Aurelia Butler

“There have been no conversations with anyone or either organization about an acquisition,” spokesman Ty Trippet said in the tweet, which was retweeted by billionaire owner Michael Bloomberg.News website Axios reported on Friday that Bloomberg was interested in acquiring either Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA), or the Washington Post from Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos, citing a source familiar with Bloomberg’s thinking. On Friday, citing sources, Reuters reported Michael Bloomberg had expressed a desire to own a big-name newspaper over the years but had not reached out to Murdoch to discuss a possible purchase of Dow Jones and its flagship paper the Journal. A spokesperson for the Washington Post, which Bezos bought in 2013 for $250 million, said on Friday it was not for sale.Antitrust experts agreed the merger of Bloomberg and Dow Jones business news divisions would draw the scrutiny of U.S. regulators, especially as the Biden administration has taken a more muscular approach to enforcing antitrust laws.Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) Corp, competes with Dow Jones and Bloomberg News, a unit of Bloomberg L.P., a provider of financial news. More

(Reuters) – Annual price growth in the increasingly fragile U.S. housing market slid into the single digits in October for the first time in about two years when mortgage rates that month surged above 7% and further stifled demand, a pair of closely watched surveys showed on Tuesday.The S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller national home price index increased by 9.2% in October, down from 10.7% in September and notching the first single-digit gain since November 2020. Meanwhile the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees U.S. mortgage-finance entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (OTC:FMCC), said annual home price growth slowed to 9.8% in October from 11.1% in September, marking that index’s first non-double-digit gain since September 2020. On a month-over-month basis, S&P Case Shiller’s index fell for a fourth straight month, while FHFA’s gauge was unchanged.”As the Federal Reserve continues to move interest rates higher, mortgage financing continues to be a headwind for home prices,” Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, said in a statement.The housing market has suffered the most visible effects of aggressive Fed interest rate hikes that are aimed at curbing high inflation by undercutting demand in the economy. This month the Fed raised rates again by half a percentage point, capping a year that saw its benchmark rate shoot from near zero in March to between 4.25% and 4.5% now – the swiftest rates have risen since the early 1980s. Fed officials projected rates would climb further in 2023, likely topping 5%. GRAPHIC: Home price growth catches a chill (https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-ECONOMY/HOUSING/zgvobbexapd/chart.png) Unlike other parts of the economy – many of which have yet to show a significant impact from the Fed’s actions – the housing market reacts in near real-time to the jump in borrowing costs engineered by the central bank. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate breached 7% in October for the first time since 2002, more than doubling in the span of nine months, pulling the rug out from what had been a red-hot housing market fueled by historically low borrowing costs and a rush to the suburbs during the coronavirus pandemic. Data last week showed the combined annual sales rates of new and existing homes through November had slumped by 35% since January – among the fastest falls on record – to the slowest since late 2011. New single-family housing starts and permit issuance skidded to a two-and-a-half-year low last month as well.While mortgage rates have retreated since early November to around 6.3% this month, according to data from Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association, they remain nearly twice the level they were a year ago at this time and will continue to weigh on the housing sector.Economists do not, however, see a repeat of the housing price crash witnessed in the financial crisis when prices by S&P Case Shiller’s measure fell year-over-year for a full five years from March 2007 through April 2012. Unlike then, the supply of homes on the market remains extraordinarily limited and should keep a floor under house prices. The National Association of Realtors earlier this month projected prices for existing homes – by far the largest part of the market – should remain more or less flat in 2023.”As the Fed tightens financial conditions, the housing market will likely slow further in the coming year,” LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) Chief Economist Jeffrey Roach said. “However, low inventory of homes available for sale should soften the impact from rising rates and insulate the residential market from a redux of the Great Financial Crisis.” More

