Finance news

• US auto sales score new high in 2015

  05-01-2016 23:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  US auto sales touched a new high in 2015 as easy credit, hot new vehicles and strong consumer confidence pushed sales slightly above the record set in 2000, industry data showed Tuesday. Some 17.47 million vehicles were sold in the United States last year, nearly 70,000 more than the record set 15 years earlier, according to Autodata. "The US economy continues to expand and the most important factors that drive demand for new vehicles are in place, so we expect to see a second consecutive year o
  
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• China intervention soothes US, European stocks

  05-01-2016 23:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  US and European stocks stabilized Tuesday after Beijing pumped cash into the money market to soothe worries over the slowing Chinese economy. Markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris all finished with modest gains, along with the S&P 500 in the US. Markets had also been rattled by rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the Saudi execution of a prominent Iran-backed Shiite cleric.
  
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• Sanders vowing to break up banks during first year in office

  05-01-2016 23:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Characterizing Wall Street as an industry run on "greed, fraud, dishonesty and arrogance," Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pledged to break up the country's biggest financial firms within a year and limit banking fees placed on consumers, should he become president, in a fiery speech on Tuesday.
  
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• Ackman's Pershing Square ends 2015 with 20.5 pct drop

  05-01-2016 23:13
  
  BOSTON (Reuters) - Billionaire investor William Ackman's Pershing Square Holdings hedge fund ended 2015 with a 20.5 percent loss after Valeant Pharmaceuticals , a top holding, was battered in the...
  
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• Presidential candidate Sanders takes aim at Wall Street, Clinton in speech

  05-01-2016 23:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders warned on Tuesday that financial-sector greed was "destroying the fabric of our nation" and said the starting point of any Wall Street reform effort is breaking up "too big to fail" banks. The U.S. senator from Vermont - an independent and a democratic socialist popular with the Democratic Party's populist wing - gave his speech at a theater near New York's Times Square, just "a few subway stops away fr
  
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• Oil down again as China growth worries fester; stocks flat

  05-01-2016 22:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Herbert Lash NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets were flat on Tuesday after their worst January kick-off in years as concerns about the global economy weighed on sentiment and pushed traders to seek the relative safety of the low-risk yen. Crude oil prices fell on concerns about the pace of growth in China, the world's second-largest oil consumer. News that Chinese rail freight volumes logged their biggest-ever annual decline in 2015 added to economic growth worries. ...
  
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• JPMorgan names Virtu Financial as its NYSE market maker

  05-01-2016 22:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Tuesday it appointed Virtu Financial Inc as its market maker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
  
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• Wall Street stabilizes after Monday's steep declines

  05-01-2016 22:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  After weak Chinese economic data drove stocks down sharply on Monday, the People's Bank of China on Tuesday injected $20 billion into the financial system in a bid to help its markets. Wal Mart Stores Inc shares, up 2.4 percent at $62.92, helped to lift both the Dow and S&P 500, though Monday's big selloff and renewed worries about China have contributed to caution about the year ahead. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.72 points, or 0.06 percent, to 17,158.66, the S&P 500 gained 4
  
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• U.S. auto sales in 2015 set record after strong December

  05-01-2016 22:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Automakers on Tuesday set a new U.S. sales record for 2015 even as December sales fell short of expectations, and most forecasters said sales should rise to another record this year. For full year 2015, U.S. sales hit a record of 17.47 million vehicles, breaking the mark of 17.41 million vehicles in 2000, according to Autodata Corp. Low gasoline prices, easy credit and moderate economic growth boosted the industry. WardsAuto, which provides data used by the U.S. government for economic analysis,
  
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• UPDATE 2-Apple expected to cut iPhone 6S, 6S Plus production - Nikkei

  05-01-2016 21:47
  
  Jan 5 (Reuters) - Apple Inc is expected to cut production of its latest iPhone models by about 30 percent in the January-March quarter, the Nikkei reported.
  
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• Estonia, Finland mull undersea rail tunnel

  05-01-2016 21:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Estonia and Finland on Tuesday agreed to take another step towards building an undersea railway tunnel linking their respective capitals, located on opposite shores of the Baltic Sea. Estimated to cost around 13 billion euros ($14 billion), the project would extend to Helsinki the Rail Baltica high-speed rail link that Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania already plan to build between Tallinn and the Polish capital Warsaw by 2025. "The tunnel would offer Helsinki the opportunity to get at
  
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• Yen extends rally on China, Middle East worries

  05-01-2016 21:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - The yen rose on Tuesday as traders sought safety in the low-risk currency on anxiety about sluggish global growth, further losses in the Chinese stock market and the breakdown in relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Japanese currency, traditionally sought at times of risk aversion, climbed to its strongest level since April against the euro and hovered at its highest since October versus the dollar. "China risk adds a layer of support to the yen, whi
  
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• Drugmaker Lilly's 2016 forecast misses Street expectations

  05-01-2016 20:52 via news.yahoo.com
  
  INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eli Lilly has dropped a lower-than-expected 2016 forecast on Wall Street after wrapping up a year in which its stock soared above the broader market.
  
