Finance news

• UPDATE 1-Puerto Rico government agency skips $1.4 mln Oct. 1 payment

  05-10-2015 23:35
  NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Puerto Rico's Public Finance Corp, the government agency that defaulted in August when it paid only some of what was due on its bonds, has not made a $1.4 million Oct. 1...
  
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• New Zealand PM hails TPP, despite dairy disappoinment

  05-10-2015 23:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  New Zealand Prime Minister John Key expressed frustration Tuesday that a massive newly-sealed free trade deal failed to deliver more benefits to the country's crucial dairy industry, but said the agreement would nevertheless boost the economy. Key said the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), sealed on Monday after marathon talks in Atlanta, gave New Zealand access to a market of more than 800 million customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Key said the TPP achieved Wellington's long-standin
  
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• Home prices sizzle in China's Silicon Valley even as economy slows

  05-10-2015 23:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Clare Jim HONG KONG (Reuters) - A stream of weak manufacturing data, the fall in the yuan and a stock market rout have painted a gloomy picture of the world's second largest economy over the past few months. Real estate prices in China's answer to Silicon Valley rose by almost a third in August from the same month a year-ago, a further climb from the nearly 24 percent year-on-year increase in July, official data showed, making it the country's hottest property market by far. The gain becomes
  
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• Wall Street rises as investors eye rate hike delay, oil up

  05-10-2015 23:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The S&P's five-day rise of 5.6 percent was its best five days dating back to late 2011. Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for September showed job growth slowed in the last three months, increasing prospects that the era of near-zero interest rates will continue for a while yet. "Wall Street's favorite movie is 'Nightmare on Your Street'.
  
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• GLOBAL MARKETS-Oil gains as Russia set to meet with producers; stock markets up

  05-10-2015 23:15
  * Oil up as Russia willing to meet other producers (Updates with U.S. markets closing levels)
  
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• Insight - With a whiff of Wall Street, Indonesia's Jokowi tries a new tack

  05-10-2015 23:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By John Chalmers JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo has been a let-down for investors who thought he would slash red tape and push aside reactionaries to revive the economy. After months of policy confusion, internal bickering and pressure from powerful political forces rooted in the reflexive economic nationalism of Indonesia's past, aides say the president has had enough. Impatient for action as an unrelenting decline in the rupiah currency revives memories of Asia's late 199
  
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• Eurozone presses Greece on reforms as recession forecast to drag on

  05-10-2015 23:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Eurozone finance ministers on Monday urged Athens to swiftly implement the tough reforms at heart of its huge bailout as new forecasts showed Greece's economy stuck in recession well into 2016. Meeting in Luxembourg for the first time since Tsipras was reelected in snap elections on September 20, eurozone finance chiefs agreed on a list of reforms to be swiftly implemented by Athens in order to unlock a slice of its huge 86-billion-euro ($96-billion) EU bailout. The finalising of the list came a
  
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• India leads Asia's dash for coal as emissions blow east

  05-10-2015 23:10 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Krishna N. Das and Tommy Wilkes MAGADH, India (Reuters) - Deep in the thickly forested hills in its east, India last month started production at what it hopes will in five years be Asia's biggest coal mine. At the open-cast mine, which involves the clearing of more than 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of land, noisy excavators are busy digging for coal that will feed a huge power plant being built nearby to fuel India's energy-hungry economy. India is opening a mine a month as it races to doub
  
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• Alaska to be hit by Shell's decision to halt oil exploration: Moody's

  05-10-2015 23:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Royal Dutch Shell Plc's decision last week to walk away from its $7 billion drilling effort in the Alaska Arctic could have a negative impact on the state's already struggling economy, Moody's said in a note released on Monday. Although the exploration and drilling would have occurred in federal water and would not have directly contributed to state revenues, the decision to stop the project is still "credit negative" for Alaska, the ratings agency said. Shell's decision to abandon the project w
  
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• CANADA FX DEBT-C$ firms as investors rethink Fed hike likelihood

  05-10-2015 22:54
  * Canadian dollar at C$1.3087 or 76.41 U.S. cents * Bond prices lower across the maturity curve (Adds quote, updates prices) OTTAWA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened against the...
  
