Business

LONDON — Stock markets diverged on Thursday as traders digested stubborn inflation concerns, a mixed economic growth picture and a positive update regarding embattled Chinese property group Evergrande.

Europe's main equity indices edged higher in afternoon trading after gains across Asia.

Wall Street opened mixed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose.

The major US markets had closed lower for a second straight day on Wednesday as data showed the US consumer price index hit a 31-year high last month, putting fresh pressure on the US Federal Reserve to act to prevent inflation from running out of control.

Fed officials have insisted that the jump in inflation will be temporary as the global economy slowly returns to a semblance of normality next year.

Thursday's gains on the stock markets "would suggest investors are not too convinced the Fed will change course at its next policy meeting in December, even though inflation signals have really tested the central bank's 'transitory' term," said ThinkMarkets analyst Fawad Razaqzada.

"The market may perhaps give the Fed that extra bit of doubt just in case we might have seen peak inflation," Razaqzada said.

The prospect of a potential rate hike helped the dollar rise against other major currencies.

Oil prices rebounded after dropping over inflation concerns.

OPEC lowered its forecast for growth in world oil demand in 2021 due to weaker demand in major consumers China and India, and soaring energy prices.

While central bankers have sought to ease concerns over inflation, observers said the pain is far from over.

"We're going to see the inflation picture get worse before it gets better," said Sarah House at Wells Fargo & Co.

The growth outlook was also in focus as Brussels on Thursday raised its forecast for eurozone output this year.

At the same time, official data showed Britain's economic recovery slowed sharply in the third quarter on supply constraints as countries reopen after pandemic lockdowns.

London's FTSE 100 index, however, was up by 0.5 per cent in afternoon trading. 

Back in Asia, Bloomberg News reported that Evergrande had again stumped up the cash for interest on bonds, slightly easing concerns about its imminent collapse and potential contagion outside China.


BRUSSELS — Google lost an appeal on Wednesday against a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.8 billion) fine imposed by the European Union for abusing its search engine dominance — a big win for the bloc's anti-trust tussle with the tech titan.

The ruling by the Luxembourg-based general court confirmed the landmark decision taken by the European Commission in 2017.

The matter could be challenged again, however, if Google decides to turn to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice, for a final say.

"Today's judgment delivers the clear message that Google's conduct was unlawful and it provides the necessary legal clarity for the market," the European Commission said in a statement.

The case centres on Google's shopping service and is one of three against the search engine giant currently moving through the EU's drawn-out appeals system.

At the time, the fine was the EU's biggest ever. But it was later exceeded by a 4.3 billion-euro fine against Google over its Android smartphone operating system.

In its appeal, Google and its parent company Alphabet had argued the EU was "wrong on the law, the facts, and the economics" in the search engine case.

But the court said it dismissed "for the most part the action brought by the two companies, and upholds the fine imposed by the Commission".

It said that, by favouring its own Google Shopping service over rivals in its search result rankings and positioning, "Google departed from competition on the merits".

It rejected Google's argument that big online retailers had their own internet sites, saying that "those platforms are not on the same market" in which users go comparison shopping.

A Google spokesperson said the company will examine the ruling.

"This judgment relates to a very specific set of facts and while we will review it closely, we made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission's decision," the spokesperson said.

"Our approach has worked successfully for more than three years, generating billions of clicks for more than 700 comparison shopping services."

While Google was dealt a setback in the EU, the company fended off a separate legal case in Britain on Wednesday as the supreme court blocked a $4 billion class-action lawsuit accusing it of illegally tracking millions of iPhone users.

The Luxembourg ruling is a win for the EU's anti-trust supremo Margrethe Vestager, who burst onto the scene in Brussels by scrapping her predecessor's more conciliatory approach to the US Internet giant.

Vestager had lost in the same court in a different major case, against Apple and Ireland, in which her teams had ordered the iPhone maker to repay 13 billion euros plus interest to the Irish taxpayer. The EU has appealed that ruling.

The fine for Google came after seven years of investigation launched by complaints from other price-comparison services that saw traffic plummet against Google Shopping.

Experts believe that, if it is not overturned on later appeal, Google's similar forays into vacation rentals and job ads could be next in the EU commission's firing line.

Along with paying the fine, Google was told to remedy the problem identified by the EU case, even as the appeal moved forward.

The company tweaked its search display to give more prominence to rival shopping aggregators, as well as tourist and travel advice sites such as Tripadvisor and Yelp.

