Finance news

• DoubleLine's Gundlach worrying about junk bonds, not recession

  05-05-2016 23:31 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, on Thursday said he is worried that junk bond investors could recover exceptionally low amounts of principal when their debt goes into default. Gundlach, whose Los Angeles-based firm invests roughly $95 billion, nonetheless sees little chance the U.S. economy will soon plunge into recession. Speaking in a panel discussion at the New York Historical Society, Gundlach said junk
  
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• Wall Street flat before April jobs report; retailers slip

  05-05-2016 23:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  U.S. stocks gave up early gains to end flat on Thursday as consumer discretionary shares fell and investors showed caution ahead of the April jobs report. The S&P retail index was down 1.5 percent while the S&P consumer discretionary index fell 0.6 percent.
  
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• News Corp's quarterly revenue falls 7.3 percent, profit hit by charge

  05-05-2016 23:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - News Corp , owner of the Wall Street Journal and book publisher HarperCollins, reported its fifth drop in quarterly revenue in a row as print ad sales declined and a strong dollar hit income from outside the United States. News Corp reported a net loss available to shareholders of $149 million, or 26 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with a profit of $23 million, or 4 cents per share, a year earlier. The company was hurt by a one-time charge of $280 millio
  
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• Wall Street ends little changed ahead of jobs report

  05-05-2016 22:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks gave up big early gains on Thursday as consumer discretionary shares fell and investors showed caution ahead of the April jobs report. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.45 points, or 0.05 percent, to 17,660.71, the S&P 500 lost 0.51 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,050.61 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 8.55 points, or 0.18 percent, to 4,717.09. (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
  
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• Lights! Camera! Action! The first job tales of filmmakers

  05-05-2016 21:34
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - When you ask people about their first jobs, you hear a lot of similar answers: newspaper delivery boys, lawn mowers, checkout cashiers.
  
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• Wall Street slips as consumer stocks, oil drag

  05-05-2016 20:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Oil prices had jumped on concerns that a huge wildfire in Canada's oil sands region and escalating tensions in Libya would hit supply, but later slipped well off their highs. "The fact that oil started off strong today and has weakened is probably a net negative for risk appetite in the near term," said Chris Konstantinos, head of international portfolio management at RiverFront Investment Group in Richmond, Virginia. Nonfarm payrolls likely rose by 202,000 last month, after rising 215,000 in Ma
  
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• Stocks give up an early gain on Wall Street and head lower

  05-05-2016 19:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Stocks are edging lower in early afternoon trading on Wall Street Thursday, giving up an early gain and putting the market on track for its third loss in a row. Utilities and consumer stocks fell the most. ...
  
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• Economic reforms to spur Saudi's 'rapid' change: FM

  05-05-2016 19:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Saudi Arabia's foreign minister voiced confidence Thursday that the kingdom could implement an ambitious plan to diversify its economy, saying it had already undergone "incredible" change in recent decades. The Vision 2030 plan will take the country's advancement "to another level", creating jobs and making government "more efficient, more transparent, more accountable," Adel al-Jubeir said. "What Saudi Arabia has done in the last 50 years is incredible.
  
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• Column: How social media makes millennial moms splurge

  05-05-2016 19:31
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Remember those days when one of a mom's biggest challenges was getting out of a store without buying a toy for a screaming child?
  
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• Ex-Venezuela parliament head sues News Corp over drug article

  05-05-2016 19:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Diosdado Cabello, the former head of Venezuela's national assembly, filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing the Wall Street Journal of libeling him in an article reporting he was the target of a U.S. drug trafficking probe. Cabello filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against News Corp , the newspaper's owner, saying the May 2015 article contained "false and defamatory allegations" that Cabello was involved in criminal activities related to drug traffick
  
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• 'Feel the love': children dance for world's press before North Korean congress

  05-05-2016 19:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Foreign journalists invited to cover North Korea's first ruling party congress in 36 years were treated on Thursday to song and dance performances by schoolchildren professing their love for leader Kim Jong Un. Kim is expected to use the congress starting on Friday to declare North Korea a nuclear weapons state and formally adopt his "Byongjin" policy to pursue economic development and nuclear capability at the same time. "Whenever I come here, I feel the love and affection of our great Marshal
  
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• London close: FTSE ends flat as traders weigh economic data and earnings

  05-05-2016 18:55 via news.yahoo.com
  (ShareCast News) - The FTSE 100 finished flat on Thursday as traders digested economic data and mixed corporate earnings.
  
