Europe's big banks followed the trend of theirAmerican counterparts with generally dismal first-quarter earnings. The share prices of UBS andCommerzbank fell sharply after each said net profithad fallen much more than had been expected compared with the same three months last year, toSFr707m (712m) at UBS of Switzerland and 163m (180m) at Commerzbank of Germany. HSBC's pre-tax income dropped by 14% to 6.1 billion, but the bank pointed out it was on track inrestructuring its business to focus more on Asia.
A share issue by Banca Popolare di Vicenza flopped. Italy's tenth-largest bank had tried toraise capital to satisfy European regulators through a share sale, but few investors were interested, leaving a bank-rescue fund created by other Italian financial firms to underwrite the whole issue.
意大利大众银行(Banca Popolare di Vicenza)股票发行计划以失败告终。作为意大利第十大银行,意大利大众银行试图通过出售股份进行筹资,以满足欧洲管理者们的要求,但鲜有投资者对此感兴趣,使得其他意大利金融公司不得不成立银行救助基金,确保整支股票得以承销发行。
The European Central Bank decided to phase out the 500 banknote (570) by late 2018 because ofthe proclivity of criminals and terror groups to use them. The last time 500 bills wereprinted was 2014, but they are popular among law-abiding folk in Germany and some otherEuropean countries.
由于犯罪分子和恐怖组织青睐于使用500欧元面值纸币,欧洲中央银行(European Central Bank)决定于2018年年底前逐步停止该类钞票的发行。2014年,500欧元钞票进行了最后一次印刷,该钞票深受德国和其他欧洲国家守法人士的喜爱。
Transatlantic drift
横跨大西洋
Intercontinental Exchange, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, decided not to bid for the London Stock Exchange, which has already agreed to a merger with Deutsche Borse. In March ICE announced that it was considering whether to make a rival offer; it says the London exchange displayed a “disappointing level of engagement”.
纽约证券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)母公司洲际交易所(Intercontinental Exchange)决定不向伦敦证券交易所(London Stock Exchange)报价,并同意同德国证券交易所(Deutsche Borse)进行合并。3月,洲际交易所宣布正在考虑是否报价伦敦交易所,随后表示伦敦证券交易所的表现“令人失望”。
In a surprise decision Australia's central bank reduced its benchmark interest rate by aquarter of a percentage point, to 1.75%. It was the first cut in a year and came after one measure of Australia's inflation rate dipped to 1.5%.
Halliburton and Baker Hughes called off their 28 billion merger, which would have rivaled Schlumberger in size in the oilfield-services industry. The deal had run into opposition from antitrust officials, notably in America where the Justice Department recently signaledits intent to block the merger.