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The returns investors expect to earn after inflation on the world’s most important government bonds have reached a record low in a fall that has had sweeping implications across global markets. The real yield on 10-year US Treasuries fell further below zero on Monday as growing anxiety over the outlook for economic growth added fuel

The single largest bet on Chinese tech by SoftBank’s Vision Fund is in the red as Beijing punishes ride-hailing group Didi Chuxing for alleged data security lapses on the back of its blockbuster New York listing. The Vision Fund’s 20.1 per cent stake in the taxi app, for which it paid $11.8bn in 2019, is

The lending businesses of large US banks are doubling down on wealthier customers, as well-to-do Americans borrow to buy second homes, invest in the stock market and potentially lighten their tax bills. The combined value of loans made by the wealth management arms of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley surpassed $600bn

Several hedge funds have backed away from trading and other activities on Binance in response to the accelerating regulatory crackdown on the crypto exchange, deepening the strain for a group already cut off by a clutch of banks and payments companies. Crypto specialist Tyr Capital said it had “significantly decreased its exposure” to the group,

The European Central Bank will keep buying bonds and maintain its deeply negative interest rates in an attempt to shift the eurozone economy out of its persistent pattern of sluggish inflation, its policymakers decided on Thursday. The ECB also said it was prepared to tolerate a moderate and transitory overshoot of its inflation target as

Brussels has insisted it will not renegotiate the EU’s Brexit deal with the UK after London inflamed tensions by launching a bold push to overhaul trading rules for Northern Ireland. Maros Sefcovic, European Commission vice-president in charge of relations with the UK, said Brussels “will not agree to a renegotiation of the protocol” after the

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder-turned-private space entrepreneur and philanthropist, reached the lower reaches of space over the West Texas desert early Tuesday, fulfilling a boyhood dream and ending a long series of delays for his private space company. The rocket, built by Blue Origin, propelled the world’s richest man and three others to a height

The Biden administration has accused the Chinese government of teaming up with criminal gangs to commit widespread cyber attacks, including one on Microsoft this year that affected tens of thousands of organisations. The US on Monday issued an alert to government bodies and private companies that accused Beijing of a pattern of attacks that have

Opec and its allies have reached an agreement to raise oil production at a time of soaring prices after compromising over how the output targets of some of its largest members are calculated. Members of the Opec+ group including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq and Kuwait will all be awarded higher production baselines —

The US is experiencing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, the head of the country’s top public health agency warned, as new coronavirus cases have jumped 70 per cent in the past week. More than 33,000 infections were reported across the US on Thursday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said

The death toll from heavy flooding in western Germany rose to 81 on Friday and more than 1,000 residents are believed to be missing in one of the country’s most destructive natural disasters in years. Officials in the Ahrweiler district, south of Cologne, said about 1,300 people appeared to be missing as of Thursday night.

Norway’s capital was quieter than usual on July 22 2011, a wet Friday during the summer holidays. At 3.25pm a bomb hidden inside a van exploded outside the prime minister’s office, shattering the nation’s peace and setting in motion an afternoon of scarcely believable terror. By the end of the day, 77 people had been

Pressure is building on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to finalise regulations to de-list Chinese companies that fail to comply with American auditing rules, after lawmakers discovered the agency might not begin enforcement until 2025 at the earliest. Legislation signed by Donald Trump in December gave US-listed Chinese groups three years to comply with

When Soho House announced its New York listing in June, chief executive Nick Jones received an email from the club’s fifth member. Greg Hunt, a screenwriting agent, wrote that he used to sit in the bar of the first Soho House in central London “wondering if the place will get more busy”. Twenty-six years and

A surge in the pace of price growth on both sides of the Atlantic has revived economists’ concerns about the risk of overheating, piling pressure on policymakers to consider a faster withdrawal of their unprecedented pandemic-era stimulus policies. Data published earlier this week showed that US consumer prices rose by 5.4 per cent in June

Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said the US central bank was ready to intervene if inflation spiralled out of control, but stressed that he expected price increases to ease later in the year. “Inflation has increased notably and will likely remain elevated in coming months before moderating,” Powell said in prepared remarks

As South Africa’s worst public violence in decades swept Johannesburg and its biggest township this week, Nhlanhla Lux was ready to defend the shopping centre he called Soweto’s “last elephant” with his life. Clad in camouflage and armed with a pistol, the 33-year-old community leader guarded the closed gates of Soweto’s Maponya mall with a

Ohio University has announced a series of scholarship and prize giveaways for vaccinated students, while the state prepares to revive its multi-million-dollar lottery scheme to boost vaccination coverage. Fully vaccinated students who sign up for the college’s “vaccination pathway” programme, which exempts them from having to take a weekly asymptomatic Covid-19 test, will be eligible

Europe’s most polluting businesses have accused the EU of jeopardising investment and innovation after Brussels unveiled ambitious plans to halve the bloc’s emissions by 2030 in an effort to curb global warming. Carmakers, airlines and heavy industry all hit out at the proposals, which include a de facto ban on new diesel and petrol cars

The pace of China’s economic recovery rose modestly in the second quarter after signs of sluggishness in the world’s second-biggest economy stoked expectations of greater policy support. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China’s gross domestic product expanded 1.3 per cent in the three months to the end of June, up from a 0.4 per cent expansion