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• U.S. regulator seeks return of class action suits against credit cards, banks

  05-05-2016 18:47
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. consumer watchdog on Thursday proposed new rules to block credit card companies, banks and other companies from forcing customers to waive their rights to join class...
  
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• Fed's Bullard says global headwinds appear to have waned, Brexit no risk

  05-05-2016 18:44 via news.yahoo.com
  
  "International influences...appear to be waning during the first half of 2016," Bullard said in a speech at an event in Santa Barbara, California. Fed policymakers in March forecast two rate increases this year but have been cautious amid slowing global growth and mixed U.S. economic data.
  
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• U.S. regulators ban e-cigarette, cigar sales to minors

  05-05-2016 18:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Caroline Humer and Clarece Polke NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Thursday took their first steps to crack down on e-cigarettes and cigars, increasingly popular among American youth, and banned sales to anyone under age 18 in hopes of preventing a new generation from becoming hooked on nicotine. The Food and Drug Administration's action brought regulation of e-cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and hookah tobacco in line with existing rules for cigarettes, smokeless tobacco an
  
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• Turkey's turmoil rattles investors as PM bows out

  05-05-2016 18:15 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The sudden exit of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday frayed investors' nerves already tested by months of political uncertainty, with analysts warning of a period of sustained pressure for the lira and stock market. Davutoglu's departure paves the way for the naming of a prime minister more pliant to the will of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has long sought to expand his influence on economic policy. The lira lost almost 4 percent in value against the dollar on Wednesday --
  
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• Britain's FTSE steadies near 1-month low; Centrica slumps

  05-05-2016 18:13
  
  LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index steadied
  near a one-month low on Thursday, as gains in companies like BT
  and RSA offset declines by companies such as
  Centrica and Inmarsat after...
  
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• Irish parliament to vote on re-electing PM Kenny on Friday

  05-05-2016 18:00 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Acting Irish prime minister Enda Kenny is to seek re-election in parliament on Friday in a vote that is likely to end ten weeks of political deadllock in Europe's fastest growing economy. Kenny has failed to win re-election three times since a Feb. 26 vote ousted his coalition government, but last week he secured the agreement of the second largest party, Fianna Fail, to abstain to facilitate the formation of a minority government. Kenny's Fine Gael party needs the support of at least six indepe
  
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• Chemicals firm SQM asks Chile to block Albemarle lithium project

  05-05-2016 17:58 via news.yahoo.com
  Chilean chemicals group SQM said on Thursday it has asked local authorities to block U.S. lithium producer Albemarle Corp from expanding production in the South American nation for environmental reasons. The move came less than three months after Albemarle's Rockwood unit signed a deal with Chilean economic development agency Corfo to significantly increase its output of lithium, a mineral that powers electric car batteries. "Yes, that is so," a SQM spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters when a
  
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• BHP-Vale's Samarco has not done enough to fix dam disaster -prosecutor

  05-05-2016 17:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  State prosecutors in Brazil said on Thursday that Samarco, owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton, has not done enough to clean up and compensate communities for the damage caused by a tailings dam that collapsed last November causing the country's worst ever environmental disaster. "Samarco hasn't done what needs to be done," said Mauro Ellovitch, one of the Minas Gerais state prosecutors who held a media briefing to mark six months since the tragedy that killed 19 people and left hundreds homeless.
  
