Asian markets mostly up after US gains
HONG KONG, China — Asian markets were largely higher on Friday following Wall Street gains driven by tech rallies and key US inflation data that met investors' expectations.
UPS latest news
Mourners brave arrest to attend Navalny's funeral
MOSCOW, Russia — The funeral of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is due to take place in Moscow on Friday, with mourners braving the risk of arrest to come and pay their respects.
FEU-Diliman shuts out UST for 12th straight UAAP juniors football crown
MANILA, Philippines -- Far Eastern University-Diliman blanked finals debutant Santo Tomas with a 3-0 shutout and kicked its way to a 12th straight title in the UAAP Season 86 boys’ football championship late Thursday night at the UP Football Stadium.
Gloria Diaz, Isabelle Daza reiterate opinions on new Miss Universe rules
MANILA, Philippines — Miss Universe 1969 Gloria Diaz and her daughter Isabelle Daza firmly believe only biological women should compete at Miss Universe.
Japan mayor quits over 99 sexual harassment allegations
TOKYO, Japan — The resignation of a Japanese mayor facing 99 allegations of sexual harassment sparked anger on social media on Friday, after he denied some cases and wept at a press conference.
Hamilton admits 'it's a shock' as Mercedes top Bahrain practice
SAKHIR, Bahrain -- Lewis Hamilton warned his Mercedes team not to "get ahead of ourselves" after unexpectedly topping the times ahead of team-mate George Russell in practice for this weekend's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Injured NBA MVP Embiid plans to return this season
WASHINGTON, United States -- Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid said Thursday (Friday, Manila time) that he intends to return from a left knee injury to play for the Philadelphia 76ers once again this season.
Metrobank raises $1 billion on international debt market
Metrobank [MBT 62.00 ?1.5%] [link] revealed that it was able to sell twice the amount in medium-term notes on the international debt capital markets than it intended. MBT set out to raise $500 million through the sale of 5-year and 10-year US Dollar-denominated notes, but thanks to heavy interest, its “order book was more than 11 times oversubscribed”. MBT accepted an additional $500 million in debt sales out of the subscription applications to bring its total raised to $1 billion. Buyers applied to purchase up to $5.6 billion in debt from MBT on the terms offered. 86% of the investors are from the Asia Pacific region, and 14% are from Europe, Middle East, and Africa. MBT said that the proceeds of the issuance would “diversify the bank’s funding sources”, but also “establish a benchmark for Philippine bank credit in the international capital markets.”MB BOTTOM-LINE: You know a company is hyped up about what it’s done when it gives a two-page press release with seven bullet points about the sale of some notes. Normally, this kind of transaction is documented more clinically with little attempt made to frame it as anything beyond what it is, but here, MBT is clearly proud of this transaction. And with good reason: the notes were rated “at par with the Republic of the Philippines sovereign debt”; the 10-year note is the “longest senior dated note by a private sector bank in the Philippines”; and the issuance is the “largest non-sovereign note issuance in the Philippines. MBT’s executive team will be riding this high (and the high that came from its great FY23 results) for a while.