Financial News

Financial News:

World stocks down…Evergrande trading suspended

UNDATED (AP) – Global stocks have fallen, with Hong Kong’s benchmark down more than 2% after troubled property developer China Evergrande’s shares were suspended from trading. In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.1% and shares fell 1% in Taiwan. In early trading in Europe, Germany’s DAX declined 0.2% while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.3% . Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat. On Wall Street, Dow and S&P 500 futures are both down 0.3%.
HONG KONG (AP) – Shares in troubled real estate developer China Evergrande Group and its property management unit Evergrande Property Services were suspended from trading in Hong Kong today. Cailian, a Chinese online news service affiliated with the state-run newspaper Securities Times, says another developer plans to acquire a majority share in Evergrande Property Services Group. Evergrande owes billions to banks, customers and contractors and is facing a cash crunch.

LONDON (AP) – British military personnel have begun delivering fuel to gas stations after a shortage of truck drivers disrupted supplies for more than a week. The crisis has led to long lines at the pumps as anxious drivers scrambled to fill their tanks. The government says about 200 service personnel were deployed today to boost deliveries after undergoing training at commercial fuel depots last week. The U.K. is short tens of thousands of truckers. That’s because of a confluence of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, an aging workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britain’s departure from the European Union.

UNDATED (AP) – Hundreds of world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have been hiding their investments in mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century. The findings are based on a review of nearly 12 million files obtained from 14 different firms located around the world. The report released Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists sheds light on the previously hidden dealings of the elite and the corrupt, and how they have used offshore accounts to shield assets collectively worth trillions of dollars.

MANCHESTER, England (AP) – Britain’s Brexit minister has threatened to trigger a contentious break clause in the U.K.’s divorce deal with the European Union. Such a move would send the U.K.’s already chilly relations with its huge neighbor into a deep freeze. David Frost told a gathering of the U.K.’s governing Conservative Party today that the Brexit agreement, signed by both sides, was undermining peace in Northern Ireland and causing “instability and disruption.” He said unless there are major changes to the deal, Britain will invoke Article 16, a provision that lets either side suspend the agreement in exceptional circumstances. However, Britain has made that threat before, and Frost did not pull the trigger.