Taiwan has pledged to beef up its armed forces with longer military service and more muscular training as president Tsai Ing-wen seeks to strengthen the country’s defences against the threat of an attack from China.“Nobody wants war — neither the Taiwanese people and government nor the international community. But peace will not fall from the sky,” Tsai said when announcing the defence push yesterday, two days after Beijing staged its largest air manoeuvres around Taiwan in more than four months.“Only preparing for war will help avoid war. Taiwan must strengthen its capability to defend itself.” From 2024, compulsory military service for men will be extended from the current four months to a year and conscripts’ pay will be quadrupled to bring it in line with the minimum wage, said Tsai. In addition, the defence ministry pledged to transform conscripts’ training — currently ridiculed as a waste of time because of its lack of shooting practice and focus on menial tasks — into a rigorous programme featuring wartime scenario simulation.Go deeper: President Tsai Ing-wen has turned to the private sector to strengthen Taiwan’s defence procurement supply chain as the nation attempts to build a domestic supply chain for drones that its military could use in a war with China.Three more stories in the news1. Putin imposes oil ban on buyers complying with G7 price cap Russia has hit back at the G7’s attempts to cap gains from the country’s oil revenues, after Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning sales under contracts that comply with the $60 price ceiling imposed by Ukraine’s western allies.2. Megacap stocks struggle Beijing’s decision to scrap inbound quarantine requirements gave a general boost to shares yesterday, notably in China. But individual stocks, including Tesla and Apple, were hit by concerns over disruptions to their China manufacturing operations amid a soaring number of Covid-19 cases.More on China’s Covid outbreak: China’s medical staff are being asked to work while sick and retired workers are being recalled to duty, as frontline health professionals bear the brunt of Beijing’s about-face on its tough zero-Covid policy.3. Lee Myung-bak to be pardoned South Korea’s former president is to be pardoned today, after serving almost four years of a 17-year sentence for corruption, embezzlement and bribery, the country’s justice ministry has said. President Yoon Suk-yeol said the special pardon had been issued in the name of promoting national unity, though many South Koreans remain opposed to the move. What else we’re reading and listening toCarmakers cut ties with China in supply chain shake-up European and US carmakers have launched a quiet yet concerted effort to cut their reliance on China’s sprawling network of components makers. “There is a large-scale rethinking of logistics operations [across the industry],” said Ted Cannis, a senior executive at Ford. “The supply chain is going to be the focus of this decade.”Don’t underestimate the power of climate bullshit As the false claim that net zero policies are to blame for the energy crisis gains traction, Pilita Clark provides a timely reminder that climate bullshit, in all its forms, should never be ignored or underestimated.🎧 New year, new finances: resolutions for 2023 The new year is a perfect time to rethink and reorganise your financial affairs but where should you start? On this episode of the Money Clinic podcast host Claer Barrett and her guests share advice on how to keep to your new year’s financial goals.Most popular FT opinion story: It’s time to admit that hybrid isn’t workingAs the year reaches its end, we are sharing some of our most-read stories across different sections of the FT. Today we’re featuring our most read opinion story.Early in 2022, private sector polls showed that a majority of employees wanted to keep working from home, at least part of the time. But what if it isn’t actually that good for us, or those we work for? Camilla Cavendish asked. Tell us what you think: Does hybrid work impact your productivity? Take our poll, and see what other readers had to say.

Take a break from the news Who are the FT’s crossword compilers? Our band of setters are a breed few know much about. Below, compiler James Brydon shares a little bit about himself. Walk us through your compiling strategy: I always start with trying to find good clues for long answers, preferably avoiding anagrams as they are the easiest kind of clues to construct. At first, I look for good ideas: misdirection, striking images, funny ideas etc. Then, as a believer that crosswords are not simply a riddle but have technical and aesthetic qualities as well, I will spend time polishing the clues, aiming for accuracy, elegance and succinctness. Any advice for solvers? A crossword is like a garden path sentence, so the trick for solving is to isolate individual words in the clue and work out how their meanings might be different from how they appear in the surface reading. The clue you wished you’d written: Where to start? I like this one from Arachne in the Guardian: “Two idiots stripped Mini’s bumpers off” (9). Read on to find out the answer. Try out the FT’s latest crossword puzzles here. More