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      End of an era as Japan ends negative interest rates – business live

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 07:12 · 1 minute

    Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

    Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda is briefing reporters in Tokyo now about today’s interest rate decision.

    Ueda points out that the move will only raise short-term interest rates by 0.1%, and pledges that the BoJ will “increase bond buying nimbly” if it sees a sharp rise in long-term rates.

    I don’t think deposits or lending rates will rise sharply from today’s decision.

    “We reverted to a normal monetary policy targeting short-term interest rates, as with other central banks. We will choose the appropriate level of short-term rates in line with our economic and price outlook. But in doing so, we need to be mindful that there is some distance for inflation expectations to reach 2%. When we focus on this gap, it’s necessary to maintain accommodative monetary conditions even under a normal monetary policy framework.”

    The Bank of Japan lifted rates for the first time in seventeen years while also dialling back its asset purchases and scrapping its yield curve control program. Despite swaps implying that – at best - five points of the 10-point hike was baked into the market, the reaction was limited, if not slightly paradoxical.

    The Yen slid, and the Nikkei popped, the latter taking its lead from the former, which arguably has been sold after a build-up in long positioning going into the event. Nevertheless, the meeting was one of the market’s great non-events, although there could still yet be a response when European and US markets come online.

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      Japan raises interest rates for first time since 2007

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 05:50

    Shift makes Bank of Japan the last central bank to end negative rates in move that has ‘a lot of symbolic significance’ according to analysts

    Japan’s central bank has ended eight years of negative interest rates, in an overhaul of one of the world’s most aggressive monetary easing programmes that sought to encourage bank lending and spur demand.

    In its first interest rate hike in 17 years, the Bank of Japan [BOJ] said it was lifting its short-term policy rate from -0.1% to between zero and 0.1%, although analysts said a fragile economic recovery meant it would continue go slow with any further rise in borrowing costs.

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      pubsub.blastersklan.com / slashdot · 01:53 edit · 1 minute

    Press2ToContinue quotes a report from the Gateway Pundit: Stephen Scherr, chief executive officer of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and a member of its board of directors, will step down on March 31, following the car rental company's largest quarterly loss since 2020 after a risky bet on electric vehicles. According to Fox Business, Scherr is working with Gil West, former chief operating officer of Delta Airlines and General Motors' Cruise unit, to ensure a smooth transition. West will officially start his new role at Hertz on April 1. Scherr, 59, joined Hertz two years ago as the company was emerging from bankruptcy and putting a big focus on EVs during that time. Hertz soon discovered that EVs are more expensive to maintain than they had initially thought. Scherr reportedly told investors that Hertz's profits experienced a $348 million loss, which he blamed EVs for. In January, Hertz announced its plan to offload 20,000 electric vehicles from its U.S. fleet throughout 2024, and switch back to gas cars. In November, the Associated Press reported on a Consumer Reports survey that found EVs from the 2021 to 2023 model years are significantly less reliable than gasoline-powered vehicles. A whopping eighty percent less reliable, according to the AP, particularly with battery and charging systems, as well as fit issues with body panels and interiors. Car dealers and manufacturers are reportedly also struggling to sell EVs despite using deep discounts and promotional tactics. In 2021, Hertz announced plans to order 100,000 Tesla vehicles by the end of 2022. It later said it would buy "up to" 65,000 Polestar EVs for its rental fleet over the next five years.

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    Hertz CEO Resigns After Blowing Big Gamble On EVs
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      tech.slashdot.org /story/24/03/18/2044220/hertz-ceo-resigns-after-blowing-big-gamble-on-evs

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      ‘Sneaky’ fees add up to 25% to UK music ticket prices, says Which?

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 00:01


    Consumer body calls for a crackdown on ‘bewildering’ range of extra charges at big ticketing sites

    Live music fans are losing out because of an array of “sneaky” fees that can add up to 25% to the cost of concert and festival tickets, research from the consumer body Which? has found.

    With booking open for big summer gigs, the lobby group has called for a crackdown on the “bewildering” range of extra charges that some of the UK’s biggest ticketing websites impose.

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      £58bn plan to rewire Great Britain expected to spark tensions along route

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 00:01


    ‘High-capacity electrical spine’ to run onshore from north-east Scotland to north-west England

    A £58bn plan to rewire Great Britain’s electricity grid to connect up new windfarms off the coast of Scotland is expected to trigger tensions with communities along the route.

    National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) has mapped out power “motorways” across Great Britain to allow for the biggest investment since the 1960s.

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      pubsub.blastersklan.com / slashdot · Yesterday - 23:33 edit

    Cisco on Monday completed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, a powerhouse in data analysis, security and observability tools. The deal was first announced in September 2023. SecurityWeek reports: Cisco plans to leverage Splunk's AI, security and observability capabilities complement Cisco's solution portfolio. Cisco says the transaction is expected to be cash flow positive and non-GAAP gross margin accretive in Cisco's fiscal year 2025, and non-GAAP EPS accretive in fiscal year 2026. "We are thrilled to officially welcome Splunk to Cisco," Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO of Cisco, said in a statement. "As one of the world's largest software companies, we will revolutionize the way our customers leverage data to connect and protect every aspect of their organization as we help power and protect the AI revolution."

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    Cisco Completes $28 Billion Acquisition of Splunk
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      Rachel Reeves: Treasury will ‘hardwire’ growth into tax and spending decisions

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 22:30

    Shadow chancellor to outline plans to shake up department after Labour election victory

    The Treasury under a Labour government would “hardwire” raising Britain’s growth rate into its budget tax and spending decisions as part of plans to shake up Whitehall’s most powerful department, Rachel Reeves is to announce.

    The shadow chancellor will use a lecture in London on Tuesday to say that a decade of national renewal must start with “day one” reform after a Labour election victory to make growth more pivotal to the Treasury’s work.

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      Reckitt Benckiser: how one terrible deal wrecked the company

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 17:26 · 1 minute

    Takeover of baby formula maker Mead Johnson Nutrition could lead to billions in damages payouts

    The worst acquisition by a major UK company in the last decade? It’s hard to think of a deal that beats Reckitt Benckiser’s $18bn purchase in 2017 of Mead Johnson Nutrition , a US-listed maker of baby milk formula. Shares in the Dettol-to-Durex group have never recovered from the shock. By way of add-on award, Rakesh Kapoor, Reckitt’s chief executive back in the day, can probably scoop the prize for most overpaid FTSE 100 boss of recent times: he departed two years after his fateful piece of deal-making having been paid the astonishing sum of £97.6m during his eight years in charge.

    The latest example of Mead Johnson’s dreadful legacy was Friday’s news that a court in Illinois awarded $60m in damages to a woman whose premature baby died in intensive care after consuming the company’s Enfamil formula; the allegation was that Reckitt failed to warn adequately that feeding with infant formula increased the risk of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). The verdict knocked 15%, equivalent to £5.4bn, off Reckitt’s stock market value as investors tried to guess what could follow from 400-odd similar NEC-related cases involving Mead and its US rival Abbott Laboratories.

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      P&O Ferries has paid some crew less than half UK minimum wage

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 16:30

    Company is using legal loophole UK government promised to close two years ago, Guardian analysis suggests

    P&O Ferries, which controversially sacked about 800 workers in 2022 , has paid some crew members less than half the UK minimum wage thanks to an ongoing legal loophole the British government promised to close two years ago.

    Agency workers at the company, which is owned by the Dubai-based DP World, have in some cases been earning about £4.87 an hour – even lower than the £5.15 an hour the company suggested was its lowest pay rate – an analysis of recent payslips conducted by the Guardian and ITV News suggests.

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