Finance news

• Rio Tinto submits feasibility study for Simandou project in Guinea

  16-05-2016 22:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said on Monday it had submitted feasibility studies to the Guinea government for its massive Simandou iron ore project, considered the world's biggest untapped iron ore deposit. Simfer, Rio Tinto's subsidiary, "submitted today the bankable feasibility study (EFB) of the mine and the infrastructures of the Simandou South Project in Guinea", the world's No. 2 miner said in a statement. The real cost of the project, which could have a major impact on Guinea's
  
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• Apple, energy shares shine as Wall Street rallies

  16-05-2016 22:34 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wall Street rallied sharply on Monday, juiced by a jump in Apple shares and gains from energy stocks that were backed by stronger oil prices. Apple shares finished up 3.7 percent after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a stake worth about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. The S&P energy sector gained 1.6 percent as oil prices hit six-month highs.
  
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• Divided lawmakers battle over Puerto Rico debt bill

  16-05-2016 21:19 via news.yahoo.com
  
  A congressional committee on Monday put off plans to debate legislation on how to address Puerto Rico's economic crisis, the latest sign of ongoing struggle by lawmakers to find a solution for the American territory's crippling $70 billion debt. For months the Natural Resources Committee of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has been weighing whether and how to rescue Puerto Rico from a crippling debt without spending any U.S. taxpayer money. House Speaker Paul Ryan has
  
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• Treasury's Lew urges China to ensure fairness for U.S. exporters

  16-05-2016 20:56 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Monday urged China to implement economic reforms that will help ensure fairness for U.S. exporters. In a call with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, Lew called on Bejing to liberalize its investment environment, reduce excess industrial capacity in its metals sector, and establish a new set of official export credit disciplines to "create a level playing field" for U.S. exporters, Treasury said in a statement. (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmui
  
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• Indexes surge 1 percent led by Apple, energy shares

  16-05-2016 20:38 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wall Street rallied sharply on Monday, juiced by a jump in Apple shares and gains from energy stocks that were backed by stronger oil prices. Apple shares were up 3.9 percent after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a stake worth about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. The S&P energy sector was the best-performing group as oil prices hit six-month highs.
  
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• UPDATE 5-Pfizer to buy Anacor in $5.2 bln deal for access to eczema gel

  16-05-2016 19:34
  
  * Equity value of deal is $4.45 bln(Adds graphic link; updates shares)
  
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• Venezuela says better oil loans deal reached with China

  16-05-2016 19:09 via news.yahoo.com
  
  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has reached a deal with its main financier China to improve the conditions of an oil-for-loans deal, giving the OPEC member's crisis-hit economy "oxygen" ahead of heavy debt payments, Venezuela's top economic official said on Monday. Economy Vice-President Miguel Perez told Reuters "all" conditions, including loan time frames, investment amounts and non-financial aspects, had been improved. ...
  
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• Russian economy shrank by 1.2 percent in first quarter

  16-05-2016 19:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The latest GDP figures compared favourably to the 3.8 percent contraction in the last quarter of 2015 and were better the forecast by Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev who had expected a decline of 1.4 percent in the first quarter. Russia has seen its economy slump into a profound recession, partly on the back of the fall in oil prices and Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine conflict. Oleg Kouzmin, Renaissance Capital's economist for Russia and CIS countries, agreed that the figu
  
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• European shares steady as miners rise but Eutelsat slumps

  16-05-2016 18:50 via news.yahoo.com
  * Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) raises "defensive" stocks to overweight (ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). MILAN, May 16 (Reuters) - European ended steady on Monday, having recouped early losses, as stronger mining stocks offset weakness elsewhere, with Telecom Italia a standout gainer on the back of its cost-cutting plans. The pan-Euro
  
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• Rwanda inaugurates 26 MW plant using methane from Lake Kivu

  16-05-2016 18:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Rwanda inaugurated a power plant on Monday which uses methane gas from Lake Kivu, officials said, adding 26 megawatts (MW) to the grid in a country where only a quarter of the population is connected to an electricity supply. Rwanda is aiming to give 70 percent of its 11 million people access to power from the grid, or off-grid supplies, by 2018, up from about 25 percent now. Broader access to power is seen as vital to lifting economic growth in Rwanda and across Africa.
  