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• US stocks jump on shifting Fed expectations; Dow +1.8%

  05-10-2015 22:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  New York (AFP) - US stocks powered higher Monday, joining European equities in rallying on confidence that the Federal Reserve will delay hiking interest rates in light of some poor economic data.
  
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• Caesars bankruptcy date under scrutiny at trial with creditors

  05-10-2015 22:29
  CHICAGO, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Caesars Entertainment Corp's
  casino business sparred with a group of creditors in a
  trial on Monday over the exact date that the casino operator
  went bankrupt, in a battle...
  
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• White House says 'more work to be done' on European trade deal

  05-10-2015 22:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Now that a trade agreement has been reached by the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, the White House said on Monday it would also welcome a European trade deal but there is "more work to be done." White House spokesman Josh Earnest said conversations with European countries around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are not as advanced as those that led to the agreement with Pacific nations. "The negotiations around TTIP are not quite as advanced, but if the
  
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• Historic Pacific trade deal faces skeptics in Congress

  05-10-2015 22:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki ATLANTA (Reuters) - Twelve Pacific Rim countries on Monday reached the most ambitious trade pact in a generation, aiming to liberalize commerce in 40 percent of the world's economy in a deal that faces skepticism from U.S. lawmakers. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact struck in Atlanta after marathon talks could reshape industries, change the cost of products from cheese to cancer treatments and have repercussions for drug companies and automakers. New Z
  
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• Print money, spend, repeat - Conservatives take aim at Labour

  05-10-2015 22:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Elizabeth Piper MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - The Bank of Labour - print money, spend money, repeat. At the annual conference of the ruling Conservative Party, derision over the election of far-left lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the main opposition Labour Party is never far from the surface. At a stall in the conference centre, red 100 pounds notes were handed out with Corbyn's face and the slogan 'print money, spend money, repeat' - mocking the Labour leader's financial policies whic
  
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• S&P 500 up for fifth day as Wall Street rallies

  05-10-2015 22:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the S&P 500 up for a fifth day in a row for the first time this year, as rising oil prices boosted energy stocks and investors bet the Federal Reserve would delay raising interest rates until 2016.
  
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• Latin America facing recession in 2015: UN panel

  05-10-2015 22:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Latin America's economies will contract by 0.3 percent this year as a weak global economy, falling commodity prices and China's slowdown continue hammering emerging markets, a UN panel forecast Monday. The slowdown will hit hardest in ailing regional powerhouse Brazil, which is facing a contraction of 2.8 percent, and in crisis-hit oil giant Venezuela, which is on track for a 6.7-percent contraction, predicted the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). A strong US dolla
  
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• Google in talks to invest in chat company Symphony - source

  05-10-2015 21:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Google, which has now morphed into holding company Alphabet Inc , is in talks with messaging startup Symphony Communication Services LLC for a round of fundraising, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Symphony's chat service allows financial firms, corporate customers and individuals to put all of their digital communications on one centralized platform. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Monday that Google invested in a new round of funding for Symphony that val
  
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• France seeking Asian investors for Areva-EDF reactor unit

  05-10-2015 21:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  France on Monday shed light on its plans to revamp troubled nuclear group Areva, including injecting 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in cash and selling a third of the reactor unit to an Asian investor. "We are looking for a partner for a one third stake," a government source said on the margins of a visit by Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron to Japan. Paris has sought to restructure the loss-making mainly state-owned Areva by splitting off its uranium mining and
  
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• Europe ministers agree on Greek reform to-do list

  05-10-2015 21:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Eurozone finance ministers agreed Monday on a laundry list of reforms to be implemented swiftly by Greece in order to unlock a slice of its huge 86-billion-euro bailout. The dozens of reforms touching on all aspects of Greece's economy were to be announced in parliament by newly re-elected premier Alexis Tsipras later on Monday. "A lot of work will have to be done in the coming months so it is very important to maintain that very-stong reform momentum," said Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem af
  
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• TPP: What's in the deal?

