News

September 28, 2021 By Kantaro Komiya TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan will lift a coronavirus state of emergency in all regions on Thursday as the number of new cases falls and the strain on the medical system eases, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said. The plan, approved by a government advisory panel, takes Japan as a whole out […]

September 28, 2021 By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian retail sales dived for a third straight month in August as half the population were trapped in coronavirus lockdowns, though reopening is in sight as vaccinations race toward world-beating levels. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed retail sales fell 1.7% in […]

September 28, 2021 By Joori Roh SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s central bank said on Tuesday it would raise its focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in managing its foreign currency assets and prepare guidelines to be applied to these assets going forward. To respond to growing demand for socially responsible investing, the […]

September 28, 2021 SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shares in Hainan Airlines, the flagship carrier of embattled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, rose as much as 5% on Monday, its maximum level allowed for the day, after it gave an update on its restructuring plans. Sources told Reuters on Monday that China’s HNA Group will receive strategic investment […]

September 28, 2021 By Renju Jose SYDNEY (Reuters) -Sydney residents who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 risk being barred from various social activities even when they are freed from stay-at-home orders in December, New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejkilian warned on Tuesday. Under a roadmap to exit lockdown in Australia’s biggest city, unvaccinated people […]

September 28, 2021 (Reuters) – Emma Raducanu’s outfit from her victorious U.S. Open campaign will be displayed at the Tennis Hall of Fame after the 18-year-old Briton became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam. Raducanu defeated https://ift.tt/38XjHT0 Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the Flushing Meadows final earlier this month to become the first British […]

September 28, 2021 By Paresh Dave (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp’s near-acquisition of social media app TikTok last year was the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on,” Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said on Monday. TikTok had been ordered by then-U.S. President Donald Trump to separate its U.S. version from Chinese parent ByteDance because of national […]

September 28, 2021 By Scott Murdoch HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian shares mainly drifted lower Tuesday as investors continued to fret over China Evergrande Group’s unsolved debt crisis and eyed the potential impact of a widening power shortage in China. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.13% lower on Tuesday, following a […]

September 28, 2021 By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Kepler Interactive, a game publisher co-owned and run by developers, on Tuesday said it got $120 million in funding from Chinese gaming firm NetEase Inc. The group, formed with seven gaming companies including Alpha Channel and Sloclap, plans to offer game studio founders to become co-owners, […]

September 28, 2021 BEIJING (Reuters) -More than a thousand robots are set to join the delivery personnel ranks of Chinese behemoths Alibaba, Meituan and JD.com over the next year as the pandemic fuels demand for contactless services. The firms expect to operate over 2,000 robots between them by 2022, up about four-fold from now, their […]

September 28, 2021 BEIJING (Reuters) – Profits at China’s industrial firms grew at a weaker pace in August from a year earlier, slowing for a sixth consecutive month, as manufacturers struggled with high commodity prices, COVID-19 and shortages in some key components. Profits rose 10.1% on year to 680.3 billion yuan ($105 billion) last month […]

September 28, 2021 By Yuka Obayashi TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil markets eased on Tuesday after a five-day rally as investors took profits on fears that higher prices may weaken fuel demand, though market sentiment remained firm amid tight supply. Brent crude futures fell 17 cents, or 0.2%, to $79.36 a barrel at 0121 GMT after […]

September 28, 2021 By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top Democrat and Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee have urged President Joe Biden to “ensure full accountability” over a World Bank data-rigging controversy that has embroiled International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva. The panel’s chairman, Senator Robert Menendez, a […]

September 28, 2021 By Sakura Murakami and Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) – LGBTQ rights activists are hoping that Japan may finally allow same-sex marriage if Taro Kono, who has publicly supported gay marriage, becomes the country’s next prime minister, but change will not come easily. Kono is seen as the leading contender to win the […]

September 28, 2021 By Kevin Buckland TOKYO (Reuters) – The yen traded near an almost three-month low to the dollar and reached a two-week trough versus the euro on Tuesday, as rising bond yields in the U.S. and Europe lured Japanese investors. The yen was little changed at 110.985 per dollar, not far from Monday’s […]

September 28, 2021 By Kanishka Singh (Reuters) – The East Asia and Pacific region’s recovery has been undermined by the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, which is likely slowing economic growth and increasing inequality in the region, the World Bank said on Monday. Economic activity began to slow in the second quarter of 2021, […]

September 28, 2021 SINGAPORE (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc and Royal Bank of Canada’s BlueBay Asset Management are among asset managers exposed to embattled developer China Evergrande Group, while TCW and HSBC funds have closed positions, researcher Morningstar said. In an analysis Morningstar published on Sept. 24, Morningstar also said UBS Group AG and London-based Ashmore […]

September 28, 2021 By Sabahatjahan Contractor (Reuters) – Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said on Monday they had reached an agreement to settle claims over sexual harassment and discrimination in the company’s workplace. Under the agreement, Activision committed to create an $18 million fund to compensate and make […]

September 28, 2021 By Krystal Hu and Niket Nishant (Reuters) -Endeavor Group Holdings Inc, the owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will acquire sports betting business OpenBet from Scientific Games Corp for $1.2 billion in cash and stock, the companies said on Monday. Endeavor, whose shares were up nearly 10% in extended trading, said the […]

September 28, 2021 HONG KONG (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley’s Asia Pacific co-chief executive Wei Sun Christianson will retire from the bank after nearly two decades at the end of 2021, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters. Christianson will remain as an advisory director for Morgan Stanley once she steps down, advising the bank and […]