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• Zimbabwe halves 2016 growth forecast to 1.4 percent

  16-05-2016 18:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Zimbabwe cut its economic growth forecast to 1.4 percent in 2016 from an initial forecast of 2.7 percent, the ministry of finance said, following a devastating drought and weak commodity prices. In an undated bulletin for the January to March quarter, the finance ministry put its new growth target in line with that of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, banking on better performances in mining and service sectors. Zimbabwe had during the first quarter signed contracts to import 469,0
  
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• South Africa's furniture seller Lewis Group flags profit drop as sales slow

  16-05-2016 18:28 via news.yahoo.com
  South African furniture retailer Lewis Group expects a drop in full-year profit of up to 29 percent after sales slowed in the second half of its trading period due to a weak economy, the company said on Monday. Headline EPS is the main profit measure in South Africa and strips out certain one-off items.
  
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• Surge in oil, Apple boosts U.S. stocks

  16-05-2016 18:23 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wall Street was higher on Monday after a bruising week, bolstered by a bounce in Apple shares, while surging oil prices fired up energy stocks. The iPhone maker's shares were up 2.9 percent at $93.15 after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a stake worth about $1 billion in the company. Oil jumped more than 2 percent to its highest in six months due to disruptions in Nigerian output and after long-time bear Goldman Sachs said the market had ended almost two years of oversupply and flip
  
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• Wall Street shines after Buffett takes bite of Apple

  16-05-2016 18:20 via news.yahoo.com
  
  News Monday that billionaire investor Warren Buffett has taken a $1-billion bite into Apple helped push Wall Street higher, but European stock markets were hobbled by disappointing Chinese data.
  
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• UPDATE 3-Konecranes to buy Terex unit, full merger scrapped

  16-05-2016 18:16
  
  * Konecranes shares jump 19 pct(Adds Breakingviews link, updates share price)
  
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• Dominican Republic's Medina heads for landslide victory

  16-05-2016 17:54 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jorge Pineda SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina cruised toward an easy re-election victory on Monday, after swaying voters with a booming economy and social projects despite stubborn poverty levels, high crime and accusations of graft. Results counted by hand from 55 percent of polling stations showed Medina's coalition won 62 percent of the vote. Medina's closest rival, businessman Luis Abinader, had 35 percent in the early results, a sign Dominicans were un
  
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• Report says Amazon to expand its store-brand offerings

  16-05-2016 17:53 via news.yahoo.com
  NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is planning to expand the store-brand products it sells to new categories including food and household products, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
  
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• Britain's FTSE finishes higher on stronger miners

  16-05-2016 17:43
  
  LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index ended
  higher on Monday, with a rally in basic resources stocks on the
  back of stronger metals prices supporting the broader equities
  market.
  
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• UPDATE 3-Range Resources buying Memorial in rare energy merger

  16-05-2016 17:24
  
  * Memorial's shares up 9 pct premarket(Adds comments, details throughout)
  
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• Britain's FTSE index edges higher on stronger miners

  16-05-2016 17:12
  
  LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index edged
  higher on Monday, with a rally in basic resources stocks on the
  back of stronger metals prices supporting the broader equities
  market.
  
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• European equities slide but Buffett boosts Wall Street

  16-05-2016 16:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  European stock markets fell Monday on disappointing Chinese data, but news billionaire investor Warren Buffett has taken a $1-billion bite into Apple helped push Wall Street higher.
  
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• Oil, Apple push Wall St higher

  16-05-2016 16:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Wall Street opened slightly higher on Monday, following a bruising week, helped by Apple and a surge in oil prices. Apple shares rose 1.6 percent to $91.96 after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a stake worth about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. Oil jumped over 3 percent to its highest since November 2015 on growing Nigerian output disruptions and after Goldman Sachs said the market had ended almost two years of oversupply and flipped to a deficit.
  
