 2019 and 2021, crushed by low interest rates and a rapid asset price recovery from the outbreak of Covid-19. But last year produced aggregate profits from the strategy of $300bn, according to S3 Partners, a specialist New York-based consultancy that tracks short…

Rishi Sunak has revived efforts to secure London a role in the planned initial public offering of UK tech group Arm, after months of political turmoil in Westminster derailed an attempt last year.The UK prime minister met Arm chief executive Rene Haas last month in Downing Street, with Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, Arm’s Japanese owner, joining via video, according to two people familiar with the matter.SoftBank has previously indicated that it wants to list Arm, the chip designer that it acquired in 2016 for $32bn, in New York. The renewed London lobbying effort, which includes executives from the…

Hundreds of Tesla owners gathered at the automaker’s showrooms and distribution centers in China over the weekend, demanding rebates and credit after sudden price cuts, which they said meant they had overpaid for electric cars they bought earlier. On Saturday, about 200 recent buyers of the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 gathered at a Tesla delivery center in Shanghai to protest against the US carmaker’s decision to slash prices for the second time in three months on Friday. Many said they had believed that prices Tesla charged for its cars late last year would not be cut as abruptly…