HSBC is weighing combining its commercial and investment bank divisions as part of new Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery’s push to eliminate overlapping roles across the company and shed expenses. The effort would bring together HSBC’s global banking and markets business, which caters to large, multinational corporations and houses the firm’s trading and investment banking divisions, with its commercial banking arm. The combined division would become the bank’s largest revenue generator, dropping about $40 billion a year into HSBC’s coffers and leapfrogging its wealth and personal banking business. It would also bring together a more than 90,000-person strong workforce, though some executives believe the tie-up could allow the bank to eliminate some employees. —Natasha Solo-Lyons

Deflation that’s been stalking China since last year is showing signs of spiraling, which threatens to worsen the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy while raising calls for immediate policy action. Data released Monday confirmed that, apart from food costs, consumer price growth barely registered in large swathes of the Chinese economy at a time when incomes are sagging.

Pedestrians on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. A broad measure of Chinese economy-wide prices known as the gross domestic product deflator will likely extend its current five-quarter drop into 2025. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Consultants seeking work are increasingly chasing ghosts. Job listings for consulting roles with no hiring activity, also known as “ghost jobs,” hit a two-year high, according to data from hiring platform Greenhouse. While ghost jobs have declined in finance and technology, those in consulting—a bellwether for the white-collar economy—rose to 31% in the second quarter, up from 26% two years ago and well above the prevalence across the broader job market.

Argentines are taking their dollar savings out from under the mattress and depositing them into banks, potentially a vote of confidence in President Javier Milei and his tax amnesty program. Dollar deposits have surged 40% to $19.8 billion since he took office Dec. 10, marking the highest levels since late 2019, according to central bank data. While Argentines are paid in pesos, savings accounts at banks are often denominated in US dollars.

Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called on the European Union to invest as much as €800 billion ($884 billion) extra a year and commit to the regular issuance of common bonds to make the bloc more competitive with China and the US. In his long-awaited report on EU competitiveness, Draghi urged the union to develop its advanced technologies, create a plan to meet its climate targets and boost defense and security of critical raw materials, labeling the task “an existential challenge.”

Mario Draghi  Photographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg

Colombian rebels have reopened their war on the oil industry with a wave of pipeline attacks that sent crude spilling into rivers and clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky. The world’s oldest guerrilla force, known as the National Liberation Army, or ELN, is reactivating its six-decade campaign of sabotage after peace talks with the government broke down, raising the stakes for President Gustavo Petro by hitting the sector that produces a third of the nation’s exports. The leftist group also renewed hostilities with government security forces, opening fire on police bases and killing five soldiers in ambushes.

A tropical storm forming in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico is threatening to unleash powerful winds and heavy rain as it makes its way toward the US where it will likely hit Wednesday as a hurricane. The system already has winds up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour, but it lacks the structure to be designated a tropical storm. Once it pulls together into a tighter pattern, forecasters expect it will grow into a hurricane and be named Francine, the next name on the Atlantic seasonal list.

Discount retailer Big Lots has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell the chain’s assets and ongoing business in a court-supervised process. Big Lots sought court protection after suffering from years of declining same-store sales and closing locations. It entered into a sale agreement with an affiliate of private equity investor Nexus Capital Management. Under the agreement, Nexus will serve as a “stalking horse bidder,” meaning that if no higher or better offers come from other parties, Nexus will buy the business.

A Big Lots store in Los Angeles  Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg

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Apple is worth $3.4 trillion, more than any other company. It once sold itself as a plucky rebel; now critics say it uses technology to entrench its power and influence over media, communication, mobile finance, social networks and pretty much everything else. This is how Apple took over the world, and how the world is pushing back.

The Apple logo. Photographer: Indranil Aditya/Bloomberg

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