Business news

• Tech drags Wall Street lower; China tension weighs

  16-12-2016 22:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P and the tech sector. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 8.83 points, or 0.04 percent, to 19,843.41, the S&P 500 lost 3.96 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,258.07 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 19.69 points, or 0.36 percent, to 5,437.16. The Dow rose for its sixth consecutive week but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted slight weekly declines.
  
  Read more

• Twitter's video app will return as Vine Camera

  16-12-2016 22:19 via cbc.ca
  
  Twitter's video app, Vine, will live on as a simpler tool for the micro-messaging service.
  
  Read more

• Nextcloud 11 cloud server: An impressive, security-focused update

  16-12-2016 22:16 via techrepublic.com
  
  Nextcloud has finally released the latest iteration of its cloud server platform, and it's packed with security features. Get tips on upgrading to Nextcloud 11.
  
  Read more

• Wall Street falls as Oracle weighs

  16-12-2016 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday, weighed by a more than 4-percent drop in Oracle shares, while recently-battered stocks in the real estate and utilities sectors posted the largest gains.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• U.S. dollar holds near 14-year highs as rally loses steam

  16-12-2016 21:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar edged lower against a basket of major currencies on Friday, but still held near 14-year highs touched after Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting, with profit-taking halting the greenback's rally. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was last at 102.900, not far from Thursday's 14-year high of 103.560 but down 0.12 percent on the day. The Fed also signaled it was likely to hike rates three more ti
  
  Read more

• Verizon buys its users a little more time with the Galaxy Note7

  16-12-2016 20:32 via techrepublic.com
  
  Verizon has officially announced that it will push Samsung's update that will kill the Galaxy Note7. The update will roll out January 5, 2017.
  
  Read more

• Pushed by investor Ackman, Chipotle adds four new directors

  16-12-2016 20:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Lisa Baertlein and Svea Herbst-Bayliss (Reuters) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc , under pressure from activist investor Bill Ackman, named four new board members on Friday, paving the way for a reunion of sorts between its chief executive and a former top executive at McDonald's, which once owned the burrito chain. Matthew Paull, a former McDonald's Corp chief financial officer, will join the Chipotle board.
  
  Read more

• Early openings, low dollar making Canadian ski resorts optimistic

  16-12-2016 20:01 via cbc.ca
  
  Some Canadian ski resorts are reporting a big jump in bookings over last year as deep snow and a cheap currency have them eyeing a good season.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Amazon bets big on Las Vegas, rolling out nearly 5,000 Echo units to hotel rooms

  16-12-2016 19:41 via techrepublic.com
  
  Wynn Las Vegas is deploying Amazon Echo in its guest rooms. Initial features will include lighting and temperature control and eventually personal concierge functions will be added.
  
  Read more

• EU court ruling on Spanish tax breaks eyed for clues on Starbucks, Apple appeals

  16-12-2016 19:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Europe's top court will decide next week on Spanish tax breaks for foreign takeovers in a ruling that may give clues as to how judges will deal with more complex tax cases involving Starbucks and Apple . The European Commission, in two rulings in 2009 and 2011, said the scheme, which applied to Spanish companies holding a stake of at least 5 percent in a foreign company for at least a year, broke EU state aid rules, and ordered Spain to recover the money. Banco Santander , Autogrill Espana, whic
  
  Read more

• Orange CEO under fire at Tapie affair trial of IMF's Lagarde

  16-12-2016 19:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  French telecoms boss Stephane Richard was sharply criticized by one of the judges and by a witness during the negligence trial of IMF chief Christine Lagarde in Paris this week. Richard, the chief executive of Orange , is a target of investigators in a related inquiry which has yet to conclude. Richard and five others are under formal judicial investigation on suspicion of embezzlement linked to the Tapie case.
  
  Read more

• Wall Street loses ground as tech stocks weigh

  16-12-2016 18:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Dow is on track for its sixth weekly gain and less than 1 percent away from 20,000, a level it has never breached. The Federal Reserve, which raised interest rates for the second time in nearly a decade on Wednesday, sees a faster pace of rate hikes in 2017, partly due to the potential economic benefits from President-elect Donald Trump's policies. U.S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the S&P rising 5.7 percent on bets that Trump's plans to deregul
  
  Read more

• Rogers picks Comcast for internet protocol television, to take big writedown

  16-12-2016 18:30 via cbc.ca
  
  Rogers Communications won't release its next-generation video platform this year as planned, triggering a writedown worth about half a billion dollars.
  
