Finance news

• Strong dollar hurts HP's earnings forecast, shares plummet

  24-02-2015 23:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co reported flat or lower quarterly revenue in all its operating units on Tuesday, and forecast full-year earnings well below analysts' expectations due to the strong U.S. dollar. "Revenue was a little short on the top end, the guidance for the second quarter was a little below where the consensus was," said Daniel Morgan, a portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co. "Let's wait till October, see if this split is really going to create the shareho
  
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• New York City to have $1.6 billion budget surplus: comptroller

  24-02-2015 23:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  New York City will have a budget surplus totaling $1.6 billion in fiscal years 2015 and 2016, due mainly to higher-than-anticipated tax revenues, the city's top financial watchdog said on Tuesday. The higher tax revenues would be a boon to New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, who predicted a balanced budget in both years when he outlined his spending plans earlier this month. De Blasio is committed to big-ticket items such as universal pre-school and affordable housing. Tuesday's report by city Comptr
  
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• U.S. health official says no fix if Obamacare subsidies thrown out

  24-02-2015 23:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Yasmeen Abutaleb NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Obama administration has no way to repair the damage that would result from a Supreme Court decision against Obamacare that would make health care unaffordable for millions of Americans, a top health adviser said on Tuesday. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June on whether residents in at least 34 U.S. states are eligible for federal tax subsidies to help them buy health coverage under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care A
  
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• Bank of Canada says January rate cut the right amount of 'insurance'

  24-02-2015 23:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Leah Schnurr and Jeffrey Hodgson LONDON, Ontario (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada took out the right amount of "insurance" when it cut interest rates by one-quarter percentage point last month to protect the economy from the impact of cheaper oil, Governor Stephen Poloz said on Tuesday. The rate move bought the central bank time to see how Canada's oil-exporting economy responds to a plunge in oil prices, Poloz said in the bank's last pronouncement before its next rate decision on March 4. "At
  
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• Strong dollar hurts HP's earnings forecast

  24-02-2015 23:09 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co forecast full-year earnings well below analysts' expectations, citing the impact of a strong dollar. "... we believe the impact on FY15 will be significantly greater than we anticipated in November," Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in a statement.
  
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• How the Dow Jones industrial average fared on Tuesday

  24-02-2015 23:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The U.S. stock market edged higher on Tuesday, nudging the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index to new highs. Investors cheered the latest news on interest rates, Greece and corporate ...
  
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• Home Depot and Toll Brothers are big market movers

  24-02-2015 22:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE The Home Depot Inc., up $4.47 to $116.75 The home-improvement store posted better-than-expected ...
  
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• TSX declines as energy, BMO shares drop

  24-02-2015 22:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Tuesday as a decline in oil and gas shares and a drop in Bank of Montreal offset optimism spurred by comments by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on monetary policy direction. BMO shares shed 2 percent to C$75.83 after the lender posted a smaller-than-expected first-quarter profit, hurt by the impact of declining long-term interest rates on its insurance unit and lower investment and corporate banking revenues. Inves
  
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• Air NZ earnings boosted by fuel prices

  24-02-2015 22:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A strong performance from Air New Zealand.
  
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• Brazil shipbuilder OSX says CFO steps down, CEO to take role

  24-02-2015 22:34
  RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - OSX Brasil SA
  Chief Financial Officer Claudio Antônio da Silva Zuicker is
  stepping down, and Chief Executive Officer Vladimir Kundert
  Ranevsky will add the role of...
  
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• Dow, S&P finish at records after Yellen comments

  24-02-2015 22:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting records, as investors attempted to interpret a subtle change in emphasis in testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Yellen told a congressional committee that the Fed is preparing to consider increases "on a meeting-by-meeting basis." While economists have been expecting a hike as soon as June, some investors saw Yellen's comments as an indicator of a later liftoff for the Fed's first rate hik
  
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• US STOCKS-Dow, S&P finish at records after Yellen comments

  24-02-2015 22:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting records, as investors attempted to interpret a subtle change in emphasis in testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Yellen told a congressional committee that the Fed is preparing to consider increases "on a meeting-by-meeting basis." While economists have been expecting a hike as soon as June, some investors saw Yellen's comments as an indicator of a later liftoff for the Fed's first rate hike since 2006.
  
