Finance news

• Argentine peso plummets 26.5 percent after controls lifted

  17-12-2015 23:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's peso plunged more than 26.5 percent on Thursday, after the country's new government floated the currency as part of a slew of free-market reforms aimed at revitalizing the stagnant economy. It was the sharpest one-day devaluation in decades.
  
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• FDA postpones decision on Intercept's lead liver drug

  17-12-2015 23:14
  
  Dec 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has postponed by three months its decision on Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc's marketing application for its lead drug, to treat a kind of...
  
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• Wall Street falls as growth fears resurface after three-day rally

  17-12-2015 23:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks dropped Thursday on persistent concern over faltering global economic growth, led by declines in energy and materials shares, a day after shares had rallied on the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates. On Wednesday, the market rallied after the Fed raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25 and 0.50 percent, signalling confidence in the world’s largest economy. China's slowdown has been transmitted to the rest of the world through a fall in oil a
  
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• Wall St falls as growth fears resurface after three-day rally

  17-12-2015 23:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped Thursday on persistent concern over faltering global economic growth, led by declines in energy and materials shares, a day after shares had rallied on the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates.
  
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• Equities drop on energy weight; dollar climbs

  17-12-2015 22:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks led a decline in most equity markets around the globe on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, as continued pressure on oil weighed on the energy sector. The long-expected but modest increase in the federal funds rate also boosted the dollar to a fresh two-week high against a basket of major currencies, while Wall Street snapped a three-day rally. Brent and U.S. crude oil prices fell and rema
  
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• U.S. House backs permanent tax breaks in massive bill

  17-12-2015 22:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A massive bill that extends billions of dollars in tax assistance to businesses and expands the budget deficit won U.S. House of Representatives approval on Thursday in the closest thing to a grand bipartisan tax bargain in years. Lawmakers voted 318-109 for the $622 billion measure, which is a step toward avoiding a government shutdown. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it will likely be voted on together with a $1.1 trillion spending bill that must b
  
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• Fund manager Q&A: Can go-go growth stocks abroad keep going?

  17-12-2015 22:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Rajesh Gandhi thinks investors focusing on growth overseas in this tepid global economy are onto something.
  
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• Trudeau sees challenges, opportunities from cheap Canadian dollar

  17-12-2015 21:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Canadian government recognizes the challenges that a cheap currency poses and will work to ensure the country takes advantage of the low Canadian dollar, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday. "But whenever there are shifts in the value of the dollar, particularly decreases, there are both challenges and opportunities that arise across different sectors in the economy, and what we need to make sure we're doing as a government, as an economy, is maximizing the opportunities and minim
  
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• Economic impact of Paris attacks expected to be short-lived, INSEE says

  17-12-2015 21:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The attacks in Paris last month will weigh on French economic growth only briefly in the fourth quarter before France resumes more stable growth in 2016, the official statistics agency, INSEE, forecast on Thursday. The euro zone's second-biggest economy will grow only 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the third, INSEE estimated, trimming its forecast from 0.4 percent. The impact from the Islamic State attacks on Nov. 13 was projected to reduce fourth-quarter growth by 0.1 percentage points
  
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• LatAm faces recession this year, weak growth next: UN

  17-12-2015 21:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Latin America's economies will contract a worse-than-expected 0.4 percent this year and grow just 0.2 percent next year, as the global economic scenario remains "complex," a UN panel forecast Thursday. The region is on track to post its worst economic performance in six years in 2015, and 2016 is only looking marginally better, said the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). "It is necessary to resume growth and reverse the contractionary investment cycle in a context o
  
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• Canada's Trudeau sees challenges, opportunities from cheap currency

  17-12-2015 21:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Canadian government recognizes the challenges that a cheap currency poses and will work to ensure the country takes advantage of the low Canadian dollar, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Friday. "Obviously that the economy of our largest trading partner (the United States) is picking up is a good thing potentially for Canada, but whenever there are shifts in the value of the dollar, particularly decreases, there are both challenges and opportunities that arise across different
  
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• Yellen's "tightening" promises a slow crawl higher

  17-12-2015 21:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The policy tightening kicked off by the Fed this week promises to be among the longest and slowest of modern times, a crawl forward that may last as long as former fed chair Paul Volcker's legendary battle against inflation in the 1980s. Janet Yellen faces a different challenge - inflation is low, yet the Federal Reserve aims to bring borrowing costs to more "normal" levels after seven years near zero. While Volcker and predecessor Arthur Burns steadily
  
