Business

NEW YORK — Broad gains in the US equity market turned global stocks higher on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said a "great deal" could be struck with China that would relieve fears of a growing trade war between the world's two largest economies. 

The euro wallowed near a 10-week low of 1.1352 as the dollar climbed to a two-and-a-half-month peak against a basket of the world's top six currencies. 

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.31 per cent. Still, the index is down nearly 10 per cent for the month. 

Investors remained cautious despite the modest global gains.

"At this point, nobody can say the equity market is bottoming out. Global investor sentiment remains shaky," said Yasuo Sakuma, chief investment officer at Libra Investments in Tokyo. 

Market participants also kept hopes in check regarding trade.

"We don't see the trade war being resolved any time soon," said Rabobank's senior macroeconomic strategist Teeuwe Mevissen. "And it comes at a time when we see all the sentiment indicators in the euro zone but also in the US, too, cooling down."

Trump said during an interview with Fox News he thought there could be an agreement with China on trade, but said he had billions of dollars worth of new tariffs ready to be imposed if a deal was not possible.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 192.43 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 24,635.35, the S&P 500 gained 13.94 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 2,655.19 and the Nasdaq Composite added 37.58 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 7,087.87.

The gains were broad in the US, with all 11 sectors of the benchmark S&P index up for the day. Trade-sensitive industrial shares rose nearly 1.2 per cent in mid-morning trading. 

Meanwhile, data showed the Italian economy had ground to a halt in the third quarter as both domestic demand and trade flows failed to spur growth.

The flat reading was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2014 and renewed pressure on Italy's government debt in the bond markets.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.14 per cent.

The chill around China and global trade left emerging market stocks at an 18-month low, with MSCI's index down for a sixth day in a row. 

Oil prices fell more than 1 per cent in choppy trading on signs of rising supply and concern global economic growth and fuel demand would be hit by a deepening of the US-China trade dispute.

US crude fell 1.06 per cent to $66.33 per barrel and Brent was last at $76.30, down 1.34 per cent.

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 4/32 in price to yield 3.1 per cent, from 3.087 per cent late on Monday.

WASHINGTON — IBM said on Sunday it has reached a deal to buy open source software company Red Hat for $34 billion, among the biggest tech mergers in history which the computing giant said would enhance its cloud offerings.

If approved it will be the third biggest tech merger in history, according to business news site CNBC. Red Hat said it was the biggest involving a software company.

The deal will see IBM acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, more than $70 above the $116.68 at which Red Hat was trading on close of business on Friday.

"The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market," said Ginni Rometty, IBM's chairman, president and CEO. 

"IBM will become the world's number one hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses."

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing services, including storage and software, over the Internet to achieve economies of scale.

Hybrid cloud relates to the linking of public and private cloud platforms.

IBM's Rometty added that most companies are currently being held back in their cloud transformation due to closed platforms.

Once known primarily for its computer hardware, IBM has made cloud computing a priority in its growth strategy, like Amazon and Microsoft.

Over the past few years, the company has been refocusing on markets such as analytics, mobile and security, grouped under the banner of "strategic imperatives" and designed to offset the decline of its traditional activities. These now represent about half of its turnover.

 Feather in hat 

Adhering to the adage of not fixing what's not broken, Red Hat will continue to operate as a separate unit.

Red Hat will continue to be led by its President and CEO Jim Whitehurst and its current management team. Whitehurst also will join IBM's senior management team and report to Rometty.

"Today is a banner day for open source," said Paul Cormier, Red Hat's vice president and president of products and technologies. "The largest software transaction in history and it's an open source company. Let that sink in for a minute. We just made history."

Founded in 1993, Red Hat launched its famous version of Linux OS a year later, becoming a pioneering proponent of the open source movement that arose to counter giants like Microsoft whose models were based on keeping their source code secret.

The Raleigh, North Carolina based company is today present in 35 countries and employs some 12,000 people, and is one of the best-known open-source players whose customers pay for tailor-made solutions. 

The company achieved a net profit of $259 million in fiscal year 2018 on a turnover of $ 2.9 billion (up 21 per cent on 2017).

Cash payment 

Even for a giant like IBM, which had a $79 billion turnover for $5.8 billion in profits in 2017 — the amount is huge.

