Finance news

• Brazil cracks down on protesting truckers after violence

  01-03-2015 21:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Caroline Stauffer SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian police arrested protesters and sent in backup troops to control striking truckers on Sunday after demonstrations turned violent and slowed food deliveries in Latin America's largest economy. Authorities in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul detained at least eight people on Sunday and sent riot police to some areas, reducing the number of blockades there from 25 Saturday night to three by Sunday afternoon, the local highway police sa
  
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• Italy government pushing for broadband solution

  01-03-2015 17:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Danilo Masoni MILAN (Reuters) - The Italian government is pushing to speed up the roll-out of ultrafast broadband networks to help its ailing economy, fuelling speculation it could force incumbent Telecom Italia into a costly overhaul of its existing infrastructure. The cabinet of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi meets on Tuesday to approve an 6 billion euro ($6.7 billion) plan to build a nationwide fiber optic network by replacing the aging copper wires that run into subscribers' homes. Ital
  
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• U.S. deserves 'benefit of the doubt' on getting Iran nuclear deal, Kerry says

  01-03-2015 17:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Will Dunham and Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed the case on Sunday for completing nuclear diplomacy with Iran despite Israeli opposition, saying the United States deserves the benefit of the doubt on getting a deal that would prevent any need for military action to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions. Two days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the U.S. Congress to warn against an Iran deal, Kerry delivered a stout
  
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• As Venezuela coffee output sinks, it swaps oil to import Nicaraguan beans

  01-03-2015 14:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Luc Cohen and Ivan Castro NEW YORK/MANAGUA (Reuters) - Venezuela, once a proud exporter of premium coffee, has been reduced to swapping crude oil for growing volumes of Nicaraguan coffee beans to make sure worsening economic turmoil does not prevent people from getting their caffeine fix. For the first time on record, coffee imports this year will exceed the bean output of Venezuela's centuries-old coffee industry, according to U.S. government estimates. The South American country
  
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• China's top hypermarket group Sun Art says 2014 profit up 4.8 pct

  01-03-2015 13:28
  HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters) - Sun Art Retail Group Ltd on Sunday reported a 4.8 percent rise in 2014 profit, as China's biggest hypermarket chain continued to expand into lower-tier cities.
  
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• Italy minister rules out talks with Mediaset over Rai Way bid

  01-03-2015 13:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Italy's Economy Minister ruled out talking to Mediaset about any renewed bid for Rai Way, the transmission towers unit of state broadcaster Rai [RAI.UL], reiterating that the government intended to keep its majority stake. Mediaset, Italy's biggest private broadcaster, said last week it would seek to acquire control of Rai Way, which was listed last year as part of a privatization drive aimed at cutting the country's 2 trillion-euro public debt. "A stake has been put on the m
  
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• Big Abu Dhabi industrial group Senaat considers IPO for unit

  01-03-2015 11:33
  ABU DHABI, March 1 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's General Holding Corp (Senaat), a major state-owned investor in the emirate's industrial sector, has shelved plans to go public but instead is considering...
  
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• Despite Greece, euro zone is turning the corner

  01-03-2015 11:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The latest episode of Greece's debt crisis has revived doubts about the long-term survival of the euro, nowhere more so than in London, Europe's main financial center and a hotbed of Euroskepticism. The heightened risk of a Greek default and/or exit comes just as there are signs that the euro zone is turning the corner after seven years of financial and economic crisis and that its perilous internal imbalances may be starting to diminish. A last-ditch deal to extend Greece's bailo
  
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• ECB braces for QE as others shift rates

  01-03-2015 10:15 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greek funding and quantitative easing in Europe, an expected rate cut in Australia and the buoyant U.S. labor market are set to be the focus of an economic week dominated by a host of central bank meetings. The European Central Bank's Governing Council convenes in Cyprus on Thursday and may take a decision on whether to accept Greek government bonds as collateral for its direct ECB funding, which it stopped doing at the start of February. If the ECB
  
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• Drop-tops belly-flop as austerity breeds pragmatic car buyers

  01-03-2015 10:00
  PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - The mass-market convertible car emits its last gasp this week at a Geneva motor show bristling with sport utility vehicles and low-cost models -- more evidence of the...
  
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• Apple car rumours fuel Geneva debate about car of future

  01-03-2015 10:00
  GENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) - The main talking point at this week's Geneva car show is likely to be a vehicle that may never be built: the Apple car.
  