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• Slight gains push US stocks to record highs; Home Depot up

  24-02-2015 22:13 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The U.S. stock market is back at a record high as traders are encouraged by the latest news on interest rates, Greece and corporate earnings.
  
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• Stern Advice: Don't wait for Washington to protect retirement investors

  24-02-2015 22:11
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - After years of talk about how to protect retirement savers, the White House has gotten behind a Labor Department proposal that would require financial advisers to put clients'...
  
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• Wall Street ends up; Nasdaq rises for tenth session

  24-02-2015 22:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended higher on Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 closing at record levels as investors attempted to interpret a subtle change in emphasis in testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
  
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• Fiduciary standard for advice is long overdue in U.S.

  24-02-2015 22:03
  CHICAGO (Reuters) - When you are planning for retirement and ask for advice, whose interest should come first - yours or the financial expert you ask for help?
  
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• Fed's Yellen faces heat from both sides of political divide

  24-02-2015 21:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Michael Flaherty WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tough questions aimed at Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen from a rising force in the Democratic Party on Tuesday showed how the U.S. central bank is facing increasing pressure from both sides of the political aisle. "I urge you ... to assess whether the leadership of the Fed's staff is on the same page as the Federal Reserve Board," Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said during Yellen's two-hour appearance before the Senate Banking Committee.
  
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• Brazil judge in Batista case seen driving tycoon's seized Porsche

  24-02-2015 21:37
  RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Brazilian judge
  presiding over criminal proceedings against charismatic
  entrepreneur Eike Batista, once Brazil's richest man, was seen
  on Tuesday driving a...
  
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• Finmeccanica agrees sale of rail businesses to Hitachi for $2.2 billion

  24-02-2015 21:23
  
  MILAN (Reuters) - Italian aerospace and defense group Finmeccanica has agreed to sell its rail business to Hitachi Ltd in a deal which will cost the Japanese conglomerate up to 1.9 billion euros...
  
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• UPDATE 5-Finmeccanica agrees sale of rail businesses to Hitachi for $2.2 bln

  24-02-2015 21:19
  * Deal strengthens Hitachi foothold in Europe (Adds Finmeccanica CEO's comments throughout)
  
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• Dow, S&P edge up, hit intraday records after Yellen comments

  24-02-2015 20:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks advanced in choppy trading on Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 touching intraday records, as investors attempted to interpret testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. As investors sought clues on the timing of the Fed's first interest rate increase since 2006, Yellen told a congressional committee it is preparing to consider hikes "on a meeting by meeting basis," in a subtle change of emphasis. Equity investors did not react dramatically because they are l
  
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• European stocks rise, London hits record high

  24-02-2015 20:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Europe's main stock markets rose Tuesday with London's benchmark index soaring to its highest level on record after eurozone finance ministers backed an extension of Greece's bailout. In London the FTSE 100 index reached its highest level on record, beating its previous peak in December 1999, ending the day up 0.54 percent to 6.949.63 points.
  
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• January rate cut bought Bank of Canada time, Poloz says

  24-02-2015 20:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Leah Schnurr and Jeffrey Hodgson LONDON, Ontario (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada's surprise rate cut last month bought the central bank time to see how the economy responds to a plunge in oil prices, Governor Stephen Poloz said on Tuesday in the bank's last pronouncement before its March 4 rate decision. Poloz did not refer to next week's announcement, saying only that the Jan. 21 cut was intended to take out insurance both against too-low inflation and against financial instability posed by h
  
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• Bavarian Nordic vaccine helps prolong life in prostate cancer trial

  24-02-2015 20:12
  Feb 24 (Reuters) - An experimental therapeutic vaccine from Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic helped significantly extend survival in patients with advanced prostate cancer, according to results of a...
  