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• Oil, Apple push Wall Street higher

  16-05-2016 16:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Apple shares rose 1.6 percent to $91.96 after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported a stake worth about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. Oil jumped over 3 percent to its highest since November 2015 on growing Nigerian output disruptions and after Goldman Sachs said the market had ended almost two years of oversupply and flipped to a deficit. U.S. stocks fell on Friday as gloomy quarterly reports from retailers overshadowed upbeat April retail sales data, leaving the Dow and the S&P 500
  
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• Burundi’s inflation slows to 2.6 pct in April yr/yr

  16-05-2016 15:49 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Burundi's year-on-year inflation eased to 2.6 percent in April from 4.3 percent in March thanks to a significant fall in food costs, official data showed on Monday. Food inflation in the year to April slowed to 2.5 percent from 6.4 percent in the previous month, the country’s Institute of Economic Studies and Statistics(ISTEEBU) said in a report. Burundi has been grappling with unrest for more than a year, mainly in the capital Bujumbura.
  
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• Nigerian inflation hit near six-year high in April

  16-05-2016 15:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Alexis Akwagyiram LAGOS (Reuters) - Annual inflation in Nigeria quickened to a near six-year high of 13.7 percent in April, in part due to rising petrol and electricity prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, stoking expectations of another rate hike. Nigeria's worst economic crisis in decades has been driven by a sharp drop in oil prices that has slashed government revenues since the country relies on crude sales for around 70 percent of national income. Gross domestic prod
  
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• Aduro's pancreatic cancer drug fails in mid-stage study

  16-05-2016 15:15
  
  May 16 (Reuters) - Aduro Biotech Inc said its
  pancreatic cancer drug did not improve overall survival in
  patients who did not show improvement after at least two prior
  therapies, in a mid-stage study.
  
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• Domestic focus may limit clout of $2 trillion Saudi fund

  16-05-2016 14:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Saudi Arabia aims to create the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, a $2 trillion behemoth that can throw its weight around global markets, but the fund's growth abroad is likely to be slowed by its responsibility for aiding the economy at home. Building the Public Investment Fund (PIF) into "the largest fund in the world by far" is a cornerstone of radical economic reforms announced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last month to cut the kingdom's reliance on oil. The PIF, founded i
  
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• Pakistan shares end steady; rupee weaker, o/n rates flat

  16-05-2016 14:41
  
  KARACHI, May 16 (Reuters) - Stocks in Pakistan were nearly
  unchanged in thin trade on Monday as the ongoing political
  crisis in the Panama Papers leak hurt investor sentiment,
  dealers said.
  
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• European shares sag as Eutelsat and Drax drop

  16-05-2016 14:21 via news.yahoo.com
  * Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) raises "defensive" stocks to overweight (ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). MILAN, May 16 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Monday with satellite operator Eutelsat and power station company Drax slumping after broker downgrades. Leading investment bank Morgan Stanley also advised investors to stick with
  
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• Futures higher as oil jumps

  16-05-2016 14:02 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was set to open higher on Monday as oil prices jumped due to output disruptions in Nigeria and as Goldman Sachs said the market had ended almost two years of oversupply and was now in deficit. June futures on the S&P TSX index were up 0.29 percent at 7:30 a.m. ET. Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent on Monday to their highest since November 2015. No major Canadian economic releases are scheduled for the day . ...
  
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• European shares drop, oil jumps on Goldman view

  16-05-2016 13:58 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - European shares fell in subdued, holiday-squeezed trade on Monday, unable to maintain the momentum of Asian stocks that shrugged off sub-par Chinese economic data to eke out modest gains.
  