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• China central bank steps up easing tempo as factory activity shrinks

  01-03-2015 09:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Pete Sweeney SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Weakness in China's vast manufacturing sector, aggravated by high real borrowing costs and weak demand, appears to have driven the central bank to accelerate the pace of monetary easing to ward off deflation in the world's second-largest economy. Cuts to benchmark lending and deposit rates, announced by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Saturday evening, pre-empted official data released on Sunday that showed a second consecutive month of sh
  
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• Israel's Gazit-Globe buys rest of Sao Paulo shopping centre

  01-03-2015 09:36
  TEL AVIV, March 1 (Reuters) - Israeli real estate investment firm Gazit-Globe said on Sunday its wholly owned subsidiary Gazit Brasil will buy the remaining 40 percent of Mais Shopping in the city of...
  
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• WRAPUP 1-China c.bank steps up easing tempo as factory activity shrinks

  01-03-2015 09:33
  * Official PMI rebounded slightly but still in negative territory at 49.9
  
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• India's budget shuns big-bang reforms, say experts

  01-03-2015 09:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Indian government's budget was praised on Sunday as balancing the need to boost business and help the poor, but some experts were disappointed at a lack of big-bang reforms to Asia's third largest economy. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pledged more investment in crumbling infrastructure and cut the corporate tax rate on Saturday, when he unveiled the right-wing government's first full budget. Jaitley also rolled out new pension, insurance and social security programmes for Ind
  
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• Homeland Security funding drama darkens U.S. fiscal outlook

  01-03-2015 07:00
  WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Congress narrowly averted a partial shutdown of the U.S. domestic security agency late on Friday night, but the forces behind the chaotic episode remain - fractious...
  
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• China PMI shows factory activity shrank again in February

  01-03-2015 05:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Pete Sweeney SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Hours after China's central bank cut interest rates to battle slowing growth and rising deflationary risk, an official survey showed on Sunday that activity in China's factory sector contracted for a second straight month in February. The new reading ended a four-month streak of declining numbers, and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the rise should be viewed more positively as it occurred despite the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, du
  
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• UPDATE 2-China PMI shows factory activity shrank again in February

  01-03-2015 05:32
  * Numbers came out right after China c.bank cut rates (Adds background, quotes from NBS statement)
  
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• Qatar's Mannai working on two foreign acquisitions - CEO

  01-03-2015 05:30
  DUBAI, March 1 (Reuters) - Qatari investment firm Mannai Corporation is working on two acquisitions as part of a drive to expand the proportion of its revenue from international sources to 80...
  
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• China's manufacturing measure shows contraction for February

  01-03-2015 04:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BEIJING (AP) — An index that measures China's manufacturing activity went up slightly in February but still shows contraction amid China's economy slowdown.
  
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• China manufacturing shrinks again in February: govt

  01-03-2015 04:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  China's manufacturing activity contracted for the second straight month in February, the government said on Sunday, a day after the central bank announced an interest rate cut to help stem a slump in the world's second-largest economy. The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) came in at 49.9 last month, up a fraction from 49.8 in January, but remaining in contraction. The index, which tracks activity in factories and worksho
  
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• Obama to veto bill letting Congress weigh in on Iran deal

  01-03-2015 02:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Julia Edwards WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama would veto a bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate allowing Congress to weigh in on any deal the United States and other negotiating countries reach with Iran on its nuclear capabilities, the White House said on Saturday. "The president has been clear that now is not the time for Congress to pass additional legislation on Iran.  If this bill is sent to the president, he will veto it," said Bernadette Meehan, a spokes
  
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• China Feb official PMI shrinks for a second straight month

  01-03-2015 02:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Activity in China's factory sector contracted for a second straight month in February on unsteady exports and slowing investment, an official survey showed on Sunday, reinforcing bets that more policy loosening is needed to lift the economy. A separate official services PMI, also released on Sunday, showed growth in the sector accelerated to 53.9, up from 53.7 in January. Accounting for 48 percent of China's $10.2 trillion economy last year, the services sector has weathered the growth downturn
  
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• China Feb official PMI contracts for second month in Feb

  01-03-2015 02:10
  BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) - Activity in China's factory sector contracted for a second straight month in February, according to an official survey released on Sunday, only hours after the Chinese...
  
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• Hyundai recalls more than 200,000 Elantras over steering problem

  01-03-2015 01:48
  WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Hyundai Corp is recalling 204,768 Elantras because of a power steering defect that might cause the cars to suddenly revert to manual steering, the company said Saturday...
  
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• WRAPUP 3-Buffett looks to succession, signals future growth problem

  01-03-2015 00:14
  NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In his 50 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Warren Buffett has transformed a failing textile company into a sprawling conglomerate that has vastly outperformed...
  
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