Finance news

• Thomas H. Lee in the lead to buy Two-Bite Brownies owner: sources

  18-04-2016 23:55
  (Reuters) - Private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners LP is in advanced talks to acquire Give and Go Prepared Foods Corp, a Canadian maker of thaw-and-serve sweet baked goods such as Two-Bite...
  
  Read more

• Greybull Capital mulls bid for Tata Steel's specialty arm: FT

  18-04-2016 23:54
  
  (Reuters) - Investment firm Greybull Capital is considering making a bid for Tata Steel Ltd's UK specialty steels arm, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.
  
  Read more

• China must act on steel overcapacity or face trade actions: U.S. officials

  18-04-2016 23:46 via news.yahoo.com
  China must take "timely and concrete actions" to reduce excess production and capacity in its steel industry or face possible trade action from other countries, U.S. officials said on Monday. The warning followed failure to agree measures to tackle a global steel crisis during a meeting on Monday in Brussels of ministers and trade officials from over 30 countries, hosted by Belgium and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. "Unless China starts to take timely and concrete act
  
  Read more

• Battered Ecuador faces huge economic toll after quake

  18-04-2016 23:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Ana Isabel Martinez and Julia Symmes Cobb PORTOVIEJO/PEDERNALES, Ecuador (Reuters) - Touring a city ravaged by the earthquake that killed 366 people, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Monday contemplated a rebuilding costing billions of dollars and a potentially "huge" impact on the fragile OPEC economy. With the death toll likely to rise further and swaths of flattened homes, roads and bridges coming to light, a visibly moved and grim-faced Correa warned that Ecuador's biggest disaster i
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Oil falls on failed output freeze; Dow above 18,000

  18-04-2016 23:14 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices edged lower on Monday after producers failed to agree on a plan to curb global supply at a meeting in Qatar, while world stock markets rose and the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 18,000 for the first time since July.
  
  Read more

• TSX rises to a five-month high as oil losses pared

  18-04-2016 23:12 via news.yahoo.com
  By Fergal Smith TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose to a five-month high on Monday as energy stocks rallied after oil pared losses, while mining and financial sector stocks also advanced. U.S. corporate earnings have not been as bad as feared, while recent improvement in economic data has left investors more optimistic about the earnings outlook, said Kevin Headland, director of the portfolio advisory group at Manulife Asset Management. Oil prices slid after major oil producers fa
  
  Read more

• Factbox: Wall Street and commodity risk - Morgan Stanley risk sinks in first quarter

  18-04-2016 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's commodity market trading risk measure, known as Value-at-Risk (VaR), fell to its lowest in at least three years in the three months to end-March, the bank said on Monday.
  
  Read more

• Natural disasters since 1900 'have cost $7 trillion'

  18-04-2016 21:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Natural disasters have caused more than $7 trillion (6.2 trillion euros) in economic damage worldwide since 1900, with floods and storms accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total, researchers said Monday. The death toll from such natural calamities -- which also include earthquakes, volcanoes, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires -- topped eight million from 1900 to 2015, according to findings presented at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna. More than a third -- 38.5 percent
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Tax issue throws Energy Transfer's Williams deal into doubt

  18-04-2016 21:30
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline company Energy Transfer Equity said on Monday its lawyers may not be able to deliver an important tax opinion for its takeover of peer Williams Cos Inc, throwing...
  
  Read more

• Dow reclaims 18,000 as quarterly reports begin to flow

  18-04-2016 21:05 via news.yahoo.com
  Wall Street rose on Monday, with the Dow touching highs not seen since July, as Hasbro and Disney lifted the consumer discretionary sector while investors braced for a flurry of quarterly earnings reports through the week. The index is now up 2.3 percent in 2016 and only about 2 percent short of its all-time high, while the Dow breached 18,000 for the first time since July 21. Earnings of S&P 500 companies are seen falling 7.7 percent on average, with the energy sector weighing heavily, acco
  
  Read more

• YP Holdings plans first-round bid to merge with Yahoo: source

  18-04-2016 21:00
  
  (Reuters) - YP Holdings LLC, the digital advertising business of what was formerly called Yellowpages.com, is planning to submit a first-round bid on Monday to merge with Yahoo Inc , a source...
  
  Read more

• French central bank chief warns about Brexit consequences

  18-04-2016 20:51 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Britain should stay in the European Union, but regardless how it votes on June 23, the EU needs to forge closer ties to get out of its economic rut, the head of the French central bank said on Monday. A British exit would have consequences for both financial markets and monetary policy, with implications for the single financial market, said Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who also sits on the European Central Bank's Governing Council. The Bank of England is already working on contingency plans, he
  
  Read more

• Energy Transfer lawyers may not be able to issue tax opinion

  18-04-2016 20:49
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline company Energy Transfer Equity said on Monday its lawyers may not be able to deliver a tax opinion for its takeover of rival Williams Cos Inc, and the two companies...
  