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• Trump fleshes out economic ideas after rivals exit White House race

  05-05-2016 17:47 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Doina Chiacu and Emily Stephenson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Settling in as the Republican Party's likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump began fleshing out more economic policy ideas on Thursday, saying he would scrap a slew of federal regulations and refinance longer term U.S. debt if he won the White House in November. On Thursday, Trump delved more into how he would seek to boost businesses and fund infrastructure improvements. "The business people, they talk about regulation more than the
  
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• Technical Weakness Is Spreading Through the Stock Market

  05-05-2016 17:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Some investors were focused on reports the European Central Bank reportedly wants to stay in "wait and see mode" on stimulus amid a recent increase in pressure on Eurozone banks. You know, "Sell in May and go away." According to Jeff Hirsch of Almanac Trader, from April 1950 to October 2015, the S&P 500 gained 1,857 points in the months from November through April but only 203 points between May and October.
  
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• U.S., Europe shares rise with oil prices; dollar gains

  05-05-2016 17:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. and European stock markets recovered on Thursday after a rebound in oil prices boosted energy shares, with some strong European earnings reports also supporting stocks in the region, while the dollar rose ahead of Friday's U.S. employment data.
  
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• Average US rate on 30-year mortgages falls to 3.61 percent

  05-05-2016 17:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, following the Federal Reserve's decision not to raise its benchmark interest rate.
  
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• Brevan Howard opens funds to fresh outside investors: source

  05-05-2016 17:00
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Billionaire Alan Howard's hedge fund, Brevan Howard Asset Management, has opened two funds to additional outside investors, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told...
  
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• Modest rebound in European stocks fizzles out

  05-05-2016 16:46 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A modest attempt at recovery on European stock markets fizzled out on Thursday after two days of heavy losses as concerns over slowing global growth continued to weigh.
  
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• Trump wants to help U.S. businesses by lifting slew of regulations: CNBC

  05-05-2016 16:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined economic policy initiatives on Thursday that he would pursue if elected to the White House in November, including refinancing longer-term U.S. debt, lowering taxes and scrapping a slew of federal regulations. The Manhattan real estate mogul said his aim would be to clear the way for U.S. businesses to succeed. "We're lowering taxes very substantially and we're going to be getting rid of a tremendous amount of regulations," Trump said in a w
  
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• Wall Street opens higher as rising oil boosts energy stocks

  05-05-2016 15:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent as a huge wildfire near Canada's oil sands region and escalating tensions in Libya stoked concerns among investors of a near-term shortage in supply. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold at 5 percent. An accommodative Federal Reserve and a recovery in oil prices have helped U.S. stocks rebound from sharp losses at the start of the year.
  
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• Wall Street opens higher as oil jumps

  05-05-2016 15:34 via news.yahoo.com
  REUTERS - U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday as oil prices rose for the first time this week. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.57 points, or 0.15 percent, to 17,677.83, the S&P 500 gained 4.4 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,055.52 and the Nasdaq composite added 16.50 points, or 0.35 percent, to 4,742.14. (Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
  
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• South African opposition parties boycott Zuma speech in parliament

  05-05-2016 15:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday asked for more orderly debates by lawmakers in parliament after most opposition parties boycotted his speech in the assembly. Several MPs from the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were forcibly ejected from parliament on Wednesday as they sought to prevent Zuma from giving a speech. On Thursday, the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, the EFF and six smaller ones were absent as Zuma gave a speech in reply to issues raised during the
  
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• Your Money: Tips for millennials who dream of being their own boss

  05-05-2016 15:16
  
  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bobby Hoyt, 27, is living the millennial dream of being his own boss.
  