  Read more

• Fidelity gives BlackRock an early leg up in robo advice brawl

  16-12-2016 18:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Fidelity Investments unintentionally boosted BlackRock Inc's prospects as a robo adviser with a small investment in a start-up company that BlackRock bought last year for an estimated $150 million. BlackRock and Fidelity are only in the early stages of what is shaping up as a battle royale to become the go-to provider of cheap automated financial advice over the Internet. Morgan Stanley analysts describe how robo advising is an emerging force to provide affordable advice in a $22 trillion wealth
  
  Read more

• Deutsche Bank to pay more than $37 million to settle dark pool cases

  16-12-2016 17:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A unit of Deutsche Bank AG will pay more than $37 million to settle charges that the bank misled clients about how it routed orders to anonymous trading platforms known as dark pools, regulators said on Friday. The bank agreed to pay $37 million to settle charges with federal and New York state regulators, and an additional $3.25 million to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Wall Street's self-funded regulator. In settling with both the New
  
  Read more

• Facebook underreported iPhone traffic for some publishers

  16-12-2016 17:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said it had underreported the number of views on iPhone of content published by some publishers using its Instant Articles platform between Sept. 20 and Nov. 30. Publishers make money through ads on their posts. Facebook said on Friday that a recent update to one of its metrics had led to the issue and affected publishers using one of its legacy platforms.
  
  Read more

• UN opens formal discussions on AI-powered autonomous weapons, could ban 'killer robots'

  16-12-2016 17:30 via techrepublic.com
  
  Leaders at the UN in Geneva just agreed to officially discuss guidelines for the design, development, and engineering of autonomous weapons. Here's why it matters.
  
  Read more

• U.S. housing starts tumble from nine-year high; permits suggest strength

  16-12-2016 17:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. homebuilding fell more than expected in November, tumbling from a nine-year high as construction activity declined broadly, the latest sign of slower economic growth in the fourth quarter. Groundbreaking on new housing projects dropped 18.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million units, the Commerce Department said. Housing starts data are choppy month-to-month, with much of the volatility coming from the multi-family segment of the market.
  
  Read more

• S&P, Nasdaq flat as investors pause after rally

  16-12-2016 17:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Dow was 103 points away from the historic mark and on track for its sixth weekly gains, after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time in nearly a decade earlier this week. U.S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the S&P rising 5.7 percent on bets that Trump's plans to deregulate sectors and increase infrastructure spending will boost the economy. "We're at a point where there's not much to factor in," said Mohannad Aama, managing
  
  Read more

• Pushed by investor Ackman, Chipotle adds four new directors to board

  16-12-2016 17:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Matthew Paull, a former McDonald's Corp chief financial officer, will join the Chipotle board along with media executives Paul Cappuccio and Robin Hickenlooper, and Ali Namvar, a partner at Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman is Chipotle's largest single investor with a nearly 10 percent stake.
  
  Read more

• Wells Fargo says account openings fall in November

  16-12-2016 17:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The bank agreed in September to pay regulators $185 million to settle charges that its staff opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers' knowledge. Wells Fargo said on Friday consumer checking account openings fell 9 percent in November from the previous month, and were down 41 percent from a year earlier. The bank started reporting monthly figures on retail banking activity last moth as part of an effort to win back the trust of investors.
  
  Read more

• BMO to pay back almost $50M to clients it accidentally overcharged for years

  16-12-2016 17:05 via cbc.ca
  
  BMO will pay $49.9 million in compensation to clients who were charged excess fees on some mutual funds and investments products.
  
  Read more

• BMO to pay $49.9M compensation to clients for accidental overcharging

  16-12-2016 17:05 via cbc.ca
  
  BMO will pay $49.9 million in compensation to clients who were charged excess fees on some mutual funds and investments products.
  
  Read more

• Inside Amazon's clickworker platform: How half a million people are being paid pennies to train AI

  16-12-2016 16:29 via techrepublic.com
  
  Internet platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk let companies break jobs into smaller tasks and offer them to people across the globe. But, do they democratize work or exploit the disempowered?
  
  Read more

• Sumner Redstone to step down from Viacom board

  16-12-2016 16:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The 93-year old Redstone, who has not been at an annual investor meeting since 2014, will still continue to participate in meetings in a "non-voting" role, according to the filing. It was Redstone's decision to step down, according to a source familiar with the situation, because discussions were private. Redstone stepped down as executive chair of the board last February to become Chairman Emeritus, replaced by then-CEO Philippe Dauman.
  
  Read more

• IBM launches Watson Discovery Service for big data analytics at scale

  16-12-2016 16:14 via techrepublic.com
  
  IBM's Watson Discovery Service is a suite of APIs that aims to make it easier for companies to ingest and analyze their data, even if they don't have an advanced degree in data science.
  