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• Argentine peso plunges as dollar controls lifted

  17-12-2015 21:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Argentine peso lost 30 percent of its value against the dollar Thursday after the new pro-business government abruptly scrapped foreign exchange restrictions introduced by its leftist predecessors. The sharp devaluation came a day after the government ended four years of currency controls that propped up salaries and domestic producers in Latin America's third-largest economy. President Mauricio Macri's opponents said easing the limits on dollar transactions and the fixed exchange rate would
  
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• Mexico raises key interest rate after Fed move

  17-12-2015 20:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Mexico's central bank raised its key interest rate a quarter-point Thursday to 3.25 percent after the US Federal Reserve hiked its own benchmark rates for the first time since 2006. The bank said in a statement that its first rate hike since August 2008 was "mainly in response" to the Fed's decision Wednesday to end seven years of near-zero benchmark interest rates. Mexico's economy is closely linked to what happens in its bigger neighbor to the north.
  
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• Apple supplier's light forecast exacerbates iPhone jitters

  17-12-2015 20:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Concerns are deepening on Wall Street about potential weakness in iPhone shipments following a light revenue forecast from one of Apple's suppliers. Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple fell 1.4 percent on Thursday and were down 6 percent over the past five sessions, reflecting growing worries that iPhone shipments next year could fall for the first time since the device's launch in 2007 as fewer people replace their smartphones. The newest conc
  
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• Relieved Fed runs smooth auction as rates rise globally

  17-12-2015 20:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Richard Leong and Jonathan Spicer NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve absorbed a modest $105.2 billion in bids on Thursday in a critical auction meant to help raise U.S. interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade, while around the world borrowing costs jumped in a welcome sign for the U.S. central bank. The relatively calm market reaction came as an early relief for the Fed, which is using new tools to mop up trillions of dollars in excess cash flooding the financial system aft
  
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• Iran, biggest economy outside WTO, says it's ready to join

  17-12-2015 20:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran is prepared to negotiate its way into the World Trade Organization, Industry Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh told the WTO's two-yearly ministerial meeting in Nairobi on Thursday. "I'm here with an important message," he told the assembled trade ministers of the trade body's 162 members. "Now that years of intensive negotiations have finally cleared all the misunderstandings around Iran's nuclear activities, we are taking the next step towards integrating more deeply int
  
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• Equities fall on energy drag; dollar strengthens

  17-12-2015 20:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks paced a decline in global equity markets on Thursday a day after the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, as continued pressure on oil weighed on the energy sector. The long-anticipated though modest increase in the federal funds rate also boosted the dollar to a fresh two-week high against a basket of major currencies, while Wall Street was on pace to snap a three-day winning streak. "Given the higher level of volat
  
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• Wall Street's 3-day rally set to end as oil slips

  17-12-2015 19:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wall Street looked set to snap a three-day rally on Thursday, dragged down by energy and materials stocks, a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nine years. Crude oil prices resumed their slide after gaining earlier in the day on persistent oversupply worries and as the dollar hit a two-week high. Fed Chair Janet Yellen's assurance that further tightening would be gradual boosted global stock indexes.
  
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• Spanish firms fret over hiring costs in election run-up

  17-12-2015 19:13 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Sarah White MADRID (Reuters) - Elba Leandro is keen to hire more staff for her flourishing spa business in Tenerife, but she's just not sure how soon she can afford the high welfare costs that adding to her 60-strong workforce will entail. It's an economic dilemma she shares with party leaders across Spain's political spectrum who, in campaigning for Sunday's national elections, have each sought to convince voters that they hold the key to cutting a stubbornly high unemployment rate. ...
  
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• Wall Street's three-day rally set to end as oil slips

  17-12-2015 19:10 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Wall Street looked set to snap a three-day rally on Thursday, dragged down by energy and materials stocks, a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nine years.
  
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• Don't worry too much about debt, Bundesbank tells Greece

  17-12-2015 18:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Greece should worry less about getting debt relief than tackling economic reforms, Bundesbank governor Jens Weidmann said in remarks published on Thursday. "Further debt relief does not seem to be a matter of particularly urgent concern," the German central bank's chief told the business paper Naftemporiki. "The headline debt burden is certainly substantial, but so are the concessions the official creditors have already made with regard to repayment conditions," he said.
  
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• Sharp devaluation of Argentine peso as dollar limits lifted

  17-12-2015 18:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's currency sharply devalued against the U.S. dollar on Thursday as the new administration lifted deeply unpopular limits on the buying of foreign currencies, a major change that will expose Latin America's third largest economy to international market forces in ways not seen in over a decade.
  