'Virtually invisible' 

But many rivals are deeply dissatisfied with Google's fixes, believing they do nothing to guarantee fair competition in search results.

"What really matters... is stopping Google from repeating its behaviour in the future and protecting European consumers," said Richard Stables, from price-comparison site Kelkoo.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said Google's "misleading and unfair practices harmed millions of European consumers by ensuring that rival comparison shopping services were virtually invisible".

"In light of the ruling, we ask the European Commission to ensure that Google does not abuse its dominance as a search engine by giving its own services preference in other areas," said BEUC Director General Monique Goyens.

The commission, the EU's anti-trust enforcer, is preparing legislation expected for next year that would impose tough rules on Big Tech.

One of the laws, the Digital Markets Act, sets a clear list of Do's and Don'ts for Internet "gatekeepers" that includes drastic limits on how Google, or other giants, can squeeze out rivals on their platforms.

WASHINGTON — New York financial regulators on Tuesday hit Dubai's Mashreqbank with a $100 million fine due to transactions with Sudan that violated US sanctions, officials said.

The fine was one of several actions by US regulators requiring the bank to fix lapses in its processes to ensure its overseas branches comply with US sanctions. 

The breaches involved the bank's London office handling payments through the US financial system without making clear they were going to a Sudanese entity, violating the 1997 sanctions Washington imposed on Khartoum for its support of terrorism, according to the documents.

The fine by the New York State Department of Financial Services "resolves the Department's investigation in illegal and non-transparent payments related to Sudan that Mashreqbank processed through financial institutions in New York state, including Mashreqbank's own New York branch, between 2005 and 2014".

Between 2005 and 2009, the bank processed prohibited payments totalling more than $4 billion, according to federal and New York state authorities.

The bank's "actions to circumvent those regulations were illegal and dangerous and will not be tolerated in an institution that has enjoyed the benefits of doing business in New York", Acting DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris said in a statement.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) also took action against the bank, with a "cease and desist order" that requires the bank to present a plan to correct deficiencies in its operations.

The Fed said the order "requires Mashreqbank to implement an enhanced programme to ensure global compliance with US sanctions administered by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)". 

Meanwhile, OFAC found the bank in violation of the sanctions "in lieu of a civil monetary penalty" since the company agreed to make changes and has cooperated with the investigation.

NEW YORK — US cybersecurity firm McAfee said on Monday it will be sold to a group of investors for more than $14 billion, just over a year after going public.

The consortium led by Advent International Corporation and Permira Advisers will pay about $12 billion in cash to acquire all of McAfee's outstanding shares, with the cost rising to more than $14 billion when the company's debt is added.

The investor group also includes Crosspoint Capital Partners, Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund.

The sale is the latest episode in the history of the company founded by John McAfee in 1987, the namesake of the antivirus software.

The firm once went public in 1992, then again in 1999 following a merger, before Intel bought it for about $7.7 billion and delisted it in 2011.

Following an integration process observers viewed as fraught, Intel in 2016 then spun McAfee off from its core business, keeping a large stake but handing control to investment company TPG Capital.

McAfee returned to the stock market again in October 2020, taking advantage of a buoyant atmosphere for the cybersecurity industry.

After several years of back-to-back losses, the company seems set to return to profitability this year.

The company's name remains associated with that of its founder John McAfee, who died last June at the age of 75 in a Spanish prison where he was awaiting extradition to the United States over tax fraud charges.

The entrepreneur and programmer, who before his death had become a kind of guru of cryptocurrencies, resigned from the company in 1994.

LONDON — World stock markets wobbled on Monday as investors balanced bright US jobs data against stubborn inflation concerns.

Nearing midday, London stocks turned flat while Frankfurt declined and Paris bobbed higher after a mixed showing in Asia.

The dollar diverged as dealers awaited vital US consumer price inflation data due Wednesday.

Bitcoin surged above $66,000 to near its record peak on feverish demand, as the combined value of all cryptocurrencies topped $3 trillion, according to data provider CoinGecko.

Oil rallied further after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers refused to heed US calls last week to ramp up output to meet a surge in demand.

"European [stock] markets have kicked off the week on a somewhat uninspiring note, with indices largely treading water off the back of a volatile week just gone," said IG analyst Joshua Mahony.

Markets had surged on Friday on blockbuster US job creation data, which showed recovery was well underway in the world's top economy.