  Read more

• Chipotle names new directors, including Bill Ackman's nominees

  16-12-2016 16:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Pershing Square partner Ali Namvar and former McDonald's Corp CFO Matthew Paull, who serves on the hedge fund's advisory board, join Paul Cappuccio and Robin Hickenlooper as directors of the burrito chain. Cappuccio is executive vice president at Time Warner Inc and Hickenlooper is senior vice president of corporate development at media company Liberty Global Plc . "We are pleased that Chipotle has taken the important step of refreshing its board," Ackman said in a statement.
  
  Read more

• Poll: Is the Yahoo hack the final straw?

  16-12-2016 15:48 via techrepublic.com
  
  The latest Yahoo hack exposed over 1 billion users' accounts. Share your opinion: Can Yahoo recover, or will the data breach nuke Verizon's $4.8 billion acquisition of the internet portal?
  
  Read more

• Wall Street opens higher; Dow closes in on 20,000

  16-12-2016 15:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Dow came within 50 points of hitting the historic mark on Thursday and is on track for its sixth weekly gains, a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time in nearly a decade. U.S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the S&P rising 5.7 percent on bets that Trump's plans to deregulate sectors and increase infrastructure spending will boost the economy.
  
  Read more

• Cuisinart recalls more than 8 million food processor blades because they can break off

  16-12-2016 15:43 via cbc.ca
  
  The company that makes a popular food processor has issued a recall involving more than eight million Cuisinarts in Canada and the U.S. because their blades may break off over time and leave sharp pieces of jagged metal in the food.
  
  Read more

• EU Commission clears Danone to buy WhiteWave subject to conditions

  16-12-2016 15:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The European Commission on Friday cleared France's Danone to proceed with its $10.4 billion purchase of U.S. organic food producer WhiteWave, subject to it selling a business in Belgium. Danone will sell a large part of its "growing-up milk" business in Belgium, as the Commission said only Nestle would have remained as a competitor in the country otherwise. "The Commission had concerns that the merged entity would not have faced sufficient competitive pressure from the remaining player in this m
  
  Read more

• With bylaw tweaks, Apple grants activist one of three wishes

  16-12-2016 15:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's board relaxed some rules for director nominations by outside investors but stopped short of broader changes sought by an activist shareholder. Just how much influence to give such investors has been a hot topic with the rise of activist shareholders who some executives fear may not have long-term corporate interests at heart. At Apple, this debate played out several years ago when billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn successfully urged an increase
  
  Read more

• U.S. housing starts tumble from nine-year high

  16-12-2016 15:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Groundbreaking on new housing projects dropped 18.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million units, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Housing starts data is very volatile month-to-month. In addition, building permits for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, rose to a nine-year high in November.
  
  Read more

• Exclusive: Foreign banks in Britain pay fraction of tax rate

  16-12-2016 14:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Some of the biggest foreign investment and commercial banks operating in Britain paid an average tax rate of just 6 percent on the billions of dollars of profits they made in the country last year, a Reuters analysis of regulatory filings shows. Seven of the biggest international banks operating in London - Europe's main investment banking center - have published profit and tax data ahead of a year-end deadline stipulated by EU law. Five of them, all U.S. banks, reported a profit - a combined $7
  
  Read more

• Sky's not the limit for European media mergers

  16-12-2016 14:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Rupert Murdoch's bid for Britain's Sky is expected to drive traditional European media players to do their own deals to attain the scale they need to compete with online platforms like Netflix for increasingly costly programs. While Twenty-First Century Fox's offer for Sky is not a done deal, bankers and industry sources expect it will win control of a 22 million household pay-TV network in Britain, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Italy and spark deal-making. "Without doubt we will see further con
  
  Read more

• Master the Money Market

  16-12-2016 14:01 via portal.kiplinger.com
  
  This very-short-term credit market fuels two common savings vehicles.
  
  Read more

• European stocks reach new high; dollar's post-Fed rally pauses

  16-12-2016 13:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Atul Prakash LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks climbed to an 11-month high on merger and acquisition speculation on Friday, while the dollar's rally paused as investors adjusted their portfolios to cope with any faster-than-expected increases in U.S. interest rate. World stocks as measured by the MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 46 countries, rose 0.18 percent. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.7 percent after rising to a one-year peak on the export prospects from a weaker yen.
  
  Read more

• Oil rises on signs of producers' compliance with output cuts

  16-12-2016 13:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 33 cents at $51.23 per barrel. "The market has faith in the OPEC deal and should trade higher in the near future," said Tamas Varga, lead oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has agreed to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from Jan. 1, its first such deal since 2008.
  