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• China needs the private sector to step up

  16-05-2016 13:25 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Xia Xiaokang and Bruno Chen, who both run private-sector companies, are the sort of businessmen that Chinese leaders are increasingly concerned about as economic growth slows. Beijing is counting on the private sector to invest more in the economy and take up the slack as the government tries to engineer a shift away from largely state-run heavy industry to more entrepreneurial and services-led growth. "We plan to downsize our business rather than expand," said Chen, who runs Ningbo Tengsheng Ga
  
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• Britain's Osborne turns fire on 'Out' plan to leave EU single market

  16-05-2016 12:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Andy Bruce STANSTED, England (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne attacked pro-Brexit campaigners for saying Britain should not just leave the European Union but also its single market, as he sought to convince voters that the economy faces big risks in next month's referendum. Osborne said Britain would lose 200 billion pounds ($287 billion) a year in trade in 15 years' time and miss out on the same amount in foreign investment, if it fell back on World Trade Organization rules to govern it
  
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• Japan lender's profits hit by Bank of Japan negative rate move

  16-05-2016 12:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Bank of Japan's shock negative rate policy is taking a bite out of profits at major banks, with Mitsubishi UFJ on Monday warning over its bottom line. The huge lender said its net profit fell 8.0 percent to 951.4 billion yen ($8.7 billion) in the fiscal year to March, blaming the drop on a slowdown in the economy, sluggish equity markets, and low interest rates. Rivals Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group said last week that negative rates were also squeezing their lend
  
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• Gold rises after weekly drop as equities, dollar retreat

  16-05-2016 11:59 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jan Harvey LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Monday as stock markets eased after soft Chinese data, boosting interest in the metal as an alternative asset, and as the dollar weakened against the euro. Gold edged back above $1,280 an ounce after posting its biggest weekly loss since mid-March last week, with some investors disappointed by its inability to sustain a push to 15-month highs above $1,300 an ounce earlier this month. Stock market losses and a retreat in the dollar, in which go
  
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• Asked about aid, China says Venezuela crisis is domestic matter

  16-05-2016 11:55 via news.yahoo.com
  An economic crisis in Venezuela is a domestic matter, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, when asked if the country planned to give aid to the Latin American nation. The OPEC country, which has received about $50 billion in Chinese financing since 2007, is also struggling with a contracting economy and runaway inflation, following a collapse in oil prices. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has imposed a 60-day state of emergency due to what he called plots by the United St
  
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• Britain's FTSE slips, Brexit worries weigh on British Land Company

  16-05-2016 11:31
  
  LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - UK shares slipped on Monday as
  concerns surrounding Britain's European Union referendum weighed
  on British Land Company, though a rise in mining stocks
  helped to offset...
  
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• Kenya shilling firm, export earnings meet corporate dollar demand

  16-05-2016 11:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling held steady against the dollar on Monday with demand for foreign exchange from manufacturers and importers matched by the supply from exports, traders said. At 0859 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 100.60/80 compared with 10.65/75 at Friday's close. ...........................Shilling spot rates .....................Shilling forward rates .......................Cross rates ..................................Local contributors ...................
  
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• Poo-powered pumps help Pakistan farmers grow richer, greener

  16-05-2016 10:33 via news.yahoo.com
  By Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio FATEH JHANG, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For farmer Mujahid Abbasi, switching the power source for his irrigation pump from diesel to biogas has brought economic and health gains. The 43-year-old from Fateh Jhang village, some 26 miles (42 km) from Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad, has benefited from a pilot project led by the Punjab provincial government to provide biogas equipment at a subsidized rate. Abbasi uses dung from his 30 buffalo to
  
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• Revenue, earnings down as ICAP reveals new name

  16-05-2016 09:43 via news.yahoo.com
  (ShareCast News) - Group revenue took a 6% hit at ICAP in the year to 31 March, it reported on Monday, to £1.2bn as the dealer broker described markets at challenging.
  
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• Asia markets up, Japan boosted by tax delay report

  16-05-2016 09:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Asian markets rallied Monday following last week's sharp losses, with Tokyo boosted by a report that Japan's prime minister plans to delay a planned sales tax increase. Investors in Tokyo cheered a report Saturday in the respected Nikkei business daily that Shinzo Abe had told officials he wants to put off the consumption tax rise to avoid damaging the already tottering economy. The last rise in April 2014 -- the nation's first in 17 years -- was blamed for stalling a nascent recovery and pushin
  
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• Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi plans U.S. IPO in 2018 - source

  16-05-2016 09:22 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, Uber Technologies Inc's main rival in China, is working towards an initial public offering in the United States that would likely take place in 2018, a person with knowledge of the plan said on Monday. Didi is valued at around $25 billion and its stock market listing would be the most high-profile by a Chinese company in the United States since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's listing two years ago.
  