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• Britain's FTSE rallies after Fed, but lags rival European markets

  17-12-2015 18:44
  
  * Gold miners underperform as gold price drops after hike (Adds closing prices)
  
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• Dollar soars against Argentine peso as controls lifted

  17-12-2015 18:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Argentine peso plunged in value on Thursday, with the dollar surging more than 40 percent after the new pro-business government scrapped foreign exchange restrictions by its leftist predecessors. The change marked a sharp devaluation of Argentina's currency peso after four years of protectionist policies that propped up salaries and domestic producers in Latin America's third-largest economy. President Mauricio Macri's opponents said easing the limits on dollar transactions and the fixed exc
  
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• Wall Street lower as energy, materials stocks drag

  17-12-2015 18:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Abhiram Nandakumar REUTERS - Wall Street looked set to snap a three-day rally on Thursday, dragged down by energy and materials stocks, a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nine years. Crude oil prices resumed their slide after gaining earlier in the day on persistent oversupply worries and after the dollar hit a two-week high. The central bank raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, signaling confidence in
  
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• UPDATE 1-Critical research report hits shares in France's Casino

  17-12-2015 18:27
  
  PARIS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Shares in French retailer Casino fell more than 10 percent on Thursday after research firm Muddy Waters, founded by short-seller Carson Block, said it was one of the "most...
  
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• Europe, Asia stocks rally on US rate hike

  17-12-2015 18:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  London (AFP) - European stock markets rallied Thursday following strong gains in Asia after the US Federal Reserve ended months of uncertainty by raising interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
  
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• Stocks dip, dollar rises following Fed liftoff

  17-12-2015 18:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street led global equity markets lower on Thursday a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, as continued pressure on oil weighed on energy-related stocks. The long-anticipated though modest increase in the federal funds rate boosted the dollar to a fresh two-week high against a basket of major currencies.
  
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• Global stocks dip, dollar rises following Fed liftoff

  17-12-2015 18:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street led global equity markets lower on Thursday a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, as continued pressure on oil weighed on energy-related stocks. The long-anticipated though modest increase in the federal funds rate boosted the dollar to a fresh two-week high against a basket of major currencies. "It is going to continue to be a variable that weighs on the market." Stocks in Europe gained, however,
  
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• Afghanistan joins World Trade Organization

  17-12-2015 17:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Afghanistan on Thursday joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) calling it "historic" membership to boost the war-torn nation's economy and build peace.
  
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• U.S. labor market strengthening, factories struggling

  17-12-2015 17:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week fell from a five-month high, suggesting sustained labor market healing that could lead to further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes next year. The sign of underlying economic strength came a day after the U.S. central bank raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, the first increase in nearly a decade. "The labor market cont
  
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• U.S. says it is considering response to Iran ballistic missile test

  17-12-2015 17:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is considering how to respond to an Iranian ballistic missile launch that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday, as senators pressed for a strong reaction. "We are now actively considering the appropriate consequences to that launch in October," Stephen Mull, the State Department's lead coordinator for implementing an international nuclear deal with Iran, told a Senate committee hearing. Almost ev
  
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• Rates rise globally as relieved Fed preps key auction

  17-12-2015 17:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Richard Leong and Jonathan Spicer NEW YORK (Reuters) - Key short-term interest rates jumped on Thursday as international markets calmly responded to the Federal Reserve's first policy tightening in nearly a decade, a welcome sign for the U.S. central bank as it prepares for a tricky auction later in the day. Libor, a global rate benchmark for $350 trillion worth of securities and loans, booked its biggest single-day rise since May, 2010, while a key borrowing cost for Wall Street firms more t
  
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• Berlusconi's party pushed to political sidelines in Italy

  17-12-2015 17:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Crispian Balmer ROME (Reuters) - Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's ability to influence Italian politics has taken a beating with his party sidelined in a vote to elect new judges and also forced to lay off all its staff as funds dry up. The twin blows highlight the center-right's struggle to remain a dominant force, even as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's center-left government battles to contain a scandal over its contested rescue plan for four small Italian banks. The decline of Berl
  
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• Taiwan trims interest rate again to boost economy

  17-12-2015 16:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Taiwan's central bank cut its key interest rate Thursday for the second time in less than three months, in a fresh bid to bolster the sluggish economy battered by weak exports. Taiwan has been struggling to spur growth in its export-focused economy, which has suffered amid a slow recovery from the global financial crisis, while also facing greater competition in the key tech sector. The central bank said Thursday the interest rate would be lowered from 1.75 percent to 1.625 percent.
  