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• Polish finance minister calls for restraint in court row ahead of Moody's review

  05-05-2016 15:15 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Poland's finance minister has asked the constitutional court's head to cool its dispute with the government until ratings agency Moody's has made its review of the economy next week, a sign of concern that the row is hurting investors' confidence. Another agency, S&P, downgraded the country's rating last January, saying that reforms carried out by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) conservatives had weakened the independence of the top court and other key institutions. Moody's, which is due to
  
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• New Apple app launches in Britain that pays people to get fit

  05-05-2016 15:09 via news.yahoo.com
  By Eric Auchard FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A free smartphone app that will pay people to be physically active launches on Wednesday in Britain, with users given digital "sweatcoins" depending on how many steps they take that can be exchanged for rewards or traded like money. It's the latest initiative in an emerging fitness economy that includes all manner of monitoring devices, apps that reward activity with vouchers and even experiments in offering cheap insurance to people who can demonstrate they
  
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• Despite sanctions and isolation, Pyongyang skyline grows

  05-05-2016 15:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By James Pearson and Damir Sagolj PYONGYANG (Reuters) - The Pyongyang skyline is rising - and not just with the trophy structures that represent the North Korean state. Despite its political and economic isolation, the capital is in the midst of a building boom. In a comparison of photos taken by Reuters this week and on a visit to Pyongyang last October, several new high-rises of 20 or more stories have appeared in the capital, some appearing near completion.
  
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• Merck sales disappoint as Januvia, Remicade fall short

  05-05-2016 14:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Merck & Co Inc on Thursday reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue, hurt by disappointing sales of its Januvia diabetes treatment and Remicade arthritis drug. Combined sales of Januvia and a related combination medicine called Janumet edged up 1 percent to $1.41 billion, $30 million shy of Wall Street expectations. Demand for the drugs, Merck's biggest franchise and former sparkplugs for company growth, has waned due to new competition, including from Eli Lilly & Co's Jardiance an
  
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• Indian lower house backs bankruptcy code, key to debt cleanup

  05-05-2016 14:31
  
  NEW DELHI, May 5 (Reuters) - India's lower house of
  parliament on Thursday backed a new bankruptcy code, a crucial
  step towards establishing a debt resolution regime to strengthen
  the hands of banks...
  
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• Alibaba's revenue rises 39 percent as more shoppers buy online

  05-05-2016 13:48 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, said fourth-quarter revenue rose 39 percent, beating Wall Street estimates, helped by growth in gross merchandise volume. The company's American Depository shares were up 3.5 percent at $78.48 on Thursday. Revenue rose to 24.2 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in the quarter ended March 31 from 17.4 billion yuan a year earlier, beating the average analyst estimate of 23.22 billion yuan, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. "Whatever they
  
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• Merck beats 1Q profit views with tight cost controls

  05-05-2016 13:47 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Merck posted an 18 percent jump in first-quarter income, beating Wall Street expectations, as lower spending on marketing, administration and research easily offset lower sales of its medicines outside ...
  
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• Uncertainty over vote on EU membership weighs on UK economy

  05-05-2016 13:36 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LONDON (AP) — Uncertainty over Britain's looming vote on whether to remain in the European Union is weighing on the nation's economy, with another key indicator showing Thursday that growth is close to stagnating.
  
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• China e-commerce giant Alibaba's quarterly revenue leaps 39%

  05-05-2016 13:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's revenue surged 39 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2016, it said Thursday, its fastest growth in the last four quarters. Revenue hit 24.18 billion yuan ($3.75 billion) for the three months to March, it said in its quarterly results announcement, defying both China's economic slowdown and increasing competition in the world's biggest e-commerce market. "Our excellent results this quarter reflect the unique strength of our core e-commerce busines
  
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• Column: Social Security - A brave new world starts this week

  05-05-2016 13:27
  
  CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Social Security "file-ocalypse" came and went, and the system is still standing. Workers are claiming benefits and the Social Security Administration still is making payments.
  
