Business News Stories
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 11 cents over the past two weeks.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of the country's biggest bank, faces a key test this week: His shareholders are voting on whether to let him keep both jobs.
By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said it would seek pay rises of up to 60 percent from gold and coal producers, raising the prospect of fresh strikes as firms battle higher costs and falling prices in an already heated labor climate. Africa's biggest economy is hoping to avoid the 2012 wildcat strike action at platinum and gold mines that cost billions in lost revenue and production and killed over 50 people. ...
By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's parliament will this week consider whether to probe the transparency of oil and mining firms listed in London, an issue highlighted by corruption probes at emerging market miners which lawmakers fear have dented the stock market's reputation. The chairman of parliament's Committee for Business, Innovation and Skills said on Sunday he would this week propose an inquiry into issues including governance and anticorruption protection at mining and oil companies. The probe could start before the end of the parliamentary session in July. ...
By Allison Martell (Reuters) - Hope is fading for a global deal to regulate the airline industry's greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a fall deadline, even though failure could push the industry back to the brink of a trade war over the European Union's emissions trading system. Last November the EU suspended its controversial scheme to force all airlines to buy carbon credits for any flight arriving in or departing from European airspace. The scheme had pitted European states against China, the United States, India and others, who said it violated their sovereignty. ...
By Manuela Badawy NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the world's biggest central banks driving yields on safe assets to near zero, some investors are tossing caution to the wind and rushing to buy illiquid and previously overlooked bonds sold by countries with no capital markets track record. Even the biggest investors acknowledge that "frontier markets" like Vietnam and Romania aren't for the faint of heart because nobody knows whether these new debt market players will be able to make good on their obligations. ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior White House adviser insists President Barack Obama learned the Internal Revenue Service had been targeting tea party groups "when it came out in the news."
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said the European Commission made a "grave mistake" by agreeing to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China and urged the Commission to work to prevent the eruption of a trade conflict. "It's a grave mistake," Roesler told Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday. He said China already warned the duties on solar panels would harm bilateral trade. "That shows: punitive import duties are the wrong instrument. ...
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's bank rescue fund will aim to sell Hellenic Postbank and Proton by mid-July with big banks continuing to absorb small lenders as part of plans to revive the battered sector, the country's foreign lenders said in an inspection review. Greece is recapitalizing its four big banks and winding down others deemed non-viable to improve the sector's capacity to fund the economy out of a deep six-year recession. Banks suffered heavy losses from debt writedowns and bad loans. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - The clothing brand sold by Britain's biggest retailer Tesco said on Sunday it planned to open more than 50 new franchise stores worldwide over the next five years. F&F, which opened its first franchise store in Saudi Arabia last year, said it would open shops across the Middle East and in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Up to six stores will be opened this year, with the first in the Kazakh capital Astana next month. F&F gave no details on how much the expansion would cost or how it would be funded. ...
By Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer (Reuters) - The beginning of the end of the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying program might come sooner than many investors think if recent gains in the U.S. labor market do not prove fleeting. Much will depend on how economic data, which has given mixed signals for growth prospects, develops over the next few months. Reports on job growth in particular will go a long way in helping Fed officials determine whether the time is right to trim the pace of their $85 billion in monthly purchases. The marked improvement in the labor market since the U.S. ...
By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has urged successor Mark Carney not to bring to Britain his trademark policy of spelling out how long interest rates will remain low. King also said the bank could not be run as "a one-man show," a sign of concern at high expectations that the arrival of the Canadian will lead to a quick fix for Britain's slow economy. In an interview with Sky News television broadcast on Sunday, King praised Carney, saying Britain was fortunate to have him. ...
By Sonya Dowsett MADRID (Reuters) - Many duped savers at Spanish lender Bankia are shunning a state-supervised compensation scheme in favor of expensive lawsuits, prolonging a mis-selling scandal and complicating efforts to restore faith in the banking system. The disputes over mis-selling at Bankia and other nationalized banks have created a major headache for the government as it tries to take the next step in their rescue, imposing large losses on holders of junior debt. ...
By William James LONDON (Reuters) - An independent Scotland would have a vastly oversized financial sector that would leave it vulnerable to a Cyprus-style banking crisis, Britain's finance ministry says. Before a referendum due in September 2014 on whether Scotland should split from the United Kingdom, the British government is analyzing the impact of independence on Scotland, which has a population of about 5 million. ...
KUWAIT (Reuters) - State-run Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) appointed a new chief executive and suspended other top officials after the country paid $2.2 billion in damages to Dow Chemical Co over a scrapped plastics joint venture. Nizar Mohammad al-Asani replaced Farouk Zanki as CEO at the oil firm and the cabinet approved the nomination of six board members, a statement on state news agency KUNA said. Newspaper al-Rai said that two of the board members were new. The government also suspended officials at KPC unit Petrochemical Industries Co. which pulled out of the $17. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - The single biggest risk to Britain's nascent economic recovery is continued eurozone weakness, the Bank of England's outgoing governor Mervyn King said in a television interview on Sunday. He called for a "credible medium term plan" to get the economy back on track and said automatic economic stabilizers should be allowed to work. He also predicted that North Sea oil output would recover in the next couple of years. King last week predicted that UK growth would be faster and inflation lower than expected three months earlier. ...
