Trump bars Bloomberg News journalists from campaign events

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign said Monday that it would bar Bloomberg News journalists from attending its rallies and political events, an attempt to retaliate against the news organization’s decision to cease investigating Democratic candidates in the wake of its billionaire owner’s entry into the 2020 presidential race.

The Trump campaign broke from years of precedent in 2016 by revoking the press credentials of journalists from outlets like The Washington Post, Politico and BuzzFeed News, an early sign of the efforts to demonize the media that have become a hallmark of the Trump presidency.

But Bloomberg News is facing a fraught situation, too. After the company’s owner, Michael Bloomberg, decided last month to pursue the Democratic nomination, editors at the news outlet instructed their reporters to avoid “in-depth investigations” of Bloomberg or any other Democratic candidate. It was an attempt at fairness that some journalists called stifling.

On Monday, Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, called it something else: biased.

“Bloomberg News has declared that they won’t investigate their boss or his Democrat competitors, many of whom are current holders of high office, but will continue critical reporting on President Trump,” Parscale wrote in a statement, calling the decision “troubling and wrong.”

“Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events,” Parscale wrote. The campaign said it would decide “on a case-by-case basis” whether to respond to inquiries from individual reporters on stories.

The editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, John Micklethwait, quickly fired back.

“The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth,” Micklethwait wrote in a statement. “We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

Howard Wolfson, a top campaign adviser to Bloomberg, also weighed in, pithily. “One week in and Mike is already under Trump’s skin,” Wolfson wrote on Twitter.

Trump and his senior aides routinely disparage individual reporters and entire news organizations for coverage they deem unfavorable. Press advocacy groups say the president’s attacks have contributed to one of the more hostile domestic environments for journalists in recent memory.

Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, criticized the Trump campaign’s move in a statement on Monday. “We condemn any action that keeps quality news media from reporting fairly and accurately on the presidency and the leadership of the country,” Baquet wrote.

At the same time, Bloomberg News’ approach to covering its owner’s candidacy has proved divisive.

Roughly 2,700 journalists work at Bloomberg LP, the financial data company that is the wellspring of Bloomberg’s fortune, and this is not the first time that Bloomberg’s ambitions have placed his employees in an awkward spot. During Bloomberg’s 12 years as mayor of New York City, coverage of the billionaire’s wealth and personal life were considered off-limits at Bloomberg News.

In a memo last month, Micklethwait acknowledged that “there is no point in trying to claim that covering this presidential campaign will be easy,” but added that the newsroom would continue to investigate Trump’s administration “as the government of the day.”

On Monday night, Trump, who had flown to London for a conference, added his own thoughts on the matter, deriding Bloomberg in a Twitter post as “Mini Mike Bloomberg” and describing Bloomberg News as a “third rate news organization.” (He also accused The Times of “hatred & bias.”) The president wrote that “It’s not O.K.!” for Bloomberg News to skip investigations of Democratic candidates.

While Bloomberg News has pledged to continue covering polls, policies and “who is winning and who is losing” the 2020 race, the prohibition against investigative reporting — considered among the most valuable forms of campaign journalism — has caused some uproar.

Megan Murphy, a former Washington bureau chief at Bloomberg News, wrote on Twitter that it was “staggering” for the news outlet to prevent “an army of unbelievably talented reporters and editors from covering massive, crucial aspects of one of the defining elections of our time.”


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Bloomberg News sets out how to cover its owner

Get ready to cover the boss’ presidential campaign, with some caveats.

That is the message roughly 2,700 journalists at Bloomberg LP, the financial data company owned in large part by Michael Bloomberg, received Sunday morning after Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, formally announced his candidacy for president as a Democrat.

“We will write about virtually all aspects of this presidential contest in much the same way as we have done so far,” John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Editorial and Research’s editor-in-chief, said in the memo, in which he always referred to Bloomberg simply as “Mike.”

“We will describe who is winning and who is losing,” Micklethwait added. “We will look at policies and their consequences. We will carry polls, we will interview candidates and we will track their campaigns, including Mike’s. We have already assigned a reporter to follow his campaign (just as we did when Mike was in City Hall). And in the stories we write on the presidential contest, we will make clear that our owner is now a candidate.”

But, the memo said, Bloomberg’s outlets, which also include Bloomberg Businessweek and several industry-specific sites, will not do in-depth investigations of Bloomberg — or any of his Democratic rivals.