  05-10-2015 21:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The 12-country Pacific Trade Partnership, agreed in Atlanta on Monday, is a broad agreement to lower trade barriers and increase investment protections in a region comprising 40 percent of the global economy. It also allows garment exporters like Vietnam to use yarn and other materials from outside the TPP and still benefit from TPP country tariffs. While critics say this "investor-state dispute mechanism" will leave government vulnerable to frivolous lawsuits and extra-territorial laws, the TPP
  
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• Google takes stake in Wall Street-backed chat company Symphony: WSJ

  05-10-2015 21:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Google, which has now morphed into holding company Alphabet Inc, took a stake in Symphony Communication Services LLC in a fundraising round that values the messaging startup at $650 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Symphony's latest funding round is expected to close this week, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/1RreVN1) The company's chat service allows financial firms, corporate customers and individuals to put all of their digita
  
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• Google invests in Wall Street-backed chat company Symphony: WSJ

  05-10-2015 21:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Google, which has now morphed into holding company Alphabet Inc, is in talks with messaging startup Symphony Communication Services LLC for a round of fundraising, a person familiar with t...
  
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• Green energy, not nuclear the way to go: German official

  05-10-2015 20:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Peroshni Govender CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Green energy is cheap in the long run and clean compared to "dirty" coal and costly nuclear power, a senior German energy official said on the sidelines of a Cape Town conference, at a time when South Africa plans to expand atomic power generation. President Jacob Zuma's government is developing an energy mix that will boost power generation in Africa's most advanced economy which has been hit by electricity shortages and reduce its reliance on mostly c
  
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• European stocks soar as US interest rate fears recede

  05-10-2015 20:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European stock markets pushed strongly on Monday as weak US data fuelled talk the US Federal Reserve would not hike interest rates any time soon. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies climbed 2.76 percent to 6,298.92 points, while Paris' CAC 40 index jumped 3.54 percent to 4,616.90 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 won 2.74 percent to 9,814.79. Asian indices also took their lead from Friday's Wall Street surge after a September unemployment report increased the likelihood the US Federal
  
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• Canada's Alberta plans to introduce provincial budget Oct. 27

  05-10-2015 19:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Canada's oil-producing province of Alberta, which has been hammered by falling crude prices, will table its next budget on Oct. 27, Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci said on Monday. Alberta is projecting a record deficit of at least C$5.9 billion for the year, but Ceci said the budget would introduce a plan to return to balanced finances. At the same time, he said the budget would introduce plans to protect public services and stimulate growth by diversifying the province's economy.
  
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• UPDATE 6-Nelson Peltz's Trian takes $2.5 bln stake in General Electric

  05-10-2015 19:30
  * GE shares rise 4.5 percent (Adds shareholder, analyst comment, context on Trian's effort, shareholder activism)
  
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• Wall St. rises as Fed seen holding off rate hike till 2015

  05-10-2015 19:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for September showed that job growth slowed in the last three months, increasing prospect that the era of near-zero interest rates will continue for a while yet. Low interest rates not only make its cheaper for companies to borrow, but also boosts consumer spending. The Fed, which has not raised interest rates since June 2006, kept its benchmark rate unchanged in September, citing an uncertain global economic outlook and volatile markets.
  
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• Steve Jobs' widow reportedly tried to block new film about her husband

  05-10-2015 18:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Laurene Powell Jobs and other allies of the late Apple co-founder say the latest film portrays him as cruel and inhumane, according to the Wall Street Journal.
  
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• Bernanke defending Fed actions to battle recession

  05-10-2015 18:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the U.S. economy is outperforming Europe at the moment because the Fed moved more quickly and aggressively to fight the 2008 financial crisis than Europe did.
  
