Finance news

• Venezuela congress nixes Maduro request for emergency powers

  22-01-2016 23:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's opposition-led congress on Friday rejected President Nicolas Maduro's request for emergency powers amid a plunging national economy, the depths of which were dramatized by an IMF estimate that inflation this year will top 700 percent.
  
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• Stimulus hopes pump oil, stocks higher

  22-01-2016 23:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  World stock markets and oil prices rallied Friday, building on the previous day's recovery sparked by European Central Bank hints of more eurozone stimulus. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index got the markets off to a positive start, surging nearly six percent following a report in the Nikkei business daily that the Bank of Japan was considering extra economy-boosting measures in response to worries about deflation. The Japanese report allowed European and US markets to extend Thursday's upward climb follo
  
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• Chicago school bond sale may attract unusual investors

  22-01-2016 23:30
  
  (Reuters) - Chicago's struggling public school district could lure hedge funds and other investors with an unusual opportunity to buy high-yield municipal assets while pivoting attention away from...
  
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• Puerto Rico PREPA's creditors offer to extend restructuring deadline: source

  22-01-2016 23:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Nick Brown and Megan Davies SAN JUAN/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A bondholder group of Puerto Rico's power utility PREPA has offered to extend until Feb. 12 a deadline for the island's lawmakers to pass a bill to restructure the agency's $8 billion in debt, a source close to the talks said on Friday. PREPA said in December that it had reached a deal with creditors, including holdout bond insurers, on a debt restructuring, seen as key to fixing the island's faltering economy. Under the deal with some
  
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• French economy minister doubts China growth data

  22-01-2016 23:15 via news.yahoo.com
  
  France's economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, said Friday he believes China's official figures overstate the true pace of its economic expansion, warning that the tough international climate will not help Europe. The minister cast doubt on the reliability of China's figures, including its announcement this week that its economy grew by 6.9 percent in 2015, the slowest rate in a quarter century. Concerns that the slowdown in Chinese economic growth may be more brutal than Beijing admits have contri
  
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• UPDATE 2-Jeff Ubben's ValueAct no longer AmEx shareholder - CNBC

  22-01-2016 23:11
  
  Jan 22 (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital Management LP, managed by Jeff Ubben, is no longer a shareholder in credit card issuer American Express Co, CNBC reported, citing sources....
  
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• Canada's Trudeau to DiCaprio: Your climate remarks don't help

  22-01-2016 23:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Leonardo DiCaprio to tone down his "inflammatory rhetoric" on climate change saying it was not helping those who have lost their oil-industry jobs. The movie star had told the World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain town of Davos on Wednesday that corporate greed was causing climate change and "enough is enough." At a dinner later in the day, Trudeau, elected in October as the head of a Liberal government, took the 41-year-old actor to task. "I poi
  
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• Global stocks, oil rally; cold snap supports energy demand

  22-01-2016 22:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices and world stock markets jumped on Friday, providing some relief to bruised investors as frigid weather across the United States and Europe boosted energy demand. Brent crude oil, which tumbled in recent weeks on worries about oversupply, settled 10 percent higher and above $32 a barrel in one of the biggest daily rallies ever. The benchmark S&P 500 U.S. equity index rallied 2 percent and registered its first positive week of 2016 thank
  
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• Chinese leader in Iran to discuss economy, regional crisis: state TV

  22-01-2016 22:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Tehran on Friday to discuss improvement of economic and political ties after lifting of international sanctions because of Iran's disputed nuclear program, state TV said. Xi will meet top Iranian officials, including the country's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Hassan Rouhani. "A high-ranking political and economic delegation is accompanying the Chinese president during his one-day trip," state television quoted
  
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• Wall Street rally stamps exclamation point on volatile week

  22-01-2016 22:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A 4.3-percent jump in the S&P energy sector laid the foundation for the S&P 500's strongest session so far this year. After dropping earlier this week to 2014 lows, the S&P 500 has recovered in the past two sessions to end the week 1.4-percent higher. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied 1.33 percent to finish the session at 16,093.51 points while the S&P 500 surged 2.03 percent to 1,906.9.
  
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• Investors back hedge funds amid January market swings

  22-01-2016 22:02
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Investor demand to take money out of hedge funds more than halved in January compared with the previous month, data on Friday showed, suggesting that market volatility has made the...
  
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• Investors look to Fed, earnings for direction next week

  22-01-2016 21:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors hoping equities can sustain their recent bounce next week will carefully watch the U.S. Federal Reserve's mid-week policy meeting for signs the central bank may slow the path of interest rate hikes. The S&P 500 has already fallen as much as 9 percent this year, with stocks battered by concerns over China's slowing economy, plunging oil prices and Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer's comments that he expected about four rate hikes this year.
  
