China’s clampdown on cryptocurrencies has reportedly taken a new direction – to close down local bitcoin exchanges. Initial reports from Chinese media that the government plans to close down domestic cryptocurrency exchanges have seen the virtual coin shed more than $100 since Friday. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal also reported Monday that that the […]

The United Nations Security Council is meeting later on Monday to vote on new sanctions on North Korea, but whether China and Russia will support an oil embargo remains in question, said experts. The U.S. wants the Security Council to impose an oil embargo on the reclusive nation, halt its key export of textiles and […]

Fallen Chinese tech unicorn Xiaomi is finally seeing a turnaround in its fortunes following a surge in mobile phone shipments, the Financial Times reported Monday. The firm regained a place among the top-five global smartphone manufacturers after sales in the second quarter soared 59 percent year-on-year to hit 21 million, the report said, citing market […]

Economic disruptions caused by a back-to-back pummeling from hurricanes in the United States may just seal the deal for the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates intact for the rest of this year, experts told CNBC on Monday. Hurricane Irma is still making its way up Florida’s coast, but Goldman Sachs and Bank of America-Merrill […]

China is starting to roll back measures meant to prop up its currency after a recent surge in the yuan erased all of last year’s losses. Starting today, the central bank has scrapped a reserve requirement rule on trades called currency forwards, making it cheaper for investors to buy dollars while selling the yuan. Banks […]

South Korea has gaps in its countermeasures against North Korean missiles — with or without America’s state-of-the-art defense system in place. South Korea and the United States had to overcome political resistance from locals and diplomatic and economic pushback from China in order to get the anti-missile system known as THAAD deployed in South Korea. […]

Myanmar finds itself increasingly isolated diplomatically as violence against the country’s Muslim minority Rohingya spurs a humanitarian crisis, but an analyst said the country has found one prominent ally: India. Over the weekend, the United Nations appealed for aid as the number of Rohingya fleeing into southern Bangladesh neared 300,000 after the upsurge of violence […]

North Korea warned on Monday the United States would pay a “due price” for spearheading a U.N. Security Council resolution against its latest nuclear test, as Washington presses for a vote on a draft resolution imposing more sanctions on Pyongyang. South Korean officials have said after the North’s sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, which […]

Asia markets on Monday are expected to digest headlines concerning developments out of the People’s Bank of China and European Central Bank announced at the weekend. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were up 0.44 percent at 19,360, while Osaka futures were off 0.54 percent at 19,170, at 6:20 a.m. HK/SIN. That compared with the Nikkei […]

China is joining France and Britain in announcing plans to end sales of gasoline and diesel cars. China’s industry ministry is developing a timetable to end production and sale of traditional fuel cars and will promote development of electric technology, state media on Sunday cited a Cabinet official as saying. The reports gave no possible […]