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• Finland and Estonia ponder undersea railway tunnel

  05-01-2016 20:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Finland and Estonia on Tuesday agreed to explore the possibility of constructing an undersea railway tunnel between their capitals. Tens of thousands of Estonians work in the Helsinki region, many of whom commute over the Baltic Sea weekly, and many Finnish tourists visit Tallinn. "Helsinki and Tallinn together form an economic area of approximately 1.5 million people.
  
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• UPDATE 3-Orange, Bouygues Telecom revive French merger plans

  05-01-2016 20:26
  
  * Orange CEO says merger must not destroy jobs (Adds comments by Orange's CEO, French official; closing share prices)
  
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• Deutsche Bank cuts U.S. GDP forecasts

  05-01-2016 20:22 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Deutsche Bank economists on Tuesday reduced their forecast on U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 and first quarter of 2016 due to recent disappointing data on trade, construction spending and manufacturing activity.
  
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• Argentina back to Davos after decade away: president

  05-01-2016 20:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Argentina will return to the World Economic Forum in Davos this month under its new conservative president Mauricio Macri after more than a decade away, the government said Tuesday. Macri said he would attend the top-level gathering along with one of his major political rivals, Sergio Massa. "It seemed to us an important gesture to go together with an opposition leader who is working in a responsible way," Macri's chief of staff Marcos Pena told a news conference.
  
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• U.S. banks pin Treasury market headaches on high-speed trading - Fed

  05-01-2016 20:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A large share of Wall Street securities dealers believe that the growing presence of high-frequency trading firms has made it more difficult to operate in the market for U.S. government debt, according to a Federal Reserve survey published on Tuesday. High-frequency trading is an automated strategy that can move billions of dollars worth of trades among different markets in a fraction of a second. A net share of more than two-fifths of dealers that match clients with U.S. Treasury securities thi
  
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• CORRECTED-VW struggling to agree fix for U.S. test cheating cars - source

  05-01-2016 19:49
  
  BERLIN/WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Volkswagen is struggling to agree with U.S. authorities a fix for vehicles capable of cheating emissions tests, a VW source said on Tuesday, showing how relations...
  
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• Sanders Doubles Down on Breaking Up the Big Banks

  05-01-2016 19:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Sen. Bernie Sanders has been riding a populist crest of anti-Wall Street sentiment in his surprisingly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, and he appears to be upping the ante with little more than a month to go before the Iowa caucuses. In a speech scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at a town hall meeting in Manhattan, Sanders will vow to break up some of the largest banks and financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” within a year of b
  
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• S&P lowers Puerto Rico's PRIFA to 'default' after missed payment

  05-01-2016 19:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Tuesday downgraded Puerto Rico Infrastructure Authority bonds secured by rum taxes to 'D' (default) from 'CC' with a negative outlook a day after the authority defaulted on a roughly $36 million interest payment. In a public filing on Monday, the trustee for the bonds said holders were paid through a combination of cash on hand and payments from Ambac Financial, which insures some of the bonds. (Reporting by Nick Brown, editing by G Crosse)
  
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• Wall Street lower as investors turn cautious; Apple drags

  05-01-2016 19:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A fall in crude oil prices and a stronger dollar also contributed to the shaky start to the year, which was triggered by weak Chinese economic data on Monday. In a bid to stabilize its markets, the People's Bank of China on Tuesday injected $20 billion into the financial system. "Fears of a global recession are valid and fears about China are valid, and they will put some downward pressure on stocks in general, so I do expect 2016 to be negative, but not by much," said Mohannad Aama, managing di
  
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• Malaysia Airlines limits baggage allowance, baffling analysts

  05-01-2016 19:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday announced immediate restrictions on check-in luggage for some Europe-bound flights, citing strong headwinds, a move that left aviation analysts puzzled. "This longer flight path consumes more jet fuel and for safety reasons, Malaysia Airlines has had to impose temporary limitation on checked-in baggage allowance," it said. The airline advised economy passengers only to carry 7kg of hand luggage and first-class and business-class customers to limit themselves to 14kg
  
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• OECD aid hits record high in 2014 but poorest countries get less

  05-01-2016 19:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Magdalena Mis LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Rich countries' development aid hit a record high in 2014 but the share that reached the world's poorest countries was the lowest since 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Tuesday. Official development assistance (ODA) reached $137.2 billion in 2014, $2 billion more than in 2013, the Paris-based international think-tank said.
  