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• Paris stocks close up 3.54%, London 2.76%, Frankfurt 2.74%

  05-10-2015 18:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Paris (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets closed sharply higher Monday as investors saw the US Fed holding off on a quick interest rate hike, with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies climbing 2.76 percent to 6,298.92 points.
  
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• Britain's FTSE 100 climbs as Glencore gains

  05-10-2015 18:03
  * Mining shares among top gainers (Updates with closing prices, detail)
  
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• Pacific Rim trade pact gets skeptical greeting in U.S. Congress

  05-10-2015 17:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Richard Cowan and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact hammered out over the weekend in Atlanta got a rocky response in Washington on Monday from U.S. lawmakers, indicating it has a long, difficult road ahead as Congress considers whether or not to approve it. "I am afraid this deal appears to fall woefully short," said Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that oversees trade. Earlier this year after a bruising battle, Congr
  
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• Paris stocks close up 3.54%, London 2.57%, Frankfurt 2.74%

  05-10-2015 17:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Paris (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets closed sharply higher Monday as investors saw the US Fed holding off on a quick interest rate hike, with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies climbing 2.57 percent to 6,287.73 points.
  
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• Shares in Yoox Net-a-Porter rise strongly on market debut

  05-10-2015 17:49
  MILAN, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Shares in newly-merged Yoox Net-a-Porter rose strongly on Monday, their first day of trading on the Milan bourse, as investors bet on faster than expected profit growth at...
  
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• Latin American economies to contract by 0.3% in 2015: UN panel

  05-10-2015 17:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Latin America's economies will contract by 0.3 percent this year, a UN panel forecast Monday, revising down an earlier projection of 0.5-percent growth as emerging markets continue to struggle. The region's economies are struggling in the face of a sluggish global economy, China's slowdown, falling commodity prices, a strong US dollar and weak internal demand, said the UN's Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The slowdown will be worst in South America, whose economie
  
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• Pacific trade negotiators reach landmark deal, fight over approval looms

  05-10-2015 17:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries have reached a deal on the most sweeping trade liberalization pact in a generation but the accord on Monday faced initial skepticism in the U.S. Congress. In a deal that could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments, the 12 countries will cut trade barriers and set common standards. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would affect 40 percent of the world economy and stand as a legacy-defi
  
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• Croatia to hold parliamentary elections on Nov. 8

  05-10-2015 17:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Igor Ilic ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia's president on Monday called a parliamentary election for Nov. 8, with the opposition conservatives bidding for a return to power in the European Union’s newest member after six years of recession. The Social Democrat-led ruling coalition of Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic is trailing in opinion polls and faces a fight to defeat the conservative HDZ, led by former intelligence chief Tomislav Karamarko. The gap between them has closed in recent weeks,
  
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• Wall St. opens up as chance of rate hike in 2015 dims

  05-10-2015 17:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Global stock markets were also higher on the prospect that near-zero interest rates will continue for a while yet. "September was the best time to raise rates and now it looks like it was the only time they could raise rates," said Mohannad Aama, managing director, Beam Capital Management in New York. The Fed kept its benchmark rate unchanged in September, citing an uncertain global economic outlook and volatile markets.
  
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• OECD reveals plan for tax clampdown on multinationals

  05-10-2015 17:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Now the wealthy nations' policy advisory group, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has revealed its final recommendations: a 15-point plan to prevent firms from exploiting different countries' tax rules. "Playtime is over," Pascal Saint-Amans, who supervised the drawing up of the so-called Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan, told AFP. Companies will find it harder and harder to game national tax systems, Saint-Amans predicted.
  
