Category: Business

By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks fell on Thursday and the dollar was stuck near six-month lows against a basket of currencies as uncertainty mounted over U.S. President Donald Trump's future following reports that he tried to interfere with a federal investigation. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4 percent.Japan's Nikkei shed 1.5 percent, Australian

By Jonathan Barrett | SYDNEY SYDNEY Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has used laws designed to protect indigenous land rights to stop prospectors searching for minerals on his West Australian cattle farms, angering both traditional Aboriginal landowners and mining community members. While tensions between the competing interests of indigenous landholders, pastoral leaseholders and miners on government-controlled land are common,

By Foo Yun Chee | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS U.S. social network Facebook (FB.O) is set to be penalized by EU antitrust regulators for allegedly providing misleading data related to its WhatsApp acquisition three years ago, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.The move by the European Commission will come after a six-month investigation and is expected to be a stiff

By Yashaswini Swamynathan The S&P 500 and the Dow were headed for their worst day in more than eight months as reports of a leaked memo by former FBI chief James Comey spooked investors, raising questions about whether President Donald Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation.Trump asked Comey to end a probe into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's

Target Corp (TGT.N) reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly comparable sales on Wednesday, as sales picked up in March after a slow start to the quarter.Shares of the company rose 6 percent to $57.90 in premarket trading. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.3 percent, better

BEIJING Chinese state media on Wednesday criticized the United States for hindering efforts to stop global cyber threats in the wake of the WannaCry "ransomware" attack that has infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide in recent days.The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) should shoulder some blame for the attack, which targets vulnerabilities in Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) systems and has infected some 30,000 Chinese organizations as of Saturday, the China Daily said. "Concerted efforts to tackle cyber crimes have been hindered

TOKYO U.S. share futures and the dollar slipped in early Asian trade on Wednesday after reports that President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end a probe into his former security adviser.The reports raised questions about whether charges of obstruction of justice could be laid against Trump, weakening confidence in the U.S. president's ability to push through an aggressive stimulus program that investors had been banking on since his election last November.U.S. economic data published on Tuesday was

By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON The global economic, financial and political landscape has never been shakier, but the world's rich are confident they can steer through the fog of uncertainty in the coming year "without so much as a dent in their finances", a survey showed on Wednesday.The findings of UBS Wealth Management's survey of more than 2,800 millionaires in

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it would refund some advertisers after finding a bug that wrongly attributed video carousel ad clicks as clicks to the advertisers' websites.When users tried to expand and watch the video carousel on the mobile web browser, the bug inadvertently directed the click to the advertiser's website, leading to incorrect billing, the company said in a blogpost on Tuesday. bit.ly/2rmYPg0.

By Yashaswini Swamynathan The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq drifted higher to hit record intraday levels on Tuesday, supported by gains in technology and consumer staple stocks.As the first-quarter earnings season wraps up, investors' attention will turn to developments in Washington that could overshadow Republican legislative priorities such as tax reform, healthcare and simpler regulations.Investors were wary after reports that President

Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it would buy back $3 billion of its common shares, ahead of the company's pending deal with Verizon Communications Inc.Shares in Yahoo, which has a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, were up 0.6 percent at $50.15 in premarket trading.

By Ami Miyazaki and Taiga Uranaka | TOKYO TOKYO Japan's government said on Tuesday it wanted Toshiba Corp (6502.T) and partner Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) to cooperate, expressing concern about an escalating dispute between the two that threatens to upend the sale of Toshiba's chip unit.Western Digital sought international arbitration this week to stop Toshiba from selling the unit without its

By David Shepardson and Nick Carey | WASHINGTON/DETROIT WASHINGTON/DETROIT Ford Motor Co (F.N) plans to shrink its salaried workforce in North America and Asia by about 10 percent as it works to boost profits and its sliding stock price, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Monday.A person briefed on the plan said Ford plans to offer generous early

By Jonathan Stempel | NEW YORK NEW YORK Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) on Monday said it added to its sizable investments in American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) and Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N), and shed its stake in Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O).In a regulatory filing, Berkshire said that in the first quarter its American stake grew 8 percent to

By Guy Faulconbridge and Dustin Volz | LONDON/WASHINGTON LONDON/WASHINGTON The global WannaCry "ransomware" cyber attack spread more slowly on Monday with no major infections reported, as attention shifted to investment and government policy implications of lax cyber security.There were 213,000 infected machines in 112 countries as of 1000 GMT on Monday, according to Czech security firm Avast, making it one of

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday as a rise in oil prices boosted energy stocks, soothing some nerves following a massive cyber attack that locked up 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries.Oil hit a three-week high after top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia said supply cuts needed to last into 2018, a step toward extending an OPEC-led deal to support prices for longer than originally agreed. Shares of oil majors Exxon (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N) rose in early trading."On

By Conor Humphries | DUBLIN DUBLIN JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) has agreed to buy a Dublin building with room for 1,000 staff in the first sign of a financial services company expanding significantly in Ireland since the government began a major campaign to attract firms in the wake of Brexit.The U.S. investment bank will acquire a 130,000 square foot (12,000 square meter)

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices jumped 1.5 percent on Monday after the energy ministers of the world's two biggest producers Saudi Arabia and Russia jointly said that a crude production cut would be extended from the middle of this year until March 2018.Brent crude was at $51.58 per barrel at 0621 GMT, up 74 cents, or 1.46 percent,