  Read more

• Oil steadies after Kuwait strike; global stocks gain

  18-04-2016 20:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Monday as a strike in Kuwait offset concern over producers' failure to agree on a plan to curb global supply at a meeting in Qatar, while world stock markets rose. Walt Disney rose 2.5 percent to $101.09 a share after its "Jungle Book" film dominated the weekend box office. The strike in Kuwait slashed the country's oil output by more than half.
  
  Read more

• Saudi bourse targets small, medium enterprises

  18-04-2016 20:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Saudi Arabia's bourse said on Monday it plans a market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) next year, under a push for SME development in a restructured economy. "This initiative comes in view of the importance of the role of this segment in supporting the national economy and accelerating development," the Tadawul bourse said in a statement. It "will establish a stock market segment targeting small and medium companies by the beginning of 2017", enabling them to finance their activiti
  
  Read more

• Weak markets leave Morgan Stanley struggling to reach return-on-equity target

  18-04-2016 19:45 via news.yahoo.com
  Morgan Stanley's trouble growing revenue in weak markets may cause management to take further actions to achieve its financial goals, Chief Executive James Gorman said on Monday. The Wall Street bank's first-quarter profit tumbled by more than half, as trouble in fixed-income markets hurt its trading business and capital markets underwriting lagged. Morgan Stanley's return-on-equity, a key measure of how well it uses shareholder capital to earn profits, was 6.2 percent, well below Gorman's goal
  
  Read more

• BlackRock downgrades outlook on U.S. assets

  18-04-2016 19:43
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc, the world's largest asset manager, on Monday cut its expectations on the five-year returns on U.S. investments, in particular bonds, which would lose money.
  
  Read more

• UK's Osborne warns voters of Brexit's permanent economic damage

  18-04-2016 19:11 via news.yahoo.com
  
  British finance minister George Osborne told voters that leaving the European Union would do permanent damage to the country's economy, costing them thousands of pounds a year and sapping funding for public services. In a move immediately challenged by anti-EU campaigners, Osborne pointed to Treasury figures which said breaking away could cost each household 4,300 pounds ($6,100) a year by 2030. Three days after official campaigning began for the EU membership referendum on June 23, Osborne said
  
  Read more

• Osborne warns voters of Brexit's permanent economic damage

  18-04-2016 19:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Finance minister George Osborne told voters that leaving the European Union would do permanent damage to the country's economy, costing them thousands of pounds a year and sapping funding for public services. In a move immediately challenged by anti-EU campaigners, Osborne pointed to Treasury figures which said breaking away could cost each household 4,300 pounds ($6,100) a year by 2030. Three days after official campaigning began for the EU membership ref
  
  Read more

• If oil stays cheap, household spending could rise: Fed paper

  18-04-2016 19:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The dramatic drop in the price of oil since 2014 has delivered only a muted boost to the U.S. economy, but that could change if households start figuring cheap oil is here to stay. Oil currently sells near $40 a barrel, down from around $100 a barrel two years ago, but households have generally assumed the decline is temporary, wrote the Fed researchers. "Because the decline in oil prices is considered temporary, households with less information do not believe their future income will rise as mu
  
  Read more

• Caixabank makes new bid to take control of Banco BPI

  18-04-2016 18:56
  
  MADRID/LISBON (Reuters) - Caixabank has made a new offer worth nearly $2 billion for Banco BPI in another attempt to take full control of the Portuguese bank from Angolan billionaire Isabel dos...
  
  Read more

• BRIEF-African Bank says creditors approve business rescue plan

  18-04-2016 17:41
  * At meeting of creditors of ABIL held on 18 April, business
  rescue plan, as amended, was unanimously approved by creditors
  presentSource text for Eikon:Further company coverage:
  
  Read more

• China urged to fix 'life or death' steel crisis

  18-04-2016 17:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Major players in the world's struggling steel industry urged China on Monday to scale back overproduction blamed for causing plant closures and job losses across the globe. Ministers and representatives from 30 countries gathered in Brussels in a bid to end the row pitting the world steel industry against China, where an economic slowdown has unleashed a glut of cheap steel onto the world market. "We will tell our Chinese partners... you do not respect the rules governing world trade," said Fren
  
  Read more

• Hutchison in make-or-break decision as EU veto on O2 deal looms

  18-04-2016 16:27
  
  AMSTERDAM - CK Hutchison Holdingsfaces a make-or-break moment as it ponders whether to ramp up concessions or face an EU regulatory veto over its 10.3-billion-pound ($14.6 billion) bid to become...
  
