Bloomberg Businessweek Asia Edition - 05 August 2019

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BloombergBusinessweek August5, 2019

JOHNSON:

BRENDON

THORNE/BLOOMBERG. RECORD: COURTESY COLUMBIA RECORDS. RED SEA: AQABA SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE/XINHUA/REDUX

 IN BRIEF

By Benedikt Kammel

○ Boris Johnson stood

firm on his promise to pull

off Brexit by the end of

October. The new prime

minister says he will follow

through, even if it means

the U.K. crashes out of the

EU with no deal. Brussels

signaled that the current

accord isthefinal

one. Thepou

plummeted

against the

U.S. dollar.

○ Citigroup is preparing to

cut hundreds of jobs in its

fixed-income and stock-

trading operations, including

at least 100 positions at its

equities unit, in response to

a persistent trading slump

across the industry.

○ IHG, which operates

the Holiday Inn and

InterContinental chains,

is switching to bulk-size

shampoos and shower gels

worldwide to cut plastic

waste. The change will allow

the company to avoid using

200m

miniature bottles each year

to restock its 5,600 rooms.

○ Bayerrevealed

more trouble

with its Roundup

weedkiller.

○ V.G. Siddhartha, who

founded India’s Café

Coffee Day chain, was

found dead in an apparent

suicide, after leaving a note

decrying pressure from

lenders and tax officials.

Shares of the company

dropped 20% on July 30.

○ On July 29, Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road

marked its 17th straight week atop the

Billboard Hot 100 chart. That beats

the previous record of 16 weeks, first

achieved by Mariah Carey and Boyz II

Men’s One Sweet Day more than two

decadesago.

○ Pfizer announced plans to

combine its business selling

older blockbuster drugs

such as Lipitor and Viagra

with generic drugmaker

Mylan. The publicly traded

company will have annual

revenue approaching

$20b

○ Donald Trump

ramped up his

rhetoric against

China, accusing

it of continuing to

“rip off the USA.”

○ Jordan has sunk a collection of military vehicles, including old tanks and other

disused army equipment, to create an underwater military museum in the Red Sea.

The number of U.S. lawsuits claiming

the product caused cancer rose in the

most recent quarter by about 5,000, to

18,400. The company has denied a link

between the substance and cancer.

Specifically, the president says, China

honoring a pledge to buy U.S.

ultural products. His tirade came

e eve of fresh trade negotiations in

ghai.Those talks ended abruptly

nosign of progress toward ending

ispute between the world’s largest

omies.

○ Under Armour said 2019 sales in North America will fall, depressing a stock that’s already lost half its value this year.

○ University of Guam researchers said a third of the island’s coral reefs have died because of rising ocean temperatures.

○ Harold Prince, who directed The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running show, and won 21 Tonys, died at 91.

○ Colombia’s Egan Bernal was the youngest cyclist in 110 years—and the first Latin American—to win the Tour de France.

○ “It’s not the beginning

of a long series of

rate cuts. I didn’t say

it’s just one.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on July 31 after the Fed cut its target

lending rate a quarter percentage point. Stocks fell as investors dialed back hopes

for easier monetary policy.

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