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• Oil slides toward 11-year low as traders shrug off Mideast tensions

  05-01-2016 19:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Oil prices fell about 2 percent towards its 11-year low on Tuesday, as traders shrugged off growing tensions between two of the world's biggest oil producers, and focused instead on a stronger U.S. dollar and swelling U.S. crude inventories. The U.S. dollar hit a one-month high against a basket of currencies, rising nearly 0.6 percent by midday as traders sought safety over concerns about sluggish global growth and losses in the Chinese stock market. An expected build in crude inventories at Cus
  
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• Oil slides towards 11-year low as traders shrug off Mideast tensions

  05-01-2016 18:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Catherine Ngai NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 2 percent towards its 11-year low on Tuesday, as traders shrugged off growing tensions between two of the world's biggest oil producers, and focused instead on a stronger U.S. dollar and swelling U.S. crude inventories. The U.S. dollar hit a one-month high against a basket of currencies, rising nearly 0.6 percent by midday as traders sought safety over concerns about sluggish global growth and losses in the Chinese stock market [FRX/]
  
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• Nevsky Capital founders call time on $1.5 billion hedge fund

  05-01-2016 18:42
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - London-based Nevsky Capital's founders have decided to shut down their $1.5 billion hedge fund and retire, saying weak market conditions made it unlikely they could generate the...
  
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• European shares end higher as mining, telecoms stocks gain

  05-01-2016 18:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European shares closed up on Tuesday, supported by a rally in mining and telecoms stocks, though worries over China persisted a day after poor Chinese factory data triggered a global stock market sell-off. ...
  
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• China intervention salves European markets

  05-01-2016 18:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European equities staged a timid rebound on Tuesday, winning moderate support after Beijing pumped cash into the money market to soothe worries over the slowing Chinese economy. The main European markets had won about 1.0 percent in early deals, only to see the gains evaporate by midday, and then flip back and forth all afternoon.
  
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• Wall St. watchdog homes in on high-frequency trades to combat spoofing

  05-01-2016 18:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will examine how well high-frequency trading firms are protecting their systems from unscrupulous traders who are trying to manipulate markets, according to a list of its 2016 examination priorities for Wall Street firms, published on Tuesday. FINRA's heightened focus on controls in place at high-frequency trading firms coincides with the growing prevalence of a new and more complex form of spoofing, a type of manipulation that involves faking orders f
  
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• IRS Sends IP PIN Letters With Wrong Tax Year, Stresses It Will Not Affect Returns Filed In 2016

  05-01-2016 18:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that it has discovered an error affecting Identity Protection Personal Identity Numbers (IP PIN) letters mailed out in December 2015: those letters have ...
  
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• UPDATE 2-Poor sales prompt Sanofi to pull plug on Mannkind inhaled insulin

  05-01-2016 18:04
  
  * Mannkind shares slump 40 percent (Adds analysts' comment, further share price fall)
  
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• Sanders to lay out plan to break up big banks in first year

  05-01-2016 18:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has made reining in Wall Street a top campaign theme, will warn on Tuesday that financial-sector greed is "destroying the fabric of our nation" and detail his plan to break up big banks, his campaign said. Sanders will deliver what his campaign is calling a "major policy address" on Wall Street reform in New York. The U.S. senator from Vermont is challenging front-runner Hillary Clinton, a former U
  
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• Britain's FTSE outperforms in Europe as miners regain ground

  05-01-2016 18:03
  
  * Home Retail surges after bid approach rejected (Adds closing prices)
  
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• Global stocks slide as China growth worries fester

  05-01-2016 18:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Herbert Lash NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets traded slightly lower on Tuesday after their worst first-day performance in years as concerns about the global economy weighed on sentiment and pushed traders to seek the relative safety of the low-risk yen. Crude prices also fell on concerns about the pace of growth in China, the world's second-largest oil consumer. MSCI's all-country world stock index fell 0.15 percent and its emerging markets index fell 0.04 percent.
  
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• U.S. 'alt' mutual funds, pitched for safety, carry risk of their own

  05-01-2016 17:27
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mutual funds pitched to retail investors as hedge funds for the everyman promise to shield them from market gyrations, but many in 2015 proved just as exposed to market risks as...
  
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• Spirit Airlines appoints new CEO; shares soar

  05-01-2016 17:27
  
  Jan 5 (Reuters) - Spirit Airlines Inc on Tuesday named board member Robert Fornaro as chief executive officer, sending its shares up nearly 7 percent.
  
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• DoubleLine Capital posts 23rd straight month of inflows

  05-01-2016 17:24
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - DoubleLine Capital, the investment firm with $85 billion in assets overseen by widely followed co-founder Jeffrey Gundlach, posted a net inflow of $1.03 billion into its open-end...
  