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• The Latest: US top lawyer says tough to halt IS recruitment

  22-01-2016 20:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The latest developments from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where top executives and world leaders are meeting this week. All times local.
  
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• Chinese president in Tehran for 1st visit in 14 years

  22-01-2016 20:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Tehran Friday to hold talks with Iranian officials about future economic and political cooperation, Iran's state TV reported.
  
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• AmEx shares slump after forecast raises doubts about growth

  22-01-2016 20:38
  
  Jan 22 (Reuters) - American Express Co's shares are on track for their worst day in more than six years as the company's disappointing earnings forecast for the full year raised doubts about the...
  
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• Wall Street set for first weekly gain of 2016 as oil soars

  22-01-2016 19:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wall Street rallied on Friday, heading towards its first positive week of 2016, as a cold snap in the United States and Europe helped send oil prices surging for a second day. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's comments on Thursday suggesting that the bank could ease its monetary policy at its March meeting also encouraged investors bruised by a brutal selloff that began at the start of 2016. "I do think that even just to get a couple of days here with neutral, rather than downward,
  
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• The Latest: Kenya warns Europe on response to migrant crisis

  22-01-2016 19:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The latest developments from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where top executives and world leaders are meeting this week. All times local.
  
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• Starbucks still hot on China despite muted sales

  22-01-2016 19:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Tepid growth in Asia might have taken some steam out of Starbucks Corp's latest quarterly sales, but both the company and analysts remain upbeat about the coffee chain's prospects in China. Starbucks has been investing heavily in the world's most populous country despite signs of cooling economic growth, and Chief Executive Howard Schultz said on Thursday that business in the country had never been stronger. "We believe one day (China) could very well be larger than the U.S. business," Schultz s
  
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• Loan market asks SEC to revise liquidity proposals that could hurt funds

  22-01-2016 18:52
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Participants in the US$870bn US leveraged loan market have asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise parts of a liquidity proposal that could hurt mutual...
  
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• Bankruptcy law for Puerto Rico counterproductive: insurers association

  22-01-2016 18:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers (AFGI) said on Friday that granting bankruptcy protections to the government of Puerto Rico, which is struggling to pay its debts, would jeopardize its ability to reach a consensual debt restructuring. In a letter to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the association said it applauded U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's urging legislation outlining strong financial oversight for the Commonwealth to implement fiscal and economic reforms.
  
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• The Latest: Mexico leader to speed up drug lord extradition

  22-01-2016 18:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The latest developments from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where top executives and world leaders are meeting this week. All times local.
  
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• Legg Mason gets a foothold in campaign to re-engineer ETFs

  22-01-2016 18:46
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Legg Mason Inc said on Friday it bought a stake in a company re-engineering exchange-traded funds in the hope of improving the performance of the popular investment products.
  
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• Morgan Stanley still sees 20 percent chance of U.S. recession

  22-01-2016 18:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Morgan Stanley economists are clinging to their forecast of a 20 percent chance the U.S. economy will slip into recession in 2016 on evidence of contraction in the factory sector and signs of slowing among services industries. Among economists polled by Reuters, the median forecast is for U.S. GDP growth of 0.80 percent at an annualized rate in the fourth quarter and annual growth of 2.5 percent in 2016. If GDP growth deteriorates to a range of 1 percent to 1.5 percent in 2016, the Federal Reser
  
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• S&P raises Greece rating after bank recapitalisation, reforms

  22-01-2016 18:40 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Despite various shocks, Greece's economy had proved to be more resilient than expected, the ratings agency said on Friday. "By the end of March, we expect a compromise to be reached on pension reform that will balance the government's preference to raise social security contributions and consolidate the separate pension funds into a single system," S&P said. S&P said it expected "one more year of essentially flat growth" for the Greek economy, "followed by a more robust recovery." The ra
  
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• Britain's FTSE 100 notches up first weekly gain of 2016

  22-01-2016 18:14
  
  LONDON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index recorded on Friday its first weekly gain for 2016, as a respite to the slump in the oil price lifted the shares of major energy companies.
  
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• Jeff Ubben's ValueAct no longer AmEx shareholder - CNBC

  22-01-2016 18:04
  
  Jan 22 (Reuters) - Activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital Management LP, managed by Jeff Ubben, is no longer a shareholder in American Express Co, CNBC reported, citing sources....
  
