Category: Business

By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The FBI appeared to go beyