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The world this week-Business
本周經濟要聞
Europe's big banks followed the trend of their American counterparts with generally dismal first-quarter earnings. The share prices of UBS and Commerzbank fell sharply after each said net profit had fallen much more than had been expected compared with the same three months last year, to SFr707m (712m) at UBS of Switzerland and 163m (180m) at Commerzbank of Germany. HSBC's pre-tax income dropped by 14% to 6.1 billion, but the bank pointed out it was on track in restructuring its business to focus more on Asia.
歐洲大銀行追隨美國大銀行走勢，第一季度總體收益呈現低迷狀態。瑞士聯合銀行（UBS）和德國商業銀行（Commerzbank）凈利潤同比出現明顯跌勢，分別跌至7.07億法郎（折合7.12億美元）和1.63億歐元（折合1.8億美元），遠遠超出了預想。隨后，兩家銀行股價也出現了大幅度的下跌。匯豐銀行（HSBC）稅前收入下跌14%至61億美元，但銀行指出，此次下跌是由于內部業務重組，以便將工作重心更多地集中于亞洲地區，一切都在掌控之中。
A share issue by Banca Popolare di Vicenza flopped. Italy's tenth-largest bank had tried to raise capital to satisfy European regulators through a share sale, but few investors were interested, leaving a bank-rescue fund created by other Italian financial firms to underwrite the whole issue.
意大利大眾銀行（Banca Popolare di Vicenza）股票發行計劃以失敗告終。作為意大利第十大銀行，意大利大眾銀行試圖通過出售股份進行籌資，以滿足歐洲管理者們的要求，但鮮有投資者對此感興趣，使得其他意大利金融公司不得不成立銀行救助基金，確保整支股票得以承銷發行。
The European Central Bank decided to phase out the 500 banknote (570) by late 2018 because of the proclivity of criminals and terror groups to use them. The last time 500 bills were printed was 2014, but they are popular among law-abiding folk in Germany and some other European countries.
由于犯罪分子和恐怖組織青睞于使用500歐元面值紙幣，歐洲中央銀行（European Central Bank）決定于2018年年底前逐步停止該類鈔票的發行。2014年，500歐元鈔票進行了最后一次印刷，該鈔票深受德國和其他歐洲國家守法人士的喜愛。
Transatlantic drift
橫跨大西洋
Intercontinental Exchange, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, decided not to bid for the London Stock Exchange, which has already agreed to a merger with Deutsche Borse. In March ICE announced that it was considering whether to make a rival offer; it says the London exchange displayed a “disappointing level of engagement”.
紐約證券交易所（New York Stock Exchange）母公司洲際交易所（Intercontinental Exchange）決定不向倫敦證券交易所（London Stock Exchange）報價，并同意同德國證券交易所（Deutsche Borse）進行合并。3月，洲際交易所宣布正在考慮是否報價倫敦交易所，隨后表示倫敦證券交易所的表現“令人失望”。
In a surprise decision Australia's central bank reduced its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 1.75%. It was the first cut in a year and came after one measure of Australia's inflation rate dipped to 1.5%.
澳大利亞中央銀行做出了出人意料的決定，將基準利率表下調0.25個百分點至1.75%。考慮到澳大利亞通脹率已降至1.5%，這是今年內首次進行下調。
Halliburton and Baker Hughes called off their 28 billion merger, which would have rivaled Schlumberger in size in the oilfield-services industry. The deal had run into opposition from antitrust officials, notably in America where the Justice Department recently signaled its intent to block the merger.
哈里伯頓（Halliburton）和貝克休斯（Baker Hughes）價值280億美元的合并計劃以失敗收場。在油田服務領域，兩家公司合并后的規模將與斯倫貝謝（Schlumberger）相提并論。但此次合并卻遭到了反壟斷機構的反對，尤其是近日美國司法部門試圖對此進行阻撓。
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