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• McKay seeks to keep financial misdeeds topical in 'The Big Short'

  22-01-2016 17:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Marie-Louise Gumuchian LONDON (Reuters) - As turmoil in world markets revives memories of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, "The Big Short" director Adam McKay says he wanted to tackle the misdeeds of Wall Street in an entertaining but hard-hitting way, to ensure they are not forgotten. The movie, which has earned five Oscar nominations including best film and best director, is based on the best-selling book by Michael Lewis "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine". It stars Steve Carell, C
  
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• Inflation expectations lower than at the start of ECB QE

  22-01-2016 17:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Dhara Ranasinghe LONDON (Reuters) - Long-term expectations for inflation in the euro zone fell on Friday to their lowest since the start of a campaign of money printing the European Central Bank now says may expand further. ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday the bank's policy measures will be reviewed in March after a drop in oil prices and a slowdown in China. Short-term German bond yields fell to record lows and the stock market gained after his remarks.
  
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• Pinnacle Technology's shares plunge as full year earnings loss widens

  22-01-2016 17:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (ShareCast News) - Shares in Pinnacle Technology Group plunged on Friday after the company widened its full year earnings loss as revenues fell.
  
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• Wall Street rallies as cold snap fires up crude oil

  22-01-2016 17:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rallied nearly 2 percent on Friday morning as a cold wave in the United States and Europe helped crude oil surge for a second day. All 10 major S&P sectors were in the black, led by a 4.67 percent jump in energy stocks. The Nasdaq soared more than 2 percent and was on track for its best day since Oct. 23.
  
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• Strong U.S. housing data offers ray of hope for slowing economy

  22-01-2016 17:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home resales rebounded strongly in December from a 19-month low and prices surged, indicating the housing market recovery remained intact despite signs of a sharp deceleration in economic growth in recent months. The National Association of Realtors said on Friday existing home sales jumped a record 14.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.46 million units, after being temporarily held back by the introduction of new mortgage disclosure rules, which had c
  
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• UPDATE 1-Brazil seeks buyers for abandoned Abengoa transmission, wind projects

  22-01-2016 16:46
  
  SAO PAULO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's Mines and Energy
  Ministry said on Friday it held talks this month with various
  investors in the transmission line and wind sectors to feel out
  potential...
  
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• NY's Cuomo nominates lawyer, ex-staffer as top financial regulator

  22-01-2016 16:45
  
  (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tapped Maria Vullo, a lawyer who represented banks and donated to Cuomo's campaigns, as the state's top financial regulator, his office said on...
  
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• Hedge fund urges NorthStar Asset, NorthStar Realty to recombine

  22-01-2016 16:40
  
  (Reuters) - An activist hedge fund urged NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc, which is exploring strategic options, to consider folding back into former parent NorthStar Realty Finance Corp to...
  
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• BRIEF-Biomed Lublin denies bankruptcy rumours

  22-01-2016 16:21
  
  Jan 22 (Reuters) - Biomed Lublin Wytwornia Surowic i
  Szczepionek SA :
  
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• REFILE-Brazil seeks buyers for abandoned Abengoa transmission, wind projects

  22-01-2016 16:15
  
  SAO PAULO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's Mines and Energy
  Ministry said on Friday it has held talks this month with
  various investors in the transmission line and wind sectors to
  feel out potential...
  
  Read more

• Bank of England's Carney urges China to be clearer on yuan - WSJ

  22-01-2016 16:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said China needed to make it clearer how it is managing its currency, the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying on Friday after the yuan's recent sharp swings contributed to volatility in global markets. "Without question the precise exchange rate policy framework that they are pursuing is not completely understood by all participants and it is in their interest to improve that over time," Carney told the newspaper.
  
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• Wall Street rises as cold wave heats up oil prices

  22-01-2016 16:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks indexes were up about 1.5 percent in early trading on Friday as a cold wave in the United States and Europe helped oil prices surge for a second day. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's comments on Thursday suggesting that the bank could ease its monetary policy in its meeting in March also encouraged investors bruised by a brutal selloff that began at the start of 2016. Crude prices, still under pressure from a global glut, were up more than 6 percent as the cold wave boo
  
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• Canada retail sales jump in November, pointing to boost to weak economy

  22-01-2016 16:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Leah Schnurr OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian retail sales jumped far more than expected in November on higher sales of new cars and Black Friday purchases, pointing to some much-needed vigor for a struggling economy. Separate data showed the annual inflation rate rose in December as food prices surged, suggesting consumers were feeling the impact from the weaker Canadian dollar. Sales rose 1.7 percent, Statistics Canada said on Friday, the biggest increase since June 2014 and topping forecasts fo
  
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• Bank of England's Carney sees no hit to banks from market rout - WSJ

  22-01-2016 15:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney does not see a hit to the solidity of the global banking system from recent volatility in financial markets, the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying. The dog that is not barking - and I wouldn't have expected it to - is that this is a material event for these institutions," Carney told the newspaper in an interview.
  