On Sunday morning, the main Bloomberg website featured an article by Mark Niquette about Bloomberg’s entry into the “crowded 2020 Democratic field.”

This unusual policy of avoiding in-depth investigations of the Democratic field echoes the similarly unusual way that the outlet covered Bloomberg’s 12-year tenure in City Hall as well as its practices regarding rivals of Bloomberg LP. As an internal guide instructs: “Bloomberg News doesn’t originate stories about the company” or cover Bloomberg’s “wealth or personal life.” (But, the memo added, Bloomberg would not change its coverage of President Donald Trump so long as he is not a direct rival of Bloomberg.)

Micklethwait also said that several journalists in the opinion section would take leaves of absences to join Bloomberg’s campaign. They include Timothy L. O’Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, and David Shipley, senior executive editor. Shipley was previously an editor at The New York Times opinion section, and O’Brien, also a former Times editor and reporter, is known for his 2005 biography of Trump. The section’s unsigned editorials will go on hiatus, the memo said, and a note on the Bloomberg Opinion website said it would not accept outside op-ed articles about the campaign.

MSNBC also confirmed that O’Brien would no longer be a network contributor while he is working on the Bloomberg campaign.

The moment is fraught for one of the most prominent global newsrooms in the country, which now has to document the candidacy of its owner, one of the richest men in the world — one who has mused about selling his holdings if he ran for president. Bloomberg said last year: “I don’t want the reporters I’m paying to write a bad story about me. I don’t want them to be independent.”

Micklethwait acknowledged the uneasy relationship in his memo. “There is no point in trying to claim that covering this presidential campaign will be easy,” he said, “for a newsroom that has built up its reputation for independence in part by not writing about ourselves (and very rarely about our direct competitors).”

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Bitcoin surges above $16,000 as concerns mount

Bitcoin flirted with $17,000 on Thursday, triggering a warning the cryptocurrency was like a "train with no brakes" and prompting fresh concern about its looming launch on mainstream markets.

Still under $14,000 in Asian trading hours, it smashed through $15,000 in European trading and got as high as $16,777 before pulling back, according to Bloomberg data. Near 2145 GMT (5:45 a.m. in Manila), bitcoin stood at $16,070.

The rally came just a day after the virtual currency, which has been used to buy everything from an ice cream to a pint of beer, hit the $12,000 mark for the first time. The eye-popping rise has seen the currency's value soar more than 50 percent in just one week, and from just $752 in mid-January.

Bitcoin -- which came into being in 2009 as a bit of encrypted software -- has no central bank backing it and no legal exchange rate.

It has surged dramatically in the past month, driven by growing acceptance among traditional investors of an innovation once considered the preserve of computer nerds and financial experts, and sometimes more shady users.

But some, including the US Federal Reserve, have warned against dabbling in bitcoin as it could threaten financial stability, and fears of a bubble have increased as the price has soared.

"Bitcoin now seems like a charging train with no brakes," said Shane Chanel, from Sydney-based ASR Wealth Advisers. "There is an unfathomable amount of new participants piling into the cryptocurrency market."

But he warned: "Once the hype slows down, we will most certainly see some sort of correction."

FINANCIAL INDUSTRY CONCERNS

There also are mounting concerns about its introduction into the mainstream financial system after a US regulator last week cleared the way for bitcoin futures to trade on major exchanges, a decision which analysts say has helped spur the recent rally.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission decision allows bitcoin derivatives to be offered on the Cboe Futures Exchange starting this weekend and on the world's biggest futures venue, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), from December 18.

But the Futures Industry Association, which groups some of the world's biggest derivatives brokerages, criticized the CFTC's move in a letter to the regulator, saying contracts are being rushed through without properly weighing the risks.

"A more thorough and considered process would have allowed for a robust public discussion among clearing member firms, exchanges and clearing houses," the association said.

Bitcoin transactions happen when heavily encrypted codes are passed across a computer network.

Goldman Sachs, an FIA member, plans to clear bitcoin futures contracts for some clients, meaning it will serve as intermediary to enable transactions, a spokeswoman said.

"Given that this is a new product, as expected we are evaluating the specifications and risk attributes for the bitcoin futures contracts as part of our standard due diligence process," she said.

The NiceHash marketplace was meanwhile on Thursday investigating a security breach resulting in the theft of bitcoin.

"Clearly, this is a matter of deep concern and we are working hard to rectify the matter in the coming days," NiceHash said in a statement.

"In addition to undertaking our own investigation, the incident has been reported to the relevant authorities and law enforcement and we are co-operating with them as a matter of urgency."