  Read more

• PowerShell: The smart person's guide

  16-12-2016 13:21 via techrepublic.com
  
  This comprehensive guide covers essential PowerShell information, including features, usage requirements, and how Microsoft's framework extends to task automation and management.
  
  Read more

• Exclusive: Bollore, Chinese and U.S. firms bid for Spain's Mediapro - sources

  16-12-2016 13:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  French media tycoon Vincent Bollore is bidding for a stake in Spain's largest sports broadcasting rights firm at the same time as facing off with former Italian president Silvio Berlusconi for control of Mediaset . Bollore's Vivendi is one of 10 bidders, alongside a number of Chinese and U.S. investors, hoping to land either a 30 percent or 51 percent stake in Spain's Imagina, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The race for Imagina epitomizes the broader trends in the media industry:
  
  Read more

• 'Trump trade' drives ninth biggest weekly rush to stocks: BAML

  16-12-2016 12:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Global equity funds received $21 billion in the past week - their ninth-biggest inflow ever - as investors embraced the 'Trump trade', while money flowed out of bonds for seventh week in a row, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. The BAML figures, which track flows through Wednesday, showed overall equity inflows of $63 billion since Donald Trump's U.S. presidential election win on Nov. 8, partially reversing the $151 billion outflows seen from January to October. The bulk of the lates
  
  Read more

• Generali not planning sale of French assets to Allianz: sources

  16-12-2016 12:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Assicurazioni Generali does not intend to sell its French business, three people close to the situation said on Friday, following a report that German rival Allianz was in talks with Italy's biggest insurer about a sale. Earlier Bloomberg had said Allianz, Europe's biggest insurance company, was considering making a bid for Generali's French operations, although it was uncertain whether a deal could get the approval of competition regulators. Generali and Allianz declined to comment on the repor
  
  Read more

• Linde Praxair deal has higher chance this time: IG Metall

  16-12-2016 12:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Germany's Linde and United States rival Praxair's latest attempt to strike a deal has a higher chance of success thanks to extensive assurances about preserving German sites, a top German union representative told Reuters. Earlier this month the companies agreed to revive talks to create a $65 billion industrial gases giant after initial discussions broke down in September amid disagreements on governance of a combined company. In remarks published on Friday, Juergen Wechsler, head of the IG Met
  
  Read more

• Lufthansa pilots agree to mediated talks in pay dispute

  16-12-2016 11:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Lufthansa and German pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit have agreed to mediated talks to resolve a row over contracts dating back to 2012, averting the threat of further strikes for a few more weeks, the two parties said on Friday. Lufthansa has been embroiled in a series of separate disputes with its pilots and cabin crew staff over pay and conditions as management seeks to reduce costs to compete with budget airlines and more efficient long-haul carriers. The mediation process is to start in ea
  
  Read more

• Russia's Novak says all oil firms to cut output under OPEC deal

  16-12-2016 11:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  TOKYO (Reuters) - All Russian oil companies, including champion producer Rosneft , have agreed to cut crude output under Moscow's agreements with OPEC, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. Asked if Rosneft would cut production alongside other producers, Novak told reporters: "All companies agree to cut output." (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Andrey Ostroukh)
  
  Read more

• It's a trap! Why blowing up the Death Star was terrible economic idea for the rebels

  16-12-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  According to the calculations of a dogged economist, the fallout of destroying the Death Star would have been a catastrophe for both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
  
  Read more

• It's a trap! Why blowing up the Death Star was likely an economic disaster

  16-12-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  According to the calculations of a dogged economist, the fallout of destroying the Death Star would have been a catastrophe for both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
  
  Read more

• It's a trap! The economic argument against blowing up the Death Star

  16-12-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  According to the calculations of a dogged economist, the fallout of destroying the Death Star would have been a catastrophe for both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
  
  Read more

• 'Have you no soul?': Hatchimal-hunting parents angered by surging toy price

  16-12-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Hatchimals, the must-have toy this Christmas, have already sold out at most stores. They're still available online, but at sky-high prices. That’s angered parents who feel that greedy dealers are trying to take advantage of them at Christmas time.
  
  Read more

• Post-Fed dollar rally steadies, stocks level near highs

  16-12-2016 10:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Atul Prakash LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar's post-Federal Reserve rally steadied on Friday and European shares traded near 11-month highs as investors adjusted their portfolios before year-end to face the prospect of a faster-than-expected pace of U.S. rate hikes next year. World stocks as measured by the MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 46 countries, were up 0.1 percent. Global financial markets have been choppy since the Fed projected three more interest rates hikes next year
  
  Read more

Follow @Business_Newsl on Twitter!