Alibaba has bought Pakistani e-commerce firm Daraz, as the Chinese tech giant looks to increase its presence in South Asia. Financial details of the transaction, which was announced on Tuesday, were undisclosed. Daraz, founded in 2012, is backed by European tech incubator Rocket Internet. It operates in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal as well […]

Amid a fierce political contest, Malaysia will be holding both federal Parliament and state assembly elections on Wednesday. Stakes are high for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is already weathering a multi-billion dollar scandal involving state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). He is going up against a record number of candidates and battles in […]

In a matter of hours, President Donald Trump is set to announce his decision on the Iran nuclear deal. Many are expecting him to pull the United States out of the deal and restore sanctions against the nation. Among the deal’s signatories, China is likely to resist any unilateral American action, experts said. Any sanctions […]

The situation could turn “dicey” for emerging economies in Asia if the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hits 3.5 percent, according to an expert from Europe’s largest bank. Many Asian emerging economies have attracted large amounts of foreign investments into their local bond markets, and an uptick in the yield of the 10-year Treasury could […]

Last month saw major growth in China trade. China’s April imports jumped 21.5 percent and its exports grew 12.9 percent against the prior year-ago period. Both of those figures, denominated in U.S. dollars, topped analysts expectations: A Reuters poll had predicted 16 percent import growth and 6.3 percent export growth. Overall, China’s April trade balance […]

Asian markets looked set for a higher open on Tuesday on the back of Wall Street’s gains, as oil prices got a boost on concerns that the U.S. could potentially reinstate sanctions on Iran. U.S. stocks closed higher, with technology shares recording a third consecutive day of gains, although stock indexes closed off their intraday […]

Carlyle Group is set to close its biggest-ever Asia private equity fund at $6.5 billion, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, in a deal that adds to the record levels of funds seeking deals in the region. The private-equity giant had initially targeted a fund of $5 billion but raised its expectations following […]

Positive developments from the Korean Peninsula will be good news for stocks in the region — and a couple markets in particular, according to a bank strategist on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have both indicated their willingness for a summit. Sean Yokota, head of Asia strategy at […]

Celebrating “the end of history” and trying to “manage” China’s unstoppable ascent, America, with very little help from Europe, has been on a crucial mission to defend and reinforce the centuries-old system of Western governance based on democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. In the process, inadequate attention to U.S. foreign trade […]

Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Randal Quarles said the central bank is in the early stages of studying how the expanding use of machine learning in the financial sector may change its regulatory approach, but that so far it fits within the existing regulatory framework. “We are paying a lot of attention … within […]