BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Getting Covid-19 twice is not good news, but it is too soon to panic

Amsterdam/Brussels — Two European patients are confirmed to have been re-infected with the coronavirus, according to regional public broadcasters, raising concerns about people’s immunity to the virus as the world struggles to tame the pandemic. The news follows a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man…

25 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Covid-19 vaccine candidate could be with regulators within next four months

London — Trial data for the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s possible Covid-19 vaccine could be given to regulators in 2020 still, but corners cannot be cut to speed up approval for emergency use, a scientist leading the trials said on Tuesday. The Oxford vaccine produced an immune response in…

25 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Aramco’s promise to pay its dividends may backfire

Saudi Aramco’s senior management reshuffle is more than just a game of high-level musical chairs at any old energy company. The oil giant faces an uphill battle to meet promises made before its record-setting initial public offering (IPO) last year — and before the coronavirus pandemic hit — to deliver…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 5 min

Parliament and Pravin Gordhan shred DA’s electricity bill

Parliament has made short shrift of a DA-sponsored bill proposing the introduction of a privately owned electricity grid operator. The Independent Electricity Management Operator Bill (IEMO), which was introduced on Tuesday by DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone, was discussed in a joint meeting of the committees on public enterprises and…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 2 min

Buildings set alight as US city rages over police shooting

Kenosha — Arsonists set several buildings ablaze and torched much of the black business district in a second night of unrest in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, triggered by the wounding of a man shot in the back by officers as his three young sons looked on. Police in riot…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 3 min

European shares lift partly on sentiment about US-China comments

London — European shares opened higher on Tuesday, with market sentiment propped up by the US and China saying they are still committed to their phase 1 trade deal, and some increased optimism about Covid-19 vaccine development. After the Stoxx 600 saw its biggest daily gain in almost two weeks…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 4 min

UK schools fiasco was accident waiting to happen, but Boris Johnson didn’t see it

Pundits are rightly accused of exercising the wisdom of hindsight, but some political disasters really are inevitable and have been loudly predicted before the event. The UK government’s most recent fiasco, over the grading of state examination results for 18-year-old school students, was one such event. It was an accident…

25 Aug 2020 5AM 5 min

Britain’s retailers worry as consumers trickle back

London — Spending by shoppers, drinkers and diners is vital to Britain’s effort to emerge from its deepest recession for three centuries. News last week that retail sales rebounded by more than forecast in July stood out against a backdrop of unprecedented job cuts at Marks & Spencer Group, a…

25 Aug 2020 4AM 7 min

Court again denies bail to man charged under Hong Kong security law

Hong Kong — A Hong Kong court has again denied bail to the first person charged with inciting separatism and terrorism under a new national security law in the Chinese-ruled city. Tong Ying-kit, 23, had carried a sign reading “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”, and drove his motorbike…

25 Aug 2020 3AM 1 min

New mindset needed for investment strategies

In this new global economic paradigm investors and shareholders have no choice but to rethink their approach to wealth retention and growth. Risk as we know it has moved to a completely different dimension, while investment philosophy is changing with a greater emphasis on responsibility empathy and values. The Treasury…

25 Aug 2020 3AM 4 min

Oil prices mixed as storms hit US Gulf output

Singapore — Crude oil prices were mixed on Tuesday as traders weighed huge production cuts in the US Gulf Coast from tropical storms Marco and Laura against rising coronavirus cases in Asia and Europe. Brent crude oil futures added 9c, or 0.2%, to $45.22 a barrel by 4.20am GMT, while…

25 Aug 2020 2AM 2 min

US-Sino trade optimism lifts Asian markets

Singapore/Hong Kong — Asia’s stock markets were mostly higher on Tuesday as investors cheered signs of progress in US-China trade negotiations and following a fresh Wall Street rally. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.32% to its highest since early January and sits just a fraction below…

25 Aug 2020 2AM 3 min

LEBOGANG MOKOENA: A political sequel with the same ending

They are coming. Soon, they will be all over our roads, our televisions and on the radio. They will walk in to our homes and our places of work. They’ll even call on us to share their regurgitated doctrine. They will kiss babies, hug the elderly, sell hope to the…

25 Aug 2020 2AM 3 min

RAZINA MUNSHI: Will rogue ANC members be sent to the naughty corner?

Many critics have dismissed Cyril Ramaphosa’s seven page letter to ANC ( members, calling out the corrupt among them, as simple lip service. South Africans seems to have shrugged it off as a cosmetic move that does nothing to mask the role the ruling party played in entrenching corruption and…

25 Aug 2020 1AM 4 min

Gold price moves up slightly as dollar drops back

Bengaluru — Gold edged higher on Tuesday as the dollar dipped, with investors awaiting US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s speech later this week, while a rally in equity markets limited bullion’s advance. Spot gold was up 0.2% to $1,935.88 an ounce by 3.35am GMT. US gold futures gained 0.1%…

25 Aug 2020 1AM 2 min

Lockdown day 151: Latest Covid-19 numbers

Number of Covid-19 infections in SA rises to 611,450, there have been 516,494 recoveries and 13,159 deaths to date

25 Aug 2020 1AM 1 min

JSE faces mixed Asian markets on Tuesday

The JSE will contend with mixed Asian markets on Tuesday morning, after a boost on Monday by hopes for a viable Covid-19 treatment and that a vaccine is on the way. US and Chinese officials have conducted talks by phone over a partial trade deal signed in January, while markets…

25 Aug 2020 1AM 1 min

New York attorney-general probes whether Trump company manipulated asset values

New York — The New York state attorney-general is investigating whether Donald Trump and the Trump Organization improperly manipulated the value of the US president's assets to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits, and said Trump's son Eric has been unco-operative in the civil probe. The disclosure was…

24 Aug 2020 5PM 3 min

Trump accuses Democrats of planning to ‘rig election’

Charlotte — President Donald Trump adopted a grim tone in remarks to Republicans who formally backed his bid for a second term on Monday, warning that he could face a “rigged election” in November. Trump repeated his claim that voting by mail, a long-standing feature of American elections that is…

24 Aug 2020 5PM 5 min

Kellyanne Conway’s departure a setback for Trump ahead of US election

Washington — Kellyanne Conway's departure from the White House comes at an inopportune time for President Donald Trump, who will be losing one of his most vocal advocates and loyal aides just months before an election expected to be close. Conway, a counsellor to the president and former campaign manager,…

24 Aug 2020 3PM 2 min