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• Bonds, stocks rally, after Yellen emphasizes flexibility

  24-02-2015 20:09 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. equities rose and bond yields fell after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday it would be several months before the Fed expects to boost interest rates, while European equity markets gained after Greece locked in a four-month extension of its financial rescue program. Yellen said the Fed's policy-setting committee is considering interest rate hikes "on a meeting by meeting basis." She added, however, that a rate increase is not likely for at least the next
  
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• Three regional U.S. Fed banks repeated call for bank rate hike

  24-02-2015 20:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Three regional Federal Reserve banks in January repeated an unsuccessful push to have the U.S. central bank increase the interest rate charged to commercial banks for emergency loans, according to minutes from Fed board meetings released on Tuesday. Ahead of the Fed's Jan. 27-28 policy-setting meeting, directors of the Philadelphia, Kansas City and Dallas Fed banks asked the Fed's board to boost the discount rate to 1 percent from 0.75 percent, the minutes showed. The board along with the nine o
  
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• Cocaine sales in downturn turn Italy mafia into powerhouse: report

  24-02-2015 20:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - The Calabrian mafia's role as one of Europe's biggest importers of South American cocaine has made it the most powerful economic force in its poor home region in southern Italy, a report released on Tuesday said. Direct ties to Mexican and Colombian cocaine cartels, with which it has built trust over the years, have made the 'Ndrangheta a financial powerhouse, said Italy's national anti-mafia prosecutors' office in its annual report. Both within Italy and in cou
  
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• UK FTSE 100 parties like it's 1999 with new record

  24-02-2015 20:00
  LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index turned the clock back to the last millennium on Tuesday, breaching highs not seen since the dot com boom days of 1999, when newspapers warned of...
  
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• Russia's ruble slides on 'junk' rating downgrade

  24-02-2015 19:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Russia's ruble and stock market showed renewed weakness Tuesday in response to sliding oil prices and a downgrade to "junk" status of its sovereign debt by Moody's. The global rating agency announced after trading in Moscow finished on Friday that it expected Russia to experience a "deep recession" this year and continued economic contraction in 2016. Russia's markets were closed for a public holiday on Monday and the ruble only traded over the counter in thin
  
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• Wednesday preview: Eyes on Whitbread, Weir Group earnings and China manufacturing data

  24-02-2015 19:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Leisure and hospitality giant Whitbread is expected report its fourth quarter trading update on Wednesday. The update is likely to be welcomed by markets due to an improving UK consumer environment and ...
  
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• Canada's Alberta expects surplus this year despite low oil

  24-02-2015 19:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Canada's province of Alberta, the largest oil exporter to the United States, said on Tuesday it still expects to end the current fiscal year with a budget surplus but warned the full impact of lower crude prices won't be felt until the next fiscal year. The province said it expects to post a C$465 million ($368.9 million) budget surplus for the 2014/2015 fiscal year that ends on March 31. While expected revenue of C$44.75 billion is nearly C$400 million higher than its budget forecast on a highe
  
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• Spanish PM seeks to sell voters on economic recovery

  24-02-2015 19:22 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy defended his record during a key debate in parliament on Tuesday ahead of a series of elections in which the anti-austerity Podemos party is tipped for strong gains. Rajoy used the annual state of the nation debate to credit the belt-tightening measures put in place by his conservative government since December 2011 with bringing down Spain's borrowing costs, avoiding a bailout and reviving the economy. The Spanish economy grew by 1.4 percent in 2014, th
  
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• Boston Scientific near deal to buy Endo's device unit: sources

  24-02-2015 19:05
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boston Scientific Corp is close to buying Endo International PLC's AMS medical device unit, a deal that could value the business at around $2 billion, according to people...
  
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• UPDATE 2-SunPower, First Solar JV talks boosts solar sector

  24-02-2015 19:03
  * Shares of other solar companies also up (Adds details from conference call, background, analyst quote)
  
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• Bonds rally, dollar falls after Yellen emphasizes flexibility

  24-02-2015 18:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By David Gaffen NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar edged lower and bond yields fell after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday it would be several months before the Fed expects to raise interest rates, while European equity markets gained after Greece produced a list of proposed economic reforms. Yellen said the Fed's policy-setting committee is considering interest rate hikes "on a meeting by meeting basis." She added, however, that a rate increase is not likely f
  
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• UPDATE 2-CymaBay drug not better than current care in reducing uric acid

  24-02-2015 18:39
  * Shares fall as much as 25 pct (Adds details, CEO comments, shares)
  
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• U.S. home prices rise, service sector expands but consumer sentiment dips

  24-02-2015 18:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. home prices rose again in December and activity in the services sector expanded in February at its fastest pace since October, but a gauge of consumer confidence fell, according to reports published on Tuesday. Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen also noted on Tuesday that the slowly improving U.S. economy may lead to a rise in interest rates later this year in testimony she gave to Congress.
  