The company will be paying through cash and debt, as opposed to share exchange, but did not specify the proportions.

IBM predicted the move would accelerate its revenue growth, gross margin and free cash flow within 12 months of closing. 

The deal remains subject to Red Hat shareholder approval as well as regulatory approvals. It is expected to close in the latter half of 2019.

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board on Friday approved an increased loan package for Argentina worth $56 billion to help stabilise the crisis-battered country's economy and currency.

The IMF said the approval released $5.7 billion to the government immediately, but it also includes tougher conditions.

The country secured a $50 billion IMF loan in June, and had received $15 billion already, but as conditions worsened Buenos Aires had to go back to the lender for additional support with faster disbursement.

With the latest installment, the IMF has released just over $20 billion to President Mauricio Macri's government.

"Despite the challenging environment, the government has proactively strengthened its policy plans," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement.

Argentina's woes were brought on by a rapid loss of confidence in its currency from April, which exacerbated the downturn already underway due to the severe drought.

The peso has lost around 50 per cent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year, including 20 per cent in a two-day period in August after Macri announced he was seeking to renegotiate the IMF loan.

The beefed up three-year loan package requires government spending cuts and changes to central bank policy, including moves to choke off inflation and allowing the currency to move freely, but authorities will be able to intervene if the peso falls to steeply.

Macri has introduced hugely unpopular austerity measures, including halving the number of government ministries and restoring taxes on grain exports.

The IMF stressed that the package includes a "floor" on spending for social programmes. 

"Protecting the most vulnerable in Argentina continues to be a central component," and the government would "increase in spending on social assistance programs in the event that social conditions deteriorate", the IMF said.

Austerity budget 

The IMF loan announcement came the day after Argentina's lower house of Congress passed an unpopular austerity budget, which now goes to the Senate where it is expected to win final approval.

The final pre-dawn vote came after a marathon, rancorous debate and a day of unrest that saw police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators throwing rocks outside the legislature to protest a bitter cocktail of tax increases and spending cuts.

Macri has pledged to enact a series of cuts in health, education, science, transportation, public works and culture to the tune of $10 billion.

The budget deficit was 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year. The government aims to get it down to 2.7 per cent in 2018 and zero by the end of next year.

The IMF estimates the economy will contract by 2.6 per cent this year with inflation of almost 32 per cent.

An IMF official told reporters the deterioration of the currency led to a surge in the country's debt burden to 81 per cent of GDP. But as the peso stabilises and with the spending cuts the aim is to bring that down to below 60 per cent by 2023.

The official noted that the peso was overvalued and now was "much closer to fair value in terms of fundamentals".

The currency was trading at about 37.93 to the dollar on Friday.

Argentina's finance ministry has said the agreement with the IMF's executive board includes a commitment to maintain spending on social programs to more than 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product in order to protect the most vulnerable sectors.

More than 27 per cent of the population is listed as living below the poverty line and the South American country has an unemployment rate of 9.6 per cent.

ZURICH — Robots will make robots at a new ABB factory in China, which the Swiss engineering group said on Saturday it plans to build for $150 million in Shanghai as it defends its place as the country’s largest maker of industrial robots.

The factory, located near ABB’s China robotics campus, is due to be operating by the end of 2020 and will produce robots for China as well as for export elsewhere in Asia. China is ABB’s No. 2 market after the United States.

“Shanghai has become a vital centre for advanced technology leadership — for ABB and the world,” ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer said in a statement announcing the project. 

With the expansion, ABB is banking on Chinese robots sales defying concerns over trade tensions with the United States that some fear could dent demand for electronics, auto parts and other items that require automated manufacturing and robots.

China is expanding its robot workforce, as wages for human workers there rise and the country seeks to compete with lower-cost countries via greater automation. In 2017, one of every three robots sold in the world went to China, which purchased nearly 138,000 units, ABB said.

ABB’s new 6,700 sq.m factory will use software meant to allow people and robots to work safely in close proximity, the company said, adding its YuMi robots — designed to work side-by-side with people — will also be deployed on many of the small parts assembly tasks needed to manufacture an ABB robot.

Rival Kuka, taken over in 2016 by China’s Midea two years ago, has also been expanding in the country, including by building a robot park in Shunde near Hong Kong. 