SYDNEY U.S. buyout firm TPG Capital Management on Monday raised its cash bid for Fairfax Media Ltd (FXJ.AX), offering A$2.76 billion ($2.04 billion) for the struggling Australian publisher and sending its shares to a six-year high.The fresh offer from TPG [TPG.UL] and partner Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (OTPP) would allow shareholders to cash out completely rather than leaving them with scrip in a piecemeal collection of small assets including radio, regional newspapers and television streaming."It’s better to have a

TOKYO Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) has sought international arbitration to stop partner Toshiba Corp (6502.T) from selling its chips arm without its consent, potentially derailing a much-needed capital injection for the Japanese conglomerate.California-based Western Digital is a long-standing joint venture partner and runs Toshiba's main semiconductor plant in Japan. It has sought to bid for the Toshiba chips business, but is not seen as the front-runner, given its bid has been trumped by Taiwan's Foxconn (2317.TW) and U.S. chipmaker Broadcom

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) may have opened as many as 3.5 million unauthorized customer accounts, far more than previously estimated, according to lawyers seeking approval of a $142 million settlement over the practice.The new estimate was provided in a filing late Thursday night in the federal court in San Francisco, and is 1.4 million accounts higher than previously reported by federal regulators, in what became a national scandal.Keller Rohrback, a law firm for the plaintiff customers, said the higher

By Ayesha Rascoe and Michael Martina | WASHINGTON/BEIJING WASHINGTON/BEIJING The United States and China have agreed to take action by mid-July to increase access for U.S. financial firms and expand trade in beef and chicken among other steps as part of Washington's drive to cut its trade deficit with Beijing.The deals are the first results of 100 days of trade talks

(This version of the story corrects paragraph 10 to show quote was by Interim CFO Bob Blowes, not Robert Morton as previously stated)By Matt ScuffhamTORONTO Home Capital Group Inc (HCG.TO) confirmed on Friday it is considering asset disposals to enable it to refinance more quickly and pay off an emergency loan provided by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.Shares in Canada's biggest non-bank lender fell by as much as 20 percent in early trading on Friday before paring losses

BRUSSELS Dutch brewer Heineken (HEIN.AS) has launched a non-alcoholic version of its namesake beer with the aim of becoming the global leader in a part of the market growing faster than the average.The world's second largest beer maker launched "Heineken 0.0" at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and will sell it in 17 markets, across Europe and also Russia and Israel, unlike rivals which have non-alcoholic beers for individual markets.Heineken is hoping to tap into what it believes is

BUSBARI, Italy Financial leaders of seven leading world economies pledged stronger cooperation against cyber crime on Saturday and not to use foreign exchange to gain competitive advantage, but stuck to their cautious wording on trade, their final communique showed. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Britain met in the Italian city of Bari to discuss the world economy, combating terrorist funding, cyber security and taxes.The final communique of the meeting

By David Lawder and William Schomberg | BARI, Italy BARI, Italy The United States said on Saturday the world's other rich economies were getting used to the policy plans of President Donald Trump, but Europe and Japan showed they remained worried about Washington's shift. Officials from the Group of Seven nations met in southern Italy hoping to hear more about Trump's

LONDON Nissan's manufacturing plant in Sunderland, northeast England, has been affected by a cyber attack that has hit nearly 100 countries, a spokesman for the Japanese carmaker said on Saturday."Like many organizations around the world, some Nissan entities were recently targeted by a ransomware attack. Our teams are responding accordingly and there has been no major impact on our business," he said in a statement.

PARIS French carmaker Renault was hit by the global ransomware cyber attack that has infected tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries, a spokeswoman said on Saturday. It is the first

SAN FRANCISCO Southern Co's (SO.N) Georgia Power and Toshiba Corp's (6502.T) Westinghouse have reached a tentative deal to transfer project management of the expansion of a Georgia nuclear power plant to units of Southern Co, Georgia Power said in a statement on Friday.The interim agreement until June 3 will allow construction of the Vogtle plant expansion to continue, it said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As the strongest earnings season since 2011 draws to a close, and with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hovering near record highs, the biggest concern for some market analysts is, well, the lack of concern.Reuters

NEW YORK/BOSTON Some of the biggest U.S. mutual and hedge funds, including Daniel Loeb's Third Point and Daniel Och's Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZM.N), owned stakes in Snap Inc (SNAP.N), parent of the wildly popular Snapchat messaging app, at the end of March, regulatory filings on Friday showed.The filings provide the first definitive snapshot on who bought Snap shares when it went public in early March, in the biggest initial public offering for a U.S. tech company since Facebook Inc's (FB.O)

MEXICO CITY General Electric Co (GE.N) Chief Executive Jeff Immelt is keen to double the conglomerate's purchases from Mexican suppliers next year, the Mexican president's office said in a statement on Friday, a move that could upset U.S. President Donald Trump. Immelt met with Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City and will spend a few days in Latin America's No. 2 economy at a time of tension between the neighboring countries and major trading partners. Trump has threatened

By Yashaswini Swamynathan The S&P 500 and the Dow edged lower on Friday as financial stocks fell, but losses on the Nasdaq were kept in check by a rise in technology shares. With the first-quarter earnings season coming to an end, investors are looking to the Federal Reserve, Trump administration and economic data for fresh trading catalysts. A risk-off sentiment has

By William Schomberg and David Lawder | BARI, Italy BARI, Italy Finance chiefs from some of the world's richest nations began a two-day meeting in Italy on Friday, with Europe, Japan and Canada hoping to come away with a clearer picture of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans on important policies.Inequality, international tax rules, cyber security and blocking the funding of terrorism