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• Wall St. rises as cold wave heats up oil prices

  22-01-2016 15:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's comments on Thursday suggesting that the bank could ease its monetary policy in its meeting in March also encouraged investors bruised by a brutal selloff that began at the start of 2016. Crude prices, still under pressure from a global glut, were up more than 6 percent as the cold wave boosted short-term demand and traders cashed in their short positions. The U.S. stock market, tracking oil prices, has failed to sustain any rallies this year as ris
  
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• Central bank stimulus hopes pump oil, stocks higher

  22-01-2016 15:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  World stock markets and oil prices rallied Friday, building on the previous day's recovery that was triggered by the European Central Bank hinting at more eurozone stimulus. Equities and crude began rebounding Thursday after the ECB said there were "no limits" to the stimulus measures it might take to boost the eurozone economy. Sentiment was boosted further Friday by a report that said Japan's central bank was considering similar moves.
  
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• Kerry says effort and good faith could lead to lifting of sanctions on Russia

  22-01-2016 15:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he believed that, with effort and good faith on both sides, it would be possible to implement the Minsk agreements on Ukraine in coming months to allow for a lifting of sanctions on Russia. In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kerry said he and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had meet this week in the Swiss resort with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to help ensure full implementation of the agreements. "And I believe that, with e
  
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• Wall Street opens higher as oil prices jump

  22-01-2016 15:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  REUTERS - U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday as a cold wave across the United States and Europe helped oil prices surge for a second day. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's remarks on Thursday suggesting the bank could ease its monetary policy in March also encouraged investors. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 120.6 points, or 0.76 percent, to 16,003.28, the S&P 500 gained 18.76 points, or 1 percent, to 1,887.75 and the Nasdaq Composite index added 82.24 points, or 1.84 pe
  
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• Nearly $8 trillion wiped off world stocks in Jan, U.S. recession chances rising - BofA-ML

  22-01-2016 15:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jamie McGeever LONDON (Reuters) - World stock market losses are approaching $8 trillion so far this year and investors last week poured the most money into government bond funds in a year, suggesting they fear the global economy could tip into recession, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. The bank's U.S. economists also said on Friday that the likelihood of the world's largest economy entering a recession in the coming year has risen to 20 percent from 15 percent. Reflecting the in
  
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• Nearly $8 trillion wiped off world stocks in January, U.S. recession chances rising: BAML

  22-01-2016 15:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  World stock market losses are approaching $8 trillion so far this year and investors last week poured the most money into government bond funds in a year, suggesting they fear the global economy could tip into recession, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. The bank's U.S. economists also said on Friday that the likelihood of the world's largest economy entering a recession in the coming year has risen to 20 percent from 15 percent. Reflecting the increasingly bearish sentiment engulfin
  
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• Zambia's 2015 copper output up despite power woes, weak prices

  22-01-2016 14:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Zambia's copper production inched higher to 711,515 tonnes in 2015 from 708,000 tonnes the previous year mainly due to a new mine owned by Canada's First Quantum Minerals, the Chamber of Mines said on Friday. An electricity shortage and weaker copper prices due to slower growth by top consumer China have piling pressure on Zambia's mining industry, threatening output, jobs and economic growth in the southern African nation, and put its currency on the back foot against the dollar. The government
  
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• Canada retail sales jump in November on new car purchases

  22-01-2016 14:47 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Canadian retail sales jumped far more than expected in November due to higher sales at new car dealers and Black Friday purchases, data from Statistics Canada showed on Friday, pointing to some needed vigor for a struggling economy. Sales rose 1.7 percent, handily topping economists' forecasts for a gain of 0.2 percent, while volumes rose 1.5 percent.
  
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• Bank of England's Carney unfazed by market and commodity volatility - WSJ

  22-01-2016 14:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney believes the outlook for the world economy has not changed significantly despite recent volatility in financial markets and commodity prices, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday. "It is a pretty modest world," Carney told the newspaper in an interview, pointing to estimates of 3 percent global growth this year. "Recent events are just reinforcing that. I don't think they have fundamentally changed that trajectory." (Reporting by William
  
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• The Latest: Spacey: Underwood would appreciate US campaign

  22-01-2016 14:43 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The latest developments from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where top executives and world leaders are meeting this week. All times local.
  
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