ABB, whose industrial robots are used, among other things, to build automobiles as well as to assemble electronic devices, will build robots for numerous industries at the Shanghai factory, a spokesman said. 

It did not give a new employee count for the factory, but said it will boost robotics employment that now sits at more than 2,000 ABB workers in China. 

OTTAWA — Senior officials from 12 countries gathered in Canada on Thursday for talks to find ways of reforming the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and to address US grievances which are threatening the body's future.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is blocking appointments of WTO judges and has threatened to pull out of a grouping designed to ensure a rules-bound global trade system.

"It is clear the WTO is facing serious challenges," Canadian Trade Minister Jim Carr said in opening remarks to a one-day meeting that also groups the European Union, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Australia and seven other countries.

Absent from the meeting are the United States and China, whose escalating tariff war has thrown the future of the 23-year-old trade body into doubt.

Carr said the meeting was aimed at starting a conversation about possible solutions using a "bottom up approach".

He told Reuters before the meeting that Washington and Beijing were not invited because, "it only makes sense that you start with people who are more rather than less likely to land on some consensus items".

Delegates will discuss proposals from Canada and the European Union, including boosting the number of WTO judges and dealing with log-jams in the body's dispute settlement system.

They also will discuss rewriting trade rules for industrial subsidies, state-owned firms and technology transfers, potentially addressing some of Washington's complaints that WTO rules have given an unfair advantage to China.

Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said he wanted the meeting to demonstrate enough progress to make clear that many countries were determined to maintain a rules-based system. 

"I would hope that type of momentum is then seen by, for example, the US, as a positive demonstration that other nations hear their concerns about the way the WTO hasn't been working," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Jennifer Hillman, a former WTO appellate judge who is a Georgetown University law professor, said much could be gained from participants' efforts to reach consensus.

"If they can, it obviously puts pressure on the US, or China or both to figure out whether there's any part of this package that they can live with," she said in an interview. 

Stephen De Boer, Canada's ambassador to the WTO, said earlier this month that members "need to be realistic about how quickly this might happen and where it might lead us". 

BRUSSELS — Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday said the United States needed a federal privacy law because personal information was being "weaponised" against Internet users.

"We at Apple are in full support of a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States," Cook told a conference in Brussels.

Gossip, he said, had become a lucrative trade for the Internet giants.

"Today that trade has exploded into a data industrial complex. Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponised against us with military efficiency," Cook said.

"We shouldn't sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance," Cook said. "And these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect them."

Unlike Internet giants Facebook and Google, Apple's business model does not rely on the collection and commercial use of its users' personal data.

The company mostly sells hardware, but also increasingly streaming, payment and storage services.

Cook said a US privacy law should allow for personal data to be minimised and force companies to de-identify customer data or not collect this information in the first place.

Users should also have the right to know what data are being collected and what for, and get to decide what collection is legitimate, and which is not.

"Anything less is a sham," Cook said.

He applauded European Union work on the protection of privacy, especially its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

"We should celebrate the transformative work of the European institutions tasked with the successful implementation of the GDPR," he said.

"It is time for the rest of the world — including my home country — to follow your lead," Cook said.

The European Commission welcomed Cook's remarks, saying they indicated that the EU was on the right track in terms of data protection.

"If companies like Apple commit to taking data protection issues seriously and discovered this is something that also the consumer wants, then I think that this confirms once more that Europe got it right with the GDPR," Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters.

LONDON — An ugly start to European trading pushed world shares towards their lowest level in a year on Tuesday, as negative drivers from Saudi Arabia's diplomatic isolation to worries about Italy's finances and trade wars piled on the pressure.

Selling escalated from Wall Street into a heavy selloff in Asia before hitting Europe, which was facing a fifth day of uninterrupted declines.

The tech sector posted the worst performance after chipmaker AMS plunged 17 per cent as its outlook triggered alarm bells, but there was a broader force at play.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was near a two-year low with almost half of its stocks now in bear-market territory — down 20 per cent from their peak. 

Germany's DAX also fell to late 2016 lows, London's FTSE was down near April lows, and MSCI's world share index was just two points of a one-year low.