  Read more

• Shares in Chile's Tech Pack jump 29 percent after $435 million deal

  18-04-2016 15:46
  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Shares in Chilean company Tech Pack shot up almost 30 percent after it said in a note to regulators on Monday it would sell its flexible bottle operation to Amcor Holding, the...
  
  Read more

• Vattenfall sells German lignite assets to Czech EPH

  18-04-2016 15:43
  STOCKHOLM/PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech investor EPH has agreed to buy the loss-making lignite coal mines and associated power plants in Germany from state-owned Swedish utility Vattenfall [VATN.UL] as it...
  
  Read more

• Four ways to avoid raising spoiled monsters

  18-04-2016 15:05
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kay Wyma remembers the exact moment she realized she was spoiling her kids.
  
  Read more

• Saudi flag carrier to launch low-cost offshoot

  18-04-2016 14:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to launch a low-cost offshoot next year under initiatives to restructure the kingdom's oil-dependent economy, official media said on Monday. Known as "Flyadeal", the low-cost carrier will begin operations from the middle of next year, Saudi Arabian Airlines chief Saleh al-Jasser said. It also did not specify whether Flyadeal would serve domestic or international routes.
  
  Read more

• Vista Equity to buy Cvent for about $1.65 billion

  18-04-2016 14:52
  (Reuters) - Event management software maker Cvent Incsaid it agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for about $1.65 billion in cash.
  
  Read more

• Stock Spirits bows to investor pressure, CEO steps down

  18-04-2016 14:38
  (Reuters) - Vodka maker Stock Spirits Group Plcremoved its chief executive of seven years, bowing to pressure from its largest individual shareholder.
  
  Read more

• China's Hebei signs agreement to buy Serbian steel plant

  18-04-2016 14:19
  SMEDEREVO, Serbia (Reuters) - China's Hebei Iron & Steel Groupsigned a 46 million euro ($52 million) agreement on Monday to buy a loss-making Serbian steel plant in the first major privatization by...
  
  Read more

• BRIEF-Court announces liquidation of Ideon unit

  18-04-2016 13:52
  * Katowice-Wschod court announces liquidation of the
  company's wholly-owned unit, Ideon Real Estate Sp. z o.o.
  
  Read more

• PepsiCo 1Q sales slip, miss Wall Street's view

  18-04-2016 13:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  PURCHASE, N.Y. (AP) — PepsiCo's net income and sales dipped in the first quarter, stung by a strong dollar and some weakness overseas.
  
  Read more

• Morgan Stanley's profit falls by more than half as trading slumps

  18-04-2016 13:19 via news.yahoo.com
  By Olivia Oran and Richa Naidu (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's quarterly profit fell by more than half as the Wall Street bank's fixed-income trading and investment banking bu...
  
  Read more

• Morgan Stanley profit slumps 54.4 percent

  18-04-2016 13:19 via news.yahoo.com
  (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's quarterly profit more than halved as the Wall Street bank's trading and investment banking businesses took a hit from market volatility early in the year. ...
  
  Read more

• Morgan Stanley's profit more than halves as trading slumps

  18-04-2016 13:05 via news.yahoo.com
  (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's quarterly profit more than halved as the Wall Street bank's trading and investment banking businesses took a hit from market volatility early in the year. B...
  
  Read more

• Property firms Immofinanz and CA Immo renew merger efforts

  18-04-2016 12:28
  
  VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's Immofinanzand CA Immoannounced a fresh attempt to merge on Monday to create a property group offering retail and office buildings across central and eastern Europe.
  
  Read more

• Exclusive: Chevron seeks buyers for Myanmar gas assets worth $1.3 billion - sources

  18-04-2016 12:20
  
  HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil and gas major Chevron Corp has put its Myanmar gas block stakes worth an estimated $1.3 billion up for sale, banking sources familiar with the matter said, in...
  
  Read more

• BRIEF-Steilmann: investor processes begin for Steilmann Group's activities

  18-04-2016 11:48
  * Preliminary insolvency administrator has initiated investor processes for the fashion
  group's activities
  
  Read more

• Spain's Caixabank launches new takeover bid for Banco BPI

  18-04-2016 11:08
  
  MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Caixabanksaid on Monday it was making a fresh takeover offer worth around $1 billion for the 56 percent of Portuguese lender Banco BPIthat it does not already own,...
  