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• US service sector growth cools in September

  05-10-2015 17:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Acitivity in the US economy's vast service sector cooled in September, with some businesses citing impacts from stock market turmoil and low commodity prices, a private survey showed Monday. A sharp drop in new orders led the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing purchasing managers index lower, to 56.9 in September from 59.0 in August. The PMI reading on the service sector, which accounts for roughly 80 percent of US economic activity, fell for the second straight month in Septemb
  
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• Modi, Merkel agree to fast-track business deals in India

  05-10-2015 17:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Narendra Modi on Monday hailed Germany as a "natural partner" of India after signing deals with Angela Merkel on clean energy and speeding up the European powerhouse's investment in Asia's third largest economy. The German chancellor held lengthy talks with the Indian prime minister on her first trip to New Delhi since Modi's right-wing party stormed to power in May 2014 promising to reform and revive the economy. Briefly leaving behind a refugee crisis in Europe, Merkel and her ministers signed
  
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• Kenya's remittances jump 3.2 pct in August from year ago

  05-10-2015 16:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Money sent home by Kenyans living abroad rose by 3.2 percent in the month of August, to $132.9 million, from the same month last year, the central bank said on Monday. Known as remittances, the cash is a major source of foreign exchange for east Africa's biggest economy alongside tea, horticulture and tourism. The shilling has weakened steadily against the dollar in the last year - losing 14 percent - due to the strength of the greenback and a drop in tourism in Kenya following a spate of deadly
  
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• Kenya to cut non-essential spending this year: IMF

  05-10-2015 16:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Duncan Miriri NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's government plans to cut some non-priority spending this financial year to balance the books after its borrowing costs rose, the International Monetary Fund's resident representative said. Higher lending rates are also likely to impact economic growth, which might reach 6 percent in 2015, IMF Kenya representative Armando Morales said, short of the government's target of 6.9 percent. "They need to offset those (higher borrowing costs) in the same budget
  
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• US services growth slows in September as orders plunge

  05-10-2015 16:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth in the U.S. services sector slowed in September as sales fell and new orders plunged, evidence that stock market volatility may have hit consumer confidence and limited spending.
  
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• South Africa plans to build 1,500-MW solar park, expand renewables

  05-10-2015 16:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Peroshni Govender CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa, which is battling with power shortages, plans to build a solar park in its Northern Cape province to produce an additional 1,500 megawatts, a senior official said on Monday. Africa's most advanced economy is investing heavily in renewable energy to counter chronic electricity deficits, which have forced state-owned utility Eskom to impose controlled frequent power cuts to prevent the grid from collapsing. It's a question of a couple of mon
  
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• TPP nations pledge exchange rate cooperation

  05-10-2015 16:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Pacific Rim nations that secured a free trade agreement on Monday pledged to bolster cooperation on broad economic issues, including currencies. "We are pleased to announce today that we are working to strengthen macroeconomic cooperation, including on exchange rate issues, in appropriate fora," the macroeconomic policy authorities of the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership nations said in a statement.
  
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• Greek creditors hopeful new government will deliver reforms

  05-10-2015 16:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LUXEMBOURG (AP) — Greece's European creditors voiced hope Monday that the country's newly elected government will deliver on promises to overhaul its economy, which would pave the way to the release of billions of bailout cash and potential help on debt repayments.
  
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• Obama administration defends TPP as 'comprehensive and balanced'

  05-10-2015 16:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a comprehensive and balanced agreement that will raise living standards and reduce poverty, the U.S. Trade Representative said in defending a pact that is expected to face opposition in the U.S. Congress. The USTR said that the TPP, as the deal is known, would eliminate or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers across a spectrum of goods and services, address issues like the development of the digital economy and the role of state-owned enterprises in the global e
  
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• European equities rebound on receding rate fears

  05-10-2015 16:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European stock markets rebounded strongly Monday, after hefty gains elsewhere, as weak US data fuelled talk the US Federal Reserve would not hike interest rates any time soon. London's FTSE 100 index jumped 2.24 percent to 6,267.09 points mid-afternoon in the British capital, while in the eurozone Frankfurt's DAX 30 won 2.85 percent to 9,825.48 points and the Paris CAC 40 rallied 3.73 percent to 4,625.99 compared with Friday's close. In foreign exchange trading, the European single currency rose
  
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