Best of travel: Beijing and its surprising contemporary art scene February 9, 2021 To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. This week we revisit Laura Millar’s exploration of Beijing’s contemporary art scene. Read more: Jaguar XF P300 review: revitalised luxury at a surprisingly low price ••• Picture the likes of London’s White Cube, the Saatchi Gallery, and the [...]
Oil prices hit highest levels in 13 months on back of supply cuts February 9, 2021 A seventh straight session of gains sent oil prices to their highest levels since January 2020 this morning. The rise was driven by a combination of supply cuts by major producers and optimism over a recovery in fuel demand support energy markets. Benchmark Brent crude futures picked up 0.7 per cent to stand at $60.97 [...]
What is Clubhouse? The $1bn app loved by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg February 9, 2021 Elon Musk knows how to send markets into a tizzy, with his tweets about bitcoin and dogecoin sending prices skyrocketing. Now invite-only audio app Clubhouse is the latest craze to feel the Elon effect. At the end of last month Musk made his first appearance on the audio app with Robinhood’s chief executive. The stream maxed [...]
City A.M. TV: Daily market snapshot (video) February 8, 2021 Is there a message for western markets from Asian price action? Various key Asian markets, including the Chinese Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Korea’s Kospi, have all struggled to break above key technical levels in recent trading sessions. That stands in contrast the price action in the US (at new highs) and Germany’s [...]
British investors should keep a wary eye on Chinese delisting in the Caymans February 6, 2021 The rise of China is one of the biggest geopolitical issues the West faces and our MPs are rightly becoming increasingly concerned about the regime’s continued human rights and security abuses. The latest threat, however, is very different and strikes at the heart of our financial system; a threat that is being facilitated by of one of Britain’s own [...]
Screenshot: How Amazon set up shop on cloud nine February 5, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Parish the thought **How Amazon set up shop on cloud nine **Will BT look to the stars? Media Moment of the Week: Parish the thought Anyone who thinks local politics is boring has clearly never attended a meeting of the Handforth Parish Council Planning and Environment Committee. Or [...]
UK MPs call for Wimbledon to cut ties with HSBC and Standard Chartered February 4, 2021 A group of UK MPs and peers have demanded asset management giant BlackRock and the Wimbledon tennis tournament to cut ties with HSBC and Standard Chartered over their support for Beijing’s freedom of speech crackdown in Hong Kong. The nine parliamentarians also called on the World Rugby Sevens and the British Open tournaments to refuse further [...]
Global investors set to pump £46bn into ‘resilient’ London office market this year February 4, 2021 International investors are gearing up to pump £46bn of capital into London’s office market this year in a vote of confidence in the long-term resilience of the sector, according to the latest research. London’s reputation as a safe haven and leading global city remains attractive to global investors, with the removal of the risk of [...]
Why baijiu is set to take the UK spirits business by storm February 2, 2021 The famous Chinese poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty had some very precise ideas about drinking. He once wrote, “One’s drinking companions should be elegant, unrestrained, forthright, understanding, old friends or beautiful”. He further counselled that “The best places for drinking should be in front of flowers, in the bamboo forest, in a high [...]
Alibaba beats revenue forecasts as China crackdown looms February 2, 2021 Alibaba beat revenue expectations for the third quarter as the ecommerce giant continued to benefit from higher demand during the pandemic despite a looming crackdown by Beijing. Total revenue hit 221bn yuan (£25bn) in the last three months of 2020, up 37 per cent year on year. This was driven by record revenue of 195.5bn [...]