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• Vanuatu aims to generate all electricity from renewable sources by 2030: media

  16-05-2016 08:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The South Pacific island of Vanuatu plans to generate all its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Ham Lini told Radio New Zealand. Vanuatu's economy is still struggling to recover after monster cyclone Pam last year wrecked fisheries, ravaged crops and livestock, causing damages of an estimated $450 million. The government has several renewable energy projects in the pipeline, including a 767-kilowatt solar farm funded by the United Arab Emir
  
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• South Africa's Vodacom FY earnings rise 2.7 pct on data demand

  16-05-2016 08:41 via news.yahoo.com
  
  South African mobile phone operator Vodacom reported a 2.7 percent increase in full-year earnings on Monday, buoyed by growth in data revenue. The South African unit of Britain's Vodafone has spent billions to expand its network in recent years with a strong focus on providing faster internet to its customers as more of them get smartphones. "The acceleration in network investment over the past two years is true success story of effective capital investment to ensure growth in revenue and custom
  
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• Chinese pouring billions into US real estate: study

  16-05-2016 07:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Chinese nationals became the largest foreign buyers of US homes last year as they pour billions into American real estate, seeking safe offshore assets, according to a new study. A huge surge in Chinese buying of both residential and commercial real estate last year took their five-year investment total to more than $110 billion, according to the study from the Asia Society and Rosen Consulting Group. The sheer size of that total has helped the real estate market recover from the crash that bega
  
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• Dominican Republic's Medina cruising to second term: partial results

  16-05-2016 06:50 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Jorge Pineda SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina appeared to have easily won re-election, with partial results late on Sunday showing his record of a surging economy and social projects swayed voters in the Caribbean nation despite graft accusations. Results counted by hand from 18 percent of polling stations showed Medina's coalition won 62 percent of the vote, a margin that if sustained would be enough to avoid a runoff election. A noisy motorcade of Medina'
  
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• Kabul locked down as Afghan authorities face power line protest

  16-05-2016 06:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - Stacked-up shipping containers blocked the streets leading to Kabul's government and diplomatic area on Monday as Afghan authorities prepared for a rally by thousands of members of the Hazara minority over a multi-million dollar power line project. Demonstrators are demanding that the route for the 500 kV transmission line linking Turkmenistan with Kabul be changed to pass through two provinces with large Hazara populations, an option the government says woul
  
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• Japan's Nikkei leads gains in Asia on tax hopes

  16-05-2016 05:17 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Japanese stocks led most Asian markets higher Monday following a report that the government intends to delay a planned sales tax hike. After last week's sell-off, investors in Tokyo cheered a report Saturday that said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had told officials he wants to put off the consumption tax rise to avoid damaging the already tottering economy, the Nikkei business daily said. While experts say Tokyo must lift tax revenues to deal with soaring debts and to pay for the ballooning cost of
  
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• UK business lobby cuts growth forecast, wage and retail outlook soft

  16-05-2016 05:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Confederation of British Industry cut its economic growth forecasts, citing the approach of the European Union referendum, and retailers and pay experts also pointed to a subdued outlook in other reports published on Monday. The CBI, which has stressed the economic benefits of staying in the EU, said worries about the outcome of the June 23 vote were adding to a broader economic slowdown. "A dark cloud of uncertainty is looming over global growth, particularly around weakening emerging marke
  
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• Why China's private sector needs a 'high degree of attention'

  16-05-2016 04:26 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Kevin Yao BEIJING (Reuters) - Xia Xiaokang and Bruno Chen, who both run private-sector companies, are the sort of businessmen that Chinese leaders are increasingly concerned about as economic growth slows. Beijing is counting on the private sector to invest more in the economy and take up the slack as the government tries to engineer a shift away from largely state-run heavy industry to more entrepreneurial and services-led growth. Unfortunately, just when China needs the private sector to st
  
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