By David Jones NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A US Airways flight made an emergency landing on its belly at Newark Liberty International Airport early on Saturday after the plane's landing gear failed to deploy, but no one was injured, airline and government officials said. Piedmont Airlines flight 4560, operating for US Airways from Philadelphia with 34 passengers and three crew members, landed safely at 1 a.m., and passengers were evacuated on the tarmac and transported to the terminal, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said in an email. ...
ROME (AP) — A union of Italian metal workers has led thousands of people in a march through the heart of Rome to press the new government for measures to spur job creation.
ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland is on the brink of a deal to settle a long-running dispute with U.S. authorities over Swiss banks accused of helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars of tax, the finance minister said on Saturday. "We hope that we will shortly be at the finishing line," Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told Swiss radio in an interview. "The banks won't get it for nothing." Widmer-Schlumpf declined to say how high fines might be, but added: "It is clear that it will not be a pleasant solution. ...
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Even before the first drops flow, Uganda's oil sector is beset by bribery allegations against officials, tax-related cases abroad that cost the government millions in legal fees, and the alleged interference of a president whose firm control of the sector worries transparency campaigners.
By Malathi Nayak and Bill Rigby SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is set to make a splash this week with the eagerly awaited unveiling of its new Xbox game console, eight years after the last version, as it seeks a larger share of the $65 billion a year global computer gaming industry. But the small device faces some big competition from the PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp and the Wii U by Nintendo Co Ltd in a shifting market. ...
By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google staged four discussions expounding on the finer points of its "Glass" wearable computer during this week's developer conference. Missing from the agenda, however, was a session on etiquette when using the recording-capable gadget, which some attendees faithfully wore everywhere - including to the crowded bathrooms. Google Glass, a cross between a mobile computer and eyeglasses that can both record video and surf the Internet, is now available to a select few but is already among the year's most buzz-worthy new gadgets. ...
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - LATAM Airlines Group SA said on Saturday it will resume flights to, from and within Argentina by 1530 GMT after state company Intercargo unilaterally decided on Friday to stop providing services to the carrier. Argentine state company Intercargo manages services for the loading and unloading of luggage on airplanes, the transportation of passengers on buses to terminals, and provides the jet bridge services that connect aircraft to the airport, allowing passengers to embark and disembark. ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke painted an upbeat picture on Saturday for the potential of innovation to lift living standards, delivering a sweeping look at the last 100 years that included memories of his 1963 South Carolina home. Bernanke made no reference to monetary policy or the immediate outlook for the U.S. economy in prepared remarks to graduates of Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts. But the die-hard baseball fan did manage to work in a reference to one of the sport's greats. ...
VIENNA (Reuters) - Alpine, the Austrian unit of Spanish construction group FCC , will hold talks with its owners on how to meet its financing needs and has many options open, Chief Executive Arnold Schiefer said. He was responding to a newspaper report that FCC was worried about Alpine's finances and that Austria's second-biggest construction group had to come up with another 150 million euros ($192 million) this year despite reaching a deal with creditors in March. Alpine lost 450 million euros in 2012 as it began to exit unprofitable projects abroad. ...
By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the broad S&P 500 Index gliding once again into uncharted territory and posting four straight weeks of gains, the talk of Wall Street's rally inevitably hitting a ceiling is starting to get old. Concerns about a technical correction have been a hot topic for weeks, especially as the rally accelerated in May - the S&P 500 is up 4.4 percent so far this month and up nearly 17 percent for the year. But as the three major U.S. stock indexes inch higher and higher to set record after record, many analysts are shrugging off the pullback worries. ...
By Xiaoyi Shao and Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - China's housing inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in April in two years, driven by a jump in prices in Beijing and Shanghai, complicating the task of policymakers trying to cool the property sector while supporting economic expansion. Average new home prices rose 4.9 percent last month from a year ago, after a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent in March, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) on Saturday. The rise was the sharpest since April 2011. ...
By Daniel Bases NEW YORK (Reuters) - Europe's top trade official for the first time late on Friday officially cited Chinese mobile telecommunications equipment makers Huawei and ZTE Corp for violating anti-dumping and anti-subsidy guidelines. European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said he was prepared to launch a formal investigation into anti-competitive behavior by these Chinese companies in order to protect a "strategic" sector of Europe's economy. ...
Following the chaotic bailout of Cyprus, top European Union officials are saying it's time to rethink how the region manages its crisis — and who should be involved.
NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo may be on the verge of closing its biggest acquisition during the 10-month reign of CEO Marissa Mayer as she tries to attract more traffic and advertisers to the Internet company's website and mobile applications.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Average new home prices in China's 70 major cities rose 4.9 percent in April from a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on official data published on Saturday, marking the fourth straight month of year-on-year increase. In month-on-month terms, prices rose 1 percent in April, easing from March's gain of 1.2 percent, it said. Rising home prices have reignited concerns about property inflation and have forced the government to launch a fresh round of measures in March to try to cool them. ...
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A federal judge has revived a closely watched lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co of misleading Belgian-French bank Dexia SA into buying more than $1.6 billion of troubled mortgage debt. Citing a recent federal appeals court decision involving American International Group Inc and Bank of America Corp , U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said he had lacked jurisdiction when he decided on April 2 to throw out much of Dexia's lawsuit against JPMorgan. That ruling had dismissed claims for all but $5. ...
By David Henry NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pension and endowment managers on Friday called on U.S. regulators to review the rules for shareholder voting after a firm collecting ballots for JPMorgan Chase & Co cut off the bank's opponents from polling information. The Council of Institutional Investors, which represents managers of pensions, endowments, and foundations with more than $3 trillion of assets total, said in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission that votes at companies' annual meetings are set up in a way that gives too much of an advantage to corporate management. ...
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's board will meet on Sunday to vote on whether to offer $1.1 billion in cash for New York-based blogging service Tumblr, tech blog AllThingsD cited sources close to the situation as saying on Friday. Such an acquisition would be CEO Marissa Mayer's largest deal since taking the helm of the once-iconic Internet company in July 2012. Yahoo is keen on Tumblr because its younger user base would enhance the older website's "cool factor," the technology blog cited the sources as saying. The news could be announced as soon as Monday, it said. ...
By David Henry NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pension and endowment managers on Friday called on regulators to review the rules for shareholder voting after a firm collecting ballots for JPMorgan Chase & Co cut off the bank's opponents from polling information. The Council of Institutional Investors, which represents managers of pensions, endowments, and foundations with more than $3 trillion of assets total, said in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission that votes at companies' annual meetings are set up in a way that gives too much of an advantage to corporate management. ...
By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Target Corp said on Friday it opened a new San Francisco office to track down technology companies that can help the second-largest U.S. retailer grow its online commerce business. Target's Technology Innovation Center is run by David Newman, an executive who spent six years at the online business of Wal-Mart Stores Inc , which has had a major presence in Silicon Valley for several years. "Partnership is in our DNA and early-stage companies can sense that and are proving to be very willing to partner and co-develop," said Newman. ...
By Simon Falush and Timothy Gardner LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A European probe into possible oil price manipulation expanded with the investigation of a small niche trading house in the Netherlands, while a key U.S. senator on Friday called for the Justice Department to join the investigation. Dutch trading house Argos Energies, a mid-sized trading company that deals in physical oil products and owns storage facilities, was visited by inspectors from the European Commission on Tuesday, a source familiar with the investigation said on Friday. ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unemployment rates dropped in 43 out of the 50 U.S. states and in the District of Columbia in April from a year before, according to Labor Department data released on Friday. A handful of states, including Illinois, Delaware, Indiana, Wisconsin, Mississippi and New Hampshire saw their jobless rates rise over the year. Illinois' rate fell in April to 9.3 percent from 9.5 percent in March but rose from 8.8 percent a year before. "April data reflects the unevenness of this recovery," said the director of the Illinois employment department, Jay Rowell, in a statement. ...
Frank Lloyd Wright may have died in 1959, but his architecture is alive and well. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal revealed the cost to upkeep some of his historic homes may be more than buyers bargain for, but others clamor to invest in history.
By Emily Flitter and Katya Wachtel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors told investors on Friday it would no longer cooperate "unconditionally" with the U.S. government's insider trading investigation. In a brief letter to investors, the $15 billion hedge fund did not elaborate but said it believes the next few months will be critical in the investigation. The firm said that "over the coming months there will be more clarity about the outcome of these matters. ...
By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks continued their climb into uncharted territory on Friday, racking up the fourth week of gains in a row as encouraging economic data prompted investors to pick up shares of growth companies. The Dow and the S&P 500 finished at fresh record highs, driven by gains in energy and industrial shares. The indexes have pushed to a series of never-before-seen levels as part of the rally that has lifted equities more than 16 percent for the year so far. ...
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A federal judge has revived a closely watched lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co of misleading Belgian-French bank Dexia SA into buying more than $1.6 billion of troubled mortgage debt. Citing a recent federal appeals court decision involving American International Group Inc and Bank of America Corp , U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said he had lacked jurisdiction when he decided on April 2 to throw out much of Dexia's lawsuit against JPMorgan. That ruling had dismissed claims for all but $5. ...
