Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina has said a multi-million bet against his company is doomed to fail. The world’s largest hedge-fund firm Bridgewater Associates, has mounted a reported $713 million wager against Italian financial stocks. Its biggest bet is calculated to be against Intesa Sanpaolo. The short position, which aims to profit on a fall […]

A Chinese space station has begun its out-of-control descent towards Earth’s surface and is expected to crash-land within a few months. Launched in 2011, the 8.5-ton Tiangong-1 space laboratory had originally been a symbol of Beijing’s ambitious scientific bid to become a space superpower. However, last year Chinese officials confirmed the country’s first orbiting space […]

Oil prices are poised to crash to just $10 per barrel over the next six to eight years as alternative energy fuels continue to attract more and more investors, Chris Watling, chief executive of Longview Economics, told CNBC on Friday. When looking ahead to 2018, Watling acknowledged that a key catalyst for the oil market […]

The head of the European Central Bank defended a pledge to keep interest rates at rock bottom on Thursday, batting back German calls for a speedy exit from years of easy money in the eurozone. With two weeks to go before the ECB decides on the future of its stimulus policy, its president, Mario Draghi, […]

The constitutional crisis between Spain and Catalonia could result in the now-mythical “Article 155” being invoked by the Spanish government as a last resort to bring the region’s pro-independence government to heel. Here, CNBC explains just what Article 155 is and how it could affect Spain and Catalonia’s futures. The term Article 155 has been […]

European bourses look set to begin Friday’s trading session lower as investors monitor new data, earnings and speeches from members of key central banks. The U.K.’s FTSE is expected to start trading on the last day of the week 23 points down at 7,533, while the German DAX is seen 5 points lower at 12,978. […]

Austria might not have the biggest prominence on the political stage but as a central European power, bridging eastern and western Europe, its politics can influence others around it. As the country goes to the polls for parliamentary elections this weekend, CNBC looks at why the vote matters. Austrian voters are heading to the polls […]

Spain’s Economy Minister Luis de Guindos has described the policies of the Catalan government as “insane” and says trouble in the region is about anarchy rather than independence. De Guindos told CNBC Thursday that he believed no economy could thrive without the rule of law and that the Catalonian government was not acting rationally. “We […]

The CEO of a major European bank offered a stark warning for his industry on Thursday, suggesting that years of accommodative policy by global central banks could quickly turn sour. Low interest rates have been supportive for the world economy, according to ING Group’s Chief Executive Ralph Hamers, but banks have to be “very cautious” […]

HSBC has appointed John Flint as its next chief executive the bank said on Thursday, sticking with a tradition of promoting company insiders to run the firm. Flint, who currently runs HSBC’s retail and wealth management business, will start in his new role on Feb 21 2018, taking over from current chief executive Stuart Gulliver, […]