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies use blockchain, which records transactions that are updated in real time on an online ledger and maintained by a network of computers.

In 2014 major Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange MtGox collapsed after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults.

Bitcoin's use on the underground Silk Road website, where users could use it to buy drugs and guns, also raised suspicions about the virtual money.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bitcoin chalks up new record as it charges past $14,000

SINGAPORE - Bitcoin broke past $14,000 to a fresh record on Thursday as investors continued to pile in, triggering a warning the cryptocurrency was "like a charging train with no brakes" that would inevitably slip back.

It touched a new high of $14,485 before slipping back to $14,398 in Asian afternoon trade, according to Bloomberg News.

The rally came just a day after the virtual currency, which has been used to buy everything from an ice cream to a pint of beer, hit the $12,000 mark for the first time.

Bitcoin -- which came into being in 2009 as a bit of encrypted software and has no central bank backing it -- has risen from a 2017 low of $752 in mid-January, and surged dramatically in the past month.

The increased interest has been driven by growing acceptance among traditional investors of an innovation once considered the preserve of computer nerds and financial experts.

US regulators last week cleared the way for Bitcoin futures to trade on major exchanges, including the world's biggest futures centre the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

But some, including the US Federal Reserve, have warned against dabbling in Bitcoin as it could threaten financial stability, and fears of a bubble have increased as the price has soared.

"Bitcoin now seems like a charging train with no brakes," said Shane Chanel, from Sydney-based ASR Wealth Advisers. "There is an unfathomable amount of new participants piling into the cryptocurrency market."

But he warned: "Once the hype slows down, we will most certainly see some sort of correction."

Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, also predicted "downside moves" in future.

"When the price does turn and there is confusion, even panic.... then watch the short sellers come out in droves," he said.

Transactions happen when heavily encrypted codes are passed across a computer network.

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies use blockchain, which records transactions that are updated in real time on an online ledger and maintained by a network of computers.

But it has also suffered controversies. In 2014 major Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange MtGox collapsed after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bitcoin breaks $10,000 barrier, raising fears of bubble

SINGAPORE - Bitcoin broke above the $10,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday as the virtual currency continued a stratospheric rise that has seen it increase more than tenfold this year.

The cryptocurrency surged to a high of $10,059 in early Asian hours, according to Bloomberg News, though the recent surge in the volatile unit has fuelled fears of a bubble.

Launched in 2009 as a bit of encrypted software written by someone using the Japanese-sounding name Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin has had a roller-coaster ride that has taken it from just a few US cents to its current sky-high valuation.

Traded on specialist platforms, with no legal exchange rate and no central bank backing it, Bitcoin is monitored and regulated by its community of users, and is used to buy everything from pizza to a pint in a London pub.

But it has attracted widespread criticism, from financial industry titans to governments.

JP Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon in September slammed the unit as a "fraud" and said he would fire his employees if they were caught trading it, while China has shut down Bitcoin trading platforms and South Korea's prime minister Tuesday voiced fears it could lead the young to get involved in fraudulent crime.

Analysts say the popularity has been driven by growing interest from major investors and a decision last month by exchange giant CME Group to launch a futures marketplace for the currency, which has not been listed on a major bourse before.

But there is growing unease with the rate of growth, which has seen it increase in value from a 2017 low of $752 in mid-January.

"This is a bubble and there is a lot of froth. This is going to be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes," warned hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz at a cryptocurrency conference Tuesday in New York, according to Bloomberg News.

Commentators also suggest some are buying it as an alternative bet in times of global economic uncertainty.

But critics point to its volatility, an apparent vulnerability to theft and its use in illicit purchases online.

In one of the most high-profile scandals to hit the currency, major Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange MtGox collapsed in 2014 after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults.

Bitcoin's use on the underground Silk Road website, where users could use it to buy drugs and guns, was also presented as proof it was a bad thing.

Despite concerns, most observers believe it is unlikely to suffer heavy falls soon.

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China's answer to Kindle raises $1.1-B for Hong Kong listing

HONG KONG - Chinese internet giant Tencent's e-book arm has raised US$1.1 billion for a Hong Kong listing next week, reports said Wednesday.

China Literature, the country's biggest online publishing business and Tencent's answer to Amazon's Kindle Store, saw 151 million shares priced at the top end of the offered range of HK$55 ($7.05) each, Bloomberg News said, according to people close to the deal.