Wall Street's three main indexes clocked up records last week after figures showed more than half-a-million new US jobs were created last month, with hiring rebounding as new infections fall across the country. Figures for the previous two months were also revised up.

However, optimism continues to be held back by worries about inflation, which has surged this year owing to a pick-up in demand, a spike in energy prices and supply chain snarls — forcing central banks around the world to start rowing back their massive pandemic-era support measures.

Adding to inflation expectations is Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that finally passed through Congress on Friday, giving the president a much-needed boost in his plan to push through vast spending measures to support the economy.

However, another proposal to stump up another $1.9 trillion for social and environmental programmes continues to languish.

The US jobs report was followed on Sunday by China saying exports had soared by a better-than-expected 27.1 per cent in October as factories kept goods flowing out despite power outages in recent months caused by emission reduction targets, the surging price of coal and supply problems.

TUNIS — Proudly displaying her freshly picked pomegranates, Tunisian farmer Sarah Shili says going organic is "the future of farming" — and as demand surges in North Africa and beyond, the sector is blooming.

Shili runs Domaine Elixir Bio, a 94 hectare farm near Tunis that produces organic-certified vegetable, fruit and cereal crops in a way she said "respects nature".

The farm's revenues have surged thanks to strong demand and the growth of online sales, multiplying five times in as many years to hit 100,000 euros in 2020.

That is despite the higher price of organic products in a middle-income country where many people's wallets have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and years of economic crisis.

Indeed, with export demand also on the rise, Shili says the main challenges are on the supply side. 

"We lack water, like all farmers, and to get organic seeds and plants we have to do everything ourselves," she said.

Despite the challenges, the sector has surged in Tunisia since the turn of the millennium.

In 2001, just 16,000 hectares were dedicated to organic farming — a figure that has multiplied 20-fold over two decades.

The number of producers and venders has grown at a similar pace to some 8,000, said Samia Maamer, in charge of organic products at the agriculture ministry.

Maamer said the sector has helped diversify the country's economy and now makes up 13 per cent of food exports.

Out of 250 categories of organic products grown in Tunisia, around 60 are exported — mainly olive oil but also dates, aromatic and medicinal plants as well as some vegetables and fruit.

Despite its small size, Tunisia ranks 30th in the world and first in Africa in terms of area certified for organic farming.

Maamer said that apart from its chronic water shortages, "the climate in Tunisia is very favourable" to the trade.

She added that only 5 per cent of the country's 2 million hectares of olive groves had been treated with pesticides, meaning the remainder could potentially win organic certification.

"It's a sector with ongoing and growing international demand," said Maamer.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people began increasingly looking for organic products "because... they don't contain [artificial] chemicals", she added.

While there is strong demand in the US and Europe for bio products, they are also gaining attention among 25-30 year-old Tunisians "who are well-informed" about their benefits, she added.

As the market grows, Tunisia hopes that by 2030 the sector will contribute to help develop tourism, renewables and handicrafts, she said.

Bio farming is also on the rise in Morocco, where the area of farmland certified for organic production has more than doubled since 2011 to reach over 10,300 hectares.

However, "that's far behind the potential of a farming country like Morocco", said Reda Tahiri, who heads a union for organic farmers.

The majority of the country's olive, citrus and almond groves are in the southern area around Marrakech and near the capital Rabat in the north-west.

But given the country's 300,000 hectares of aromatic and medicinal plants and the iconic argan tree, there is potential for going organic.

Moroccan authorities are trying to develop the sector with the Green Morocco Plan, which helps farmers cover the costs of getting certified.

For exports to the European Union to be labelled as organic, they must be inspected once a year by an EU-licenced certification agency.

Tahiri said certification for export to European or North American markets can cost up to 1,000 euros ($1,115) per hectare, annually.

"So the total cost of production is higher than in conventional agriculture, but without the producer getting any guarantees of higher prices for the products," he said.

As well as state help on these costs, Tahiri says that for the organics market to develop, "we need to raise awareness among consumers and ensure better profit margins for producers".

Morocco's agriculture ministry said it has prioritised organic agriculture and is hoping to reach 100,000 hectares of certified farmland by 2030, with 900,000 tonnes of produce per year — two-thirds of it for export.

By comparison, Algeria is trailing.

The semi-official economics and development think tank CREAD said that in 2013 just 1,200 hectares were being farmed organically.

Although there are no recent statistics, in the past few years some shops have been offering customers organic vegetable boxes delivered straight from small producers.