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• Failure to tackle age-related spending may damage credit ratings: S&P

  05-05-2016 13:12 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Facing aging populations and ballooning healthcare and pension bills, governments must reform welfare systems or face a deterioration in their credit ratings, Standard & Poor's said in a report on Thursday. The ratings agency looked at 58 nations to assess the economic consequences of demographic changes and concluded that unless countries implemented reforms, more than a quarter of them could have "speculative-grade", or junk, ratings by 2050. "Over the last five to six years, many sovereig
  
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• South Africa's rand recovers, vulnerable to waning risk appetite

  05-05-2016 12:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Zimasa Mpemnyama JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand firmed against the dollar on Thursday, bouncing back from a near 4-week low hit in the previous session, but the currency was vulnerable as risk sentiment was soured by slow global growth. At 0857 GMT, the rand had traded at 14.8900 per dollar, 0.83 percent firmer from Wednesday's New York close of 15.0150, which was its weakest level since April 8, according to Thomson Reuters data. The rand stumbled on Wednesday hit by the brunt
  
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• Trump's deportation plan could slice 2 percent off U.S. GDP: study

  05-05-2016 12:15 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Luciana Lopez NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump's vow to round up and deport all of America's undocumented immigrants if he is elected president could shrink the economy by around 2 percent, according to a study to be released on Thursday by conservative think tank the American Action Forum.     The research adds to concerns about the Republican White House nominee's policy proposals, which range from tearing up international trade agreements to building a wall along the U.S. b
  
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• Failure to tackle age-related spending may lead to worsening credit ratings, S&P says

  05-05-2016 11:34 via news.yahoo.com
  LONDON (Reuters) - Facing an ageing population and ballooning healthcare and pension bills, governments around the world will have to reform welfare systems or face a deterioration in their credit ratings, Standard & Poor's said on Thursday. The ratings agency looked at 58 developed and emerging nations to assess the economic consequences of demographic changes and concluded that unless countries implemented reforms to tackle age-related spending, more than a quarter of them nations could ha
  
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• Failure to tackle age-related spending may lead to worsening credit ratings - S&P

  05-05-2016 11:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Facing an ageing population and ballooning healthcare and pension bills, governments around the world will have to reform welfare systems or face a deterioration in their credit ratings, Standard & Poor's said on Thursday. The ratings agency looked at 58 developed and emerging nations to assess the economic consequences of demographic changes and concluded that unless countries implemented reforms to tackle age-related spending, more than a quarter of them nations could ha
  
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• Europe shares, oil snap four-day losing streaks

  05-05-2016 11:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European stocks and oil prices snapped a four-day losing streak on Thursday and a rally in bond markets fizzled out as investors began to position themselves for U.S. jobs data. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index , which had fallen 1.2 percent to its lowest level in nearly a month in the previous session, rebounded 0.3 percent as firmer oil prices helped lift the region's big producers. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that Japan would act if necessary to weaken the yen, while th
  
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• Australia appoints new central bank governor

  05-05-2016 10:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Australia named its next central bank governor Thursday, with Philip Lowe promoted to the top job from deputy to replace Glenn Stevens in a widely-tipped move. The announcement came in the week the Reserve Bank of Australia slashed interest rates to a new record-low of 1.75 percent to boost the economy as it charts a rocky path away from mining dependence after an unprecedented resources investment boom. Treasurer Scott Morrison thanked him for his service and said Lowe's appointment would "rein
  
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• Asia markets cautious on growth woes but dollar, oil rally

  05-05-2016 10:29 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Asian stock markets moved cautiously Thursday as worries over the global economy sap confidence but the dollar held the previous day's gains and oil prices extended a rally. A disappointing set of readings and announcements from the world's biggest economies over the past week have cast a pall over stock markets, reversing recent gains that were fuelled by hopes a recovery was taking hold. New York provided another negative lead, with the city's three main indexes ending deep in the red after a
  
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• Flurry of strong earnings boosts FTSE

  05-05-2016 10:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rose on Thursday as investors favoured telecom firm BT , insurer RSA and grocer WM Morrison after strong results. The telecom firm said it would spend 6 billion pounds on rolling out superfast fibre and 4G mobile in the next three years following criticism from regulators who have demanded an improved service. "It's hoped this will help placate concerns aired by Ofcom," Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct, said in a note.
  
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