The internet giant owns 62 percent of China Literature, which called itself a "pioneer" of China's online literature market on its prospectus and said that it carries 6.4 million writers and 9.6 million literary works.

Formerly known as China Reading, the Shanghai-based company was created through a merger between Tencent's online literature arm and another Chinese internet publisher, Shanda Cloudary.

The e-book firm is expected to list on Hong Kong's bourse on November 8.

China Literature's offering is the fifth-largest IPO in the city this year, according to Bloomberg News, with tech companies increasingly looking to list on the southern Chinese city.

Popular selfie app developer Meitu debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange in December -- the largest IPO by a technology company in the city in almost a decade.

The listing raised $629 million for the firm, which targets teenagers and young adults, primarily female, who use the beautifying app to retouch selfie photos.

Video game accessories maker Razer is also looking to list in Hong Kong and is expected to raise at least $400 million.

Razer's chief executive officer Tan Min-Liang has already raised funds from Singapore's Temasek Holdings and from Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing.

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China opens bond market to foreign investors

China will allow foreign investors direct access to its massive bond market from Monday, the Chinese central bank said.

A platform allowing one-way "northbound" investments from Hong Kong into the Chinese bond market will go into "experimental operation" on July 3, the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a joint statement Sunday, which came as Hong Kong marked the 20th anniversary of its handover to China by Britain.

Access to the market will be restricted to "qualified investors" including central banks and sovereign wealth funds, but also commercial banks, insurers, brokerage firms and investment funds, according to the PBOC.

China's debt market is the third largest in the world, with a cumulative value of about $10 trillion according to Bloomberg news agency.

However, this booming market has been virtually out of reach for foreign investors, who currently hold only a small portion of the bonds issued in China -- less than 1.5 percent according to Bloomberg estimates.

China has moved gradually toward opening its capital markets.

In 2014, a trading link between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges was introduced, and another was started in December 2016 between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China's other exchange.

The links give foreigners some access to China-listed shares, while also allowing Chinese firms to buy Hong Kong-traded stocks.

The bond move is the latest in a series of liberalization pledges from China, which has regularly been hit by complaints from foreign companies and trading partners about access to its markets.

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Moody's reaches USD864M settlement over subprime ratings

WASHINGTON - Ratings agency Moody's has agreed to pay nearly $864 million in a settlement with the US authorities over its inflated ratings of risky mortgage securities that contributed to prompting the 2008 global financial crisis, the Justice Department said Friday.

The agreement was signed between Moody's Investors Services, Moody's Analytics and parent company Moody's Corporation on one hand, and 21 states and the Justice Department on the other.

The authorities accused the credit rating agency of overvaluing the ratings of securities backed by subprime mortgages or at-risk loans at the center of the country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Standard and Poor's, a competing agency, agreed to pay a $1.37 billion fine in 2015 for deceiving investors about the quality of subprime mortgages.

The agreement follows an investigation lasting several years.

"Today’s settlement contains not only a significant penalty and factual admissions of its conduct, but also a commitment by Moody’s to new and continued compliance measures designed to ensure the integrity of credit ratings going forward," Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Bill Baer said in a statement.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded in 2011 that "this crisis could not have happened without the rating agencies," which allowed the ongoing trading of bad debt.

Moody's is the second-largest rating agency after Standard and Poor's. Together with the third major agency, Fitch, the three ratings firms dominate the bond-rating market with a more than 96 percent share, compared to 98.8 percent in 2007 before the crisis, Bloomberg News reported.

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PepsiCo brings back aspartame as diet cola sales fizzle

NEW YORK - PepsiCo said Monday it is putting aspartame back into some diet beverages in the United States, just a year after pulling the artificial sweetener from its products over consumer concerns about safety.

"Consumers want choice in diet colas, so we're refreshing our US lineup to provide three options that meet differing needs and taste preferences," a PepsiCo spokeswoman, Gina Anderson, said in an email to AFP.

The move comes as PepsiCo struggles with fizzling diet-cola sales.

Diet Pepsi's sales volume fell 5.8 percent in 2015 and dropped roughly 11 percent at retail during the first quarter of 2016, according to data from Beverage Digest cited by Bloomberg News.

The US beverages and snacks giant said in April 2015 it would replace aspartame-sweetened Diet Pepsi with versions sweetened with a blend of sucralose, commonly known as Splenda, and acesulfame potassium in August.

At the time, PepsiCo said that consumers wanted aspartame-free drinks. The trend came amid studies that linked aspartame to cancer.