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• U.S. auto sales on pace for record year in 2015 after strong December

  05-01-2016 17:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Automakers on Tuesday reported strong U.S. sales in December, indicating that 2015 would smash records, and most forecasters said the new year will be even better. For full year 2015, General Motors Co said industry sales will top the previous record of 17.35 million vehicles in 2000 as low gasoline prices, easy credit and moderate economic growth boosted the industry. GM said December sales will end at 17.8 million vehicles on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.
  
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• UPDATE 3-Lilly 2016 revenue outlook falls short but Jardiance boosts shares

  05-01-2016 16:59
  
  Jan 5 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co on Tuesday forecast 2016 revenue below expectations but said that its Jardiance diabetes treatment grabbed market share during the fourth quarter, which helped...
  
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• US auto sales set to smash record in 2015

  05-01-2016 16:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  General Motors, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota reported strong December sales on Tuesday and forecast the good times would keep rolling in 2016. "The US economy continues to expand and the most important factors that drive demand for new vehicles are in place, so we expect to see a second consecutive year of record industry sales in 2016," said Mustafa Mohatarem, GM's chief economist. GM forecast that total industry sales for 2015 would hit 17.5 million vehicles once all carmakers report their r
  
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• Oil prices drop as weak China data and stronger dollar drag

  05-01-2016 16:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on concerns about the pace of economic growth in China and a stronger U.S. dollar, handing back some of the gains triggered by an escalation of tensions in the Middle East. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped 40 cents to $36.36. "It is the Chinese stock market sell-off and the strong dollar that are pressuring oil," said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.
  
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• IMF chief welcomes Nigeria's anti-corruption drive, urges diversification

  05-01-2016 16:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The head of the International Monetary Fund endorsed on Tuesday Nigeria's efforts to tackle corruption, while saying the country needed to reduce its reliance on oil, sharp falls in the price of which have crippled its economy. Speaking after talks with President Muhammadu Buhari, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde also said she was not in Nigeria to negotiate a loan. "His determination to bring about transparency and accountability at all levels of the economy were very important agenda it
  
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• Uganda's treasury lowers 2015/16 growth, citing costly credit

  05-01-2016 16:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda's finance ministry has lowered the East African country's 2015/2016 (July-June) economic growth forecast to 5 percent from a previous projection of 5.8 percent, citing the impact of higher lending rates. The central bank and the International Monetary Fund have also lowered their 2015/2016 growth projections citing sluggish private sector credit growth. The rate of economic expansion, it said, was expected "to pick up to 5.8 percent in fiscal year
  
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• Wall Street higher as investors recover from selloff

  05-01-2016 16:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stock indexes were higher on Tuesday morning as investors recovered from a bruising selloff on the first trading day of the year. "I think everybody's finally getting settled back in and they're trying to assess really how global growth is going to impact their investments for the rest of the year," said Kevin Kelly, CIO of Recon Capital Partners. Crude oil was lower as investors fretted about the state of the Chinese economy, a stronger dollar and rising tensions in the Middle East.
  
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• Wall Street set for muted open a day after sharp selloff

  05-01-2016 15:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Stock markets plunged on Monday after weak Chinese economic data rekindled fears of a global slowdown. Chinese stocks closed mixed on Tuesday after falling 7 percent on Monday. Global stocks were down on Tuesday but off the lows they hit in the previous session as markets looked to stabilize.
  
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• Stock-market-by-diktat not working for China: James Saft

  05-01-2016 14:01
  
  (Reuters) - The whole stock-market-by-diktat thing is not working out so well for China, or for the rest of the global economy.
  
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• Eurozone inflation holds steady at low rate of 0.2 percent

  05-01-2016 13:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LONDON (AP) — Lower energy costs kept a lid on inflation across the 19-country eurozone economy in December, official figures showed Tuesday, in a development that could buoy consumers but frustrate policymakers at the European Central Bank eager to see more substantial price rises.
  
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• China continues to scare investors, futures trade lower

  05-01-2016 13:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a lower opening for Canada's main stock index on Tuesday as weakness in China's markets continued to weigh on investors' sentiment. March futures on the S&P TSX index were down 0.48 percent at 7:15 a.m. ET. Statistics Canada is scheduled to report producer prices data for November at 8:30 a.m. ET. Canada's main stock index fell on Monday, weighed down by financial, consumer and industrial stocks as a slump in Chinese shares and weak economic data spooked
  
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• Global stocks slide as China fails to quell stormy start to year

  05-01-2016 13:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jamie McGeever LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks fell again on Tuesday after their worst first-day performance in years, extending losses as relief at intervention by China to steady its markets quickly evaporated in the face of mounting concerns about the global economy. European stocks moved back into the red after opening up as much as 1 percent, and U.S. futures pointed to a fall of 0.6 percent on Wall Street. Sanjiv Shah, chief investment officer at Sun Global Investments, said Beijing's l
  
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