"This morning weaker stocks in Asia raised some eyebrows and overall sentiment is suffering from trade tensions, Italy to Brexit; a concoction of concerns," said ING strategist Benjamin Schroeder.

The euro also fell towards a two-month low and Italian bonds struggled before a European Commission meeting that could see Brussels take the unprecedented step of demanding changes to Italy's recently laid out budget plans. 

That has bred some doubt about the European Central Bank (ECB) raising interest rates next summer, leaving the euro at $1.4390. Doubts about Britain's prime minister, mired in a stalemate over Brexit, kept the pressure on sterling.

All that contributed to the risk-averse mood, with the safe-haven Japanese yen and Swiss franc strengthening while higher-yielding currencies like the Australian and New Zealand dollars fell.

"The prospect of a normalisation of [ECB] monetary policy was the main reason why the euro was able to appreciate over the past year. However, there is a rising risk that this support is now going to crumble," Commerzbank analyst Thu Lan Nguyen said.

Saudi tensions 

Markets were also waiting for Turkey's president to reveal his country's take on the killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul this month.

Saudi Arabia, a top crude oil exporter, faces international pressure to provide all the facts about an incident that has raised a global storm and added the threat of sanctions against the kingdom to a list of market concerns.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was not satisfied with what he had heard from Saudi Arabia about the killing, but expressed reluctance to punish the kingdom economically.

Investors worry that may lead to Saudi retaliation through crude oil, although a Saudi pledge to play a "responsible role" and keep markets supplied held down crude prices on Tuesday.

Front-month Brent crude oil futures were at $79.51 a barrel, down 0.4 per cent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $69.12 a barrel, dropping 0.35 per cent.

Asia's overnight tumble gave back some of the ground the region had clawed back over the last two sessions.

MSCI's broadest index of Asian shares dropped 2 per cent to a 1.5 year low, with declines in many of the region's heavyweight bourses even more pronounced.

South Korea's Kospi and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both fell 3 per cent and Japan's Nikkei lost 2.7 per cent.

"We've got a few negative factors when market sentiment was already fragile," said Hiroyuki Ueno, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management. "And earnings from some Japanese companies were weaker than expected, with some starting to blame trade wars."

The yen gained 0.4 per cent amid the risk-off mood to 112.42 to the dollar.

The yuan was little changed, but stood near Monday's 21-month low of 6.9445 per dollar in the onshore trade on expectations China will pursue looser monetary policy to cope with pressure from US President Donald Trump on tariffs.

THE HAGUE — Dutch electronics giant Philips, which is focusing its business on medical equipment and services, on Monday posted higher third quarter sales but profits dipped due to currency headwinds.

Sales rose 4 per cent to 4.3 billion euros ($4.9 billion) year-on-year and orders for the Amsterdam-based group’s medical diagnostic and treatment machines grew 11 per cent.

Net profit in the three months to September fell to 292 million euros from 423 million euros a year earlier.

“While I am pleased with the continued strong 11 per cent order intake growth in the quarter, operational improvements were partly offset by foreign exchange headwinds,” Philips Chief Executive Frans van Houten said.

Philips Chief Financial Officer Abhijit Bhattacharya told a teleconference Philips was particularly hit by falls in the Turkish lira and Argentine peso.

Best known for the manufacture of light bulbs, electrical appliances and television sets, Philips has gradually pulled out of these activities in face of fierce competition from Asia.

It focuses now more on high-end medical and health technology, such as computer tomography and molecular imaging, as well as household appliances.

The group, which sold its first light bulb a few years after it was founded in 1891, moved to list its Philips Lighting division, now known as Signify, in mid-2016 which joined the Amsterdam stock exchange, the top-tier AEX, in March this year.

Philips reiterated its objective of increasing sales by 4-6 per cent in the 2017-2020 period.

The group, however, said in view of growing tensions in international trade, it planned to promote local production further, for instance in China, to try to avoid the fallout from tit-for-tat trade wars between Beijing and Washington.

“It’s good to know that Philips distributes production activities in a uniform way around the world, with about one-third in Europe, one-third in China and one-third in the US,” Philips spokesman Ben Zwirs told AFP.

“This creates flexibility.”