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• Eye drug company Alimera Sciences mulls sale -sources

  17-12-2015 16:58
  
  Dec 17 (Reuters) - Alimera Sciences Inc, an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, is in the early stages of exploring strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, according to people familiar...
  
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• Lobbyists Declare Victory After Visa Reform Measure Dies Quietly

  17-12-2015 16:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  After a multi-million dollar lobbying effort, congressional leaders Tuesday night quietly scuttled a bi-partisan attempt to reform a little-known immigration program that offers wealthy foreigners access to visas and U.S. Green Cards but has been beset by allegations of fraud and abuse. The EB-5 program, called so due to its visa designation, allows rich foreign nationals a shortcut to a Green Card as long as they invest $500,000 in a designated job-creating project in the U.S. Designed to spur
  
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• Average US rate on 30-year mortgages rises to 3.97 percent

  17-12-2015 16:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose slightly this week in the days before the Federal Reserve announced a historic increase in its key short-term interest rate.
  
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• Honeycomb Lending Fund Eyes Sweet Market Debut

  17-12-2015 16:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A new specialist financial group set up to exploit the explosion in alternative forms of consumer lending is to announce plans for a stock market listing on Friday. Sky News understands that Honeycomb Investment Trust, which has been assembled by a heavyweight group of City figures, wants to raise approximately £100m from investors to buy a range of UK credit opportunities. City sources said that Honeycomb would be distinguished as an investment proposition by its ability to analyse d
  
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• US-Cuba reach flight deal to jumpstart lagging business ties

  17-12-2015 16:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  HAVANA (AP) — The United States and Cuba have struck a deal to restore regular airline flights, jumpstarting economic relations that have languished despite a year of rapid progress on the diplomatic front, U.S. and Cuban officials said Thursday on the anniversary of detente between the Cold War foes.
  
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• Wall Street slightly down a day after Fed raises rates

  17-12-2015 15:54 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The central bank raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, signaling confidence in the strength of the world's largest economy. Global stocks surged after Fed Chair Janet Yellen's assurance that further tightening would be gradual and heavily dependent on inflation, which remained firmly below the central bank's 2 percent target. "The Fed really delivered exactly what the market wanted," said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Bank in A
  
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• UK's FTSE rallies after Fed, but lags rival European markets

  17-12-2015 15:41
  
  * Gold miners underperform as gold price drops after hike (Adds quote, detail)
  
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• Indexes open higher after Fed rate hike

  17-12-2015 15:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade, signaling confidence in the strength of the world's largest economy.
  
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• Naira at new lows on unofficial market as banks cut dollar limit

  17-12-2015 15:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Nigeria's naira fell to a new range of between 274 to 280 in volatile dollar trades on the unofficial market on Thursday, after local lenders cut the amount individuals traveling abroad can spend on their bank cards, traders said. The naira has been hitting new lows among retail bureaux de change operators on renewed drop in oil prices and central bank's efforts to curb demand to conserve its dwindling foreign reserves. Commercial banks in Africa's biggest economy this week cut the amount indivi
  
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• Deutsche Bahn unveils 55 billion euro facelift

  17-12-2015 15:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn unveiled Thursday a sweeping overhaul, including plans to invest 55 billion euros ($60 billion) until 2020. The reorganization -- which Deutsche Bahn described as the biggest since 1994 -- was aimed at boosting competitiveness, increasing passenger numbers and profitability and ensuring punctual services and stable Internet and phone reception on trains, the operator said in a statement. "Over the next five years, 55 billion euros will be invested in a
  
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• Germany's Ifo business confidence dips slightly

  17-12-2015 15:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  German business confidence dipped slightly in December, but still remains at high levels, reflecting the ongoing resilience of Europe's biggest economy in the face of numerous challenges, analysts said Thursday. The Ifo institute's closely-watched business climate index slipped to 108.7 points in December from 109.0 points in November, the economic institute Ifo said in a statement, a fractionally steeper drop than analysts had been expecting. Ifo calculates its headline index on the basis of co
  
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• Wall Street set to open higher after Fed's dovish rate hike

  17-12-2015 15:13 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks were set to open higher on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade, signaling confidence in the strength of the world's largest economy. The central bank raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, ending months of uncertainty. Global markets jumped on Thursday after Fed Chair Janet Yellen assured that further tightening would be gradual and heavily dependent on inflation, which r
  
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