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• Yellen reiterates Fed's patience in raising rates

  24-02-2015 18:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that the U.S. economy is making steady progress, but that for now the Fed is will remain patient about raising interest rates because the job market is still healing and inflation is too low.
  
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• Banks probed by US regulators over price-rigging precious metals

  24-02-2015 18:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A number of top-tier global investment banks are under investigation by U.S. regulators over possible price-fixing of precious metals such as gold and silver, according to The Wall Street Journal, who ...
  
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• Greece bailout extension backed by eurozone

  24-02-2015 18:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Eurozone finance ministers backed a four-month extension to Greece's financial lifeline Tuesday after approving a list of reforms demanded by creditors to keep the country afloat and in the single currency. "We avoided a crisis but there are many challenges ahead," EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected in January, has demanded a reduction of the harsh austerity measures imposed by Greece's creditors -- the European Unio
  
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• Britain's FTSE sets record high surpassing 1999 peak

  24-02-2015 17:59
  LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index climbed to a record high on Tuesday as a rally in mining companies helped the three-decade-old blue-chip index to surpass its previous high, set...
  
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• Spanish premier trumpets economy, upgrades growth forecast

  24-02-2015 17:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MADRID (AP) — Spain's economy will grow by more than previously thought this year, the prime minister said Tuesday, as he laid out the credentials of his conservative government prior to elections later this year.
  
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• BlackRock equity manager Keefe departs

  24-02-2015 17:45
  (Reuters) - Timothy Keefe, who managed BlackRock Inc's $581 million Flexible Equity Income Fund has left the firm after three years.
  
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• US bank earnings drop 7.3 percent in 4Q

  24-02-2015 17:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. banks' earnings dropped 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as a few big banks had increased costs to settle legal cases and the industry had declines in income from the mortgage ...
  
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• US stocks drift higher as Yellen testifies before Congress

  24-02-2015 17:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Major U.S. stock indexes edged higher in morning trading Tuesday as investors monitored Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's remarks before Congress on interest rate policy and the economy. Strong earnings from Home Depot and positive developments in Greece's efforts to secure an extension of its financial rescue program also helped lift the market.
  
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• Sierra Leone hopes for economic bounce post-Ebola

  24-02-2015 17:18 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Karin Strohecker LONDON (Reuters) - Sierra Leone could see growth rebound to double digits over the next 3-5 years as it emerges from the Ebola crisis and plans to tap its diaspora to raise funds for development, its foreign minister said. The west African country's economy was ravaged by the recent year-long outbreak of the Ebola virus that killed more than 9,000 people across Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. "At the moment because of Ebola, we are back in the single digits, but w
  
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• Spain's Rajoy trumpets economy and upgrades growth forecast

  24-02-2015 17:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  MADRID (AP) — Spain's economy will grow by more than previously thought this year, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Tuesday as he laid out the credentials of his conservative government prior to elections later this year.
  
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• UPDATE 1-Arion Banki to revive senior deal

  24-02-2015 17:11
  LONDON, Feb 24 (IFR) - Arion Banki is taking steps towards
  reviving the senior deal it postponed last April, buoyed by
  increased risk appetite and an improving backdrop for the
  country's banks.
  
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• Dow, S&P edge up to record highs after Yellen comments

  24-02-2015 17:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday, with the Dow and S&P 500 at intraday records, as investors attempted to interpret testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. As investors sought insight on the possible timing of an interest rate hike, Yellen told a congressional committee on Tuesday the Fed is preparing to consider hikes "on a meeting by meeting basis," in a subtle change of emphasis in how the Fed has been speaking about its plans for the first rate increase since 2
  
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• Britain's FTSE sets record high above 1999 peak

  24-02-2015 17:07
  LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index climbed to a record high on Tuesday as a rally in miners helped the three-decade old blue-chip index to surpass the previous lifetime high set in...
  
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