PIRAEUS, Greece — Chinese shipping giant Cosco on Friday said it has ambitious plans for the Greek port of Piraeus, including boosting already-bustling container and car piers and a five-star hotel expansion.

The Chinese company bought the port, one of Europe's busiest, a decade ago, just before Greece plunged into a debt crisis that is still weighing on the country's finances.

"We do our best to improve the infrastructure to give a good image of our port," Piraeus Port authority CEO Captain Fu Chengqiu told reporters.

"Piraeus gives the...fastest possible connection" between the Far East and Europe, added deputy CEO Angelos Karakostas.

Cosco has already spent close to a billion euros ($1.15 billion) on Piraeus over the past decade, officials said, and plans to add another 298 million euros over the next five years.

To do that, however, they need the Greek government to approve a master plan that should have been finalised in June.

The company now hopes for a breakthrough in early November.

Karakostas said PPA also wants to remodel three derelict buildings as five-star hotels, and build a fourth from scratch.

"We have seen [hotel operators and investors] and there is great interest," he said.

Cosco has already spent some 580 million euros to acquire, modernise and expand the port's container terminals, which in 2017 handled over four million TEU, or 20-foot equivalent containers.

"Last year we were in third position in the Mediterranean following Valencia and Algeciras. This year, based on the current trend, we consider we'll be either second or first," Karakostas said.

Meanwhile, the port's car pier took in 430,000 cars in 2017, a figure expected to rise to 460,000 in 2018.

An ongoing upgrade to Greece's rail network, parts of which are still single-track and not fully electrified, will further help goods traffic. 

Cosco in 2008 acquired the port's two main container terminals for 35 years. In 2016 it also took over the Piraeus Port authority — and the third remaining container terminal — until 2052. 

The port also has 11 cruise berths — already among the most expansive in the Mediterranean — and plans to add two more for larger new generation ships in a bid to make Piraeus a cruise home port.

Over 16 million people took passenger ferries from Piraeus to the picturesque Greek islands last year.

Local authorities had in the past expressed misgivings about an all-out sale of the port, and local unionists had protested about low wages and working conditions on the Cosco-run docks.

Karakostas on Friday said the PPA had signed a labour agreement last year with the largest local union, and was currently negotiating contracts with two more unions.

LONDON — Tens of thousands of supporters of the European Union began marching through London on Saturday as part of what organisers say will be the largest ever demonstration to demand that the British government holds a public vote on the terms of Brexit.

The protesters waved the blue and gold flag of the EU and held up “Bollocks to Brexit” banners under sunny skies to call for another referendum on the eventual deal on how Britain will leave the world’s biggest trading bloc.

The march comes as pressure builds on Prime Minister Theresa May over her negotiating strategy with just over five months until Britain is due to leave. There is, so far, no divorce deal and some rebels in May’s Conservative Party have threatened to vote down a deal if she clinches one.

James McGrory, one of the organisers of the march, said the public should have the chance to change their minds because the decision will impact their lives for generations.

“People think the Brexit negotiations are a total mess, they have no faith in the government to deliver the promises that were made, partly because they cannot be delivered,” he said.

At the march, demonstrators carried placards saying “Brexit is pants” and “time for an EU turn”. Members of parliament from all the main political parties are set to join the demonstration.

Organisers estimate that more than 100,000 people will take part. Crowds will gather near Hyde Park and pass Downing Street and finish outside of parliament.

The 2016 referendum saw 52 per cent vote in favour of leaving the European Union. But the past two years have been politically fraught as the government has struggled to agree on a plan and there are fears that Britain leave the bloc without a deal.

Some opinion polls have shown a slight shift in favour of remaining in the European Union, but there has yet to be a decisive change in attitudes and many in Britain say they have become increasingly bored by Brexit.

The prime minister has repeatedly ruled out holding a second referendum. The opposition Labour Party said last month they open to a second referendum with the option of staying in the bloc in certain circumstances.

Brexit supporters say a second referendum would trigger a major constitutional crisis.

“We had a vote, we voted to leave, the idea to have a second referendum would be incredibly damaging,” said Richard Tice, Vice Chairman of Leave Means Leave, which wants a clean break with the EU.

“People need to be under no illusions as to how people feel about what is a significant potential for a total betrayal of democracy in this country.”