  Read more

• Brexit could shrink UK economy by six percent: Treasury

  18-04-2016 10:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  If Britain leaves the European Union its economy could shrink by six percent by 2030, the finance ministry warned in a report on Monday that was dismissed as scaremongering by eurosceptics. The report said a Brexit would cause "permanent" economic damage as Britain would never be able to negotiate quota-free, no-tariff access to the single market if Britons vote to leave in a June referendum. "The conclusion is clear: for Britain's economy and for families, leaving the EU would be the most extra
  
  Read more

• MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi shares drop moderately after oil tumbles

  18-04-2016 10:02 via news.yahoo.com
  Saudi Arabia's stock market fell moderately in early trade on Monday after oil producers meeting in Doha on Sunday caused crude prices to tumble, although some stocks rose on the back of better-than-expected earnings. The failure of the Doha meeting to agree on an oil output freeze may not make a huge difference to prices in the long term - analysts thought a freeze would have had only a minor impact on market conditions. The second largest listed producer, Saudi Arabia Fertilisers Co (SAFCO), s
  
  Read more

• Malaysian PM's brother takes leave from CIMB role amid funds transfer inquiry

  18-04-2016 09:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Malaysian prime minister's brother, Nazir Razak, announced on Monday that he was taking voluntary leave of absence from his role as chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd amid an independent review into money transfers to his personal account. Nazir was dragged into a scandal around political funding and alleged misuse of money from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) after the Wall Street Journal reported last month that he received $7 million (£4.94 million) in funds from his
  
  Read more

• Spain's Caixabank to launch full takeover bid for Portugal's BPI

  18-04-2016 09:45 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Spain's Caixabank said on Monday it would make a full takeover bid in cash for Portugal's BPI for 1.113 euros ($1.26) per share for the 56 percent stake it doesn't already hold. The offer is dependent on acceptance topping 50 percent of BPI and the Portuguese bank eliminating a 20 percent shareholder rights limitation, the Spanish bank said in a statement to the stock market regulator on Monday.
  
  Read more

• Asia energy firms sink with oil as Doha output talks fail

  18-04-2016 09:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Hong Kong (AFP) - Oil prices plunged in Asia on Monday, sending energy firms and regional stock markets tumbling after the collapse of talks among the world's top oil producers intended to ease a global supply glut.
  
  Read more

• BHP CEO Mackenzie says Brexit would lead to lost decade of damaging uncertainty

  18-04-2016 09:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BHP Billiton Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Monday that businesses could face a decade of damaging uncertainty if Britain voted to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Mackenzie, boss of the world's biggest mining company, said a vote for Brexit would inflict a serious blow on the EU and that Britain would lose economic, political and diplomatic clout by leaving the club it joined in 1973. Unpicking EU trade deals and replacing them with British deals could usher in a deca
  
  Read more

• Hurricane Energy finds new investor to finance North Sea exploration

  18-04-2016 09:17
  LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Hurricane Energy has
  found a new investor in private equity fund manager Kerogen
  Capital which is injecting 44.1 million pounds ($62 million)
  into the company for a...
  
  Read more

• South Africa c.bank says persistent CPI target breach will require policy response

  18-04-2016 09:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  South Africa's central bank will tolerate temporary breaches of its inflation target to smooth out short-term fluctuations in economic growth, but a persistent breach will require a policy response, Deputy Governor Daniel Mminele said. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) raised its benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.0 percent last month, in an effort to tame rising inflation, despite fears about waning economic growth.
  
  Read more

• Spain's Abertis, Brookfield to launch bid for Brazil's Arteris

  18-04-2016 09:13 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Spain's Abertis said on Monday that, together with a unit of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management , it will launch a bid for the shares of Brazil's Arteris it doesn't already own for 10.15 reais (2 pounds) per share. The Spanish motorway operator and Brookfield Brazil Motorways Holding currently own 69.26 percent of Arteris through Participes, in which they hold 51 percent and 49 percent respectively. The offer, to be finalised May 17 and aimed at delisting Arteris from the Brazilian market, dis
  
  Read more

• BUZZ-Saudi's Ma'aden edges up after earnings beat

  18-04-2016 09:05 via news.yahoo.com
  ** Shares in Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) climb 1.1 percent to 28.90 riyals ** It reported 35.3 percent fall in first-quarter net profit to 168.9 million riyals ($45.04 million) versus average estimate of three analysts of just 1.13 million riyals ** Sales declined 17 percent year-on-year because of lower product prices, but this was partially mitigated by 16 percent drop in direct costs and positive effects of initiative to reduce operating costs, says note by NCB Capital ** Saudi Arabia's
  
  Read more

Follow @FinanceUSA_News on Twitter!