More than a century has passed since Henri Matisse created “The Red Studio”, a painting of a roomful of paintings, and I have seen it innumerable times at MoMA. Yet it hasn’t relinquished the ability to rattle and exhilarate. Its radicalism endures. This is where Matisse found the ideal marriage between broad blocks of colour
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The once-niche carbon market is attracting wealthy individuals in pursuit of a new way to make money. And, at the same time, as society’s concerns over climate change grow, it is providing them with a potential route to a greener portfolio. The rich and their money managers are now taking an interest in the market
Fundraising by China-focused private equity investors has fallen to its lowest level in 13 years, as early-stage backers of the country’s start-up scene grapple with Beijing’s tech crackdown and zero-Covid policies. Venture capital and private equity funds concentrating on the Greater China region raised just $1.7bn in the first quarter of 2022, according to estimates
Assessing a company’s performance based on its social responsibility rather than its balance sheet is no easy task. Environmental, social and governance frameworks that source information from public databases and expert analyses put all the considerations into one equation. The variables of life can make it challenging to produce a trustworthy output. But this difficulty
Coinbase’s trading volumes fell more than 40 per cent in the first quarter, as its worse than expected earnings and bleak outlook underscored the fallout from the crypto bear market. Shares in the largest US cryptocurrency exchange fell more than 15 per cent in after-hours trading, after the company reported net losses of $430mn, far
Tech features in a solid seven of the 38 bills put forward in the UK government’s legislative programme for the next parliamentary session, unveiled in the Queen’s Speech delivered by Prince Charles today. The main theme is the government seeking Brexit benefits by loosening regulations enforced by the EU, reducing requirements and opening up the
A global equity sell-off hit Asian markets on Tuesday after the steepest one-day fall on Wall Street since 2020 as investors worried about a slowdown in the world’s largest economies. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 2.8 per cent in afternoon trading after a one-day holiday. Chinese technology groups listed in the territory recorded some
Elon Musk has said he would reverse Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter, accusing the social media company of leftwing bias that had aggravated political divisions in the US. “I think it was a morally bad decision, and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said of the lifetime ban of Trump, which was imposed soon after a
Spain has sacked the head of its national intelligence agency, as the government seeks to draw a line under a political crisis triggered by the use of Pegasus spyware against the prime minister and allegations that dozens of Catalan separatist politicians were also targeted. Paz Esteban was fired as director of the National Intelligence Centre
A Republican senator is pushing the US Treasury to tighten its sanctions on a range of companies, warning that gaps in the current regime are strengthening the hand of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Steve Daines, a senator from Montana and one of the first members of Congress to visit Ukraine after war broke out, urged
Low-cost carrier Wizz Air is exploring launching flights to Saudi Arabia, part of an ambitious expansion strategy as the travel industry emerges from the pandemic. The London-listed airline on Tuesday said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi government to explore “airline market development opportunities” in the country, which hopes to expand
The UK’s regulator for payment services is to gain the power to force banks to offer compensation to blameless victims of “push payment” scams, highlighting “disparities” in the current voluntary approach. The proposed measure was announced on Tuesday as part of the financial services and markets bill, alongside a commitment to ensuring continued access to
The big story in crypto-land so far this week is the Terra stablecoin, which has proven to be neither strong nor stable. You’ll probably know already that, by applying the Code is Law principle to monetary policy, Terra wants to become the internet’s reserve currency. You’ll also know that it’s not going entirely to plan.
The head of Stellantis has warned that carmakers will struggle to get hold of enough batteries in the next three to four years as they race to roll out electric vehicles, leaving some manufacturers by the wayside as supply bottlenecks pile up. Carlos Tavares told the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference on Tuesday
London stockbroker Panmure Gordon has turned a profit for the first time since coming under the control of former Barclays duo Bob Diamond and Rich Ricci, albeit just £3mn for 2021. Diamond, who was chief executive of Barclays from 2011 to 2012, bought a majority stake in the 146-year-old merchant bank in 2018 along with
Most Londoners I know of a certain age have a Gordon’s Wine Bar story – in the days before Tinder, a claret-fuelled blind date in its Stygian cellar was pretty much a rite of passage. Established in 1890, just down the hill from Charing Cross, it’s the oldest wine bar in London. But I’m afraid
Nintendo has announced a 10-for-one stock split to address longtime investor calls to improve corporate governance at the Kyoto-based games maker. The unexpected move would finally allow retail investors to invest in the creator of Mario and Donkey Kong by making shares cheaper to acquire. Other global tech companies, such as Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla
I was in the foyer of a sleek hotel in Seoul in the summer of 2019 when Donald Trump’s security team began streaming out of the building. The US president had suddenly decided to rip up the agenda and protocol of a much-planned diplomatic visit to South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and head north to
Good morning. It was another horrible day for stocks yesterday. Revisiting the reasons for this would be redundant after we combed through the charred remains of the bull market last week. Suffice it to say that a big oil sell-off, and falling two-year yields, suggest that fear of slowing growth — as opposed to fear
The US Supreme Court may be preparing to overturn the landmark ruling that has guaranteed the right to an abortion across the country for nearly 50 years, but some states already live in a post-Roe vs Wade reality. A draft ruling leaked last week indicated the court was set to repeal. Its official opinion is