But now American consumers appeared willing to mix up their artificial sweeteners, according to the company.

PepsiCo said it will use aspartame in its reintroduction later this year of Diet Pepsi Classic Sweetener Blend and PepsiMAX as PepsiZeroSugar.

Diet Pepsi, its main diet cola brand in the US, will remain sweetened with sucralose and Ace-K, it said.

Aspartame and sucralose are approved for human consumption by the US Food and Drug Administration.

In late 2014, Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola Life, its first reduced-calorie soft drink sweetened with cane sugar and stevia leaf extract, a natural herbal sweetener.

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Toshiba says cooperating with US on 'accounting problem'

TOKYO, Japan - Toshiba's American units are cooperating with US authorities over alleged accounting irregularities, the embattled firm said Friday, a day after its shares tumbled on a report it was under investigation.

The company has been roiled by a profit-padding scandal, in which high-handed bosses for years systematically pushed their subordinates to cover-up weak financial figures.

Toshiba, a pillar of Japan's industrial establishment, is expecting a huge loss of about 710 billion yen ($6.4 billion) for the year to March with sagging global demand also contributing to its financial woes.

"Several of our US subsidiaries have been requested to provide information by the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, and they are cooperating with the request," Toshiba said in a statement, referring to what it described as an "accounting problem" though it refrained from naming any of the companies.

The statement came after Bloomberg News, quoting unnamed sources, reported on Thursday that the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining if any fraud occurred over a loss booked by Toshiba's US nuclear business unit Westinghouse.

The loss could be up to 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion), the Asahi Shimbun daily said.

On Thursday Toshiba's stock fell nearly eight percent in Tokyo following the probe report, but in early trading Friday the shares were up more than four percent.

Toshiba will hold a news conference later Friday after the market close to announce its mid-term business plan.

In December, Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission said that Toshiba should be slapped with a record 7.37 billion yen fine over the profit-padding scheme that hammered its reputation.

In the wake of the scandal, Toshiba -- a vast conglomerate that makes everything from rice cookers to nuclear plants -- has ushered in thousands of job cuts and plans to sell various business units in a bid to revive itself.

Toshiba said Thursday that it has sold its medical devices unit to camera and office equipment maker Canon for almost $6 billion.

It also announced a basic agreement to sell a majority interest in its home appliance business to China's Midea, though a Toshiba spokeswoman said a price for the deal had yet to be announced.

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Tokyo's Nikkei stock index breaks 20,000 level

TOKYO - The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei index on Friday briefly broke through the psychologically important 20,000 level last seen 15 years ago.

The Nikkei 225 index reached 20,006.00 in the first few minutes of trade, rising 0.34 percent from Thursday following gains on Wall Street and a stronger dollar on an encouraging US jobs report.

It was the first time that the Nikkei had hit 20,000 since April 2000.

The index later came off its high, to sit at 19,917.62, a 0.10 percent loss from Thursday.

The early rise was heavily influenced by heavy-weighted Fast Retailing, the operator of fast-fashion brand Uniqlo, whose shares were up 2.62 precent after the group announced strong half-year earnings.

Strategists are upbeat over the outlook of stock prices on expectations of good earnings at Japanese companies, while acknowledging a short-term overshoot.

"When we look back on this moment, the 20,000 figure should just be a stop along the road," said Juichi Wako, a senior strategist at Nomura Holdings.

"It wouldn't be surprising if better-than-expected earnings lift the Nikkei to 21,000 or 22,000 by year's end.

"However, above the 20,000 mark, we might begin to hear voices that stocks are a bit overvalued," he told Bloomberg News.

The dollar held steady early Friday after rising on an encouraging US unemployment claims report.

The greenback was at 120.58 yen on Friday, hardly changed from 120.59 yen in New York late Thursday but up from 120.28 yen in Tokyo earlier Thursday.

The US Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of first-time unemployment claims rose last week, but claims filed in the past four weeks fell to a nearly 15-year low, suggesting a stronger labour market.

The robust data stoked speculation about the Federal Reserve's plan to raise ultra-low interest rates, boosting the dollar in a positive move for Japanese exporters.a

The euro bought $1.0661 and 128.56 yen on Friday against $1.0659 and 128.55 yen in US trade.

On Thursday big gains in petroleum stocks lifted the US equity market as investors bet on more large energy mergers following Royal Dutch Shell's huge takeover of BG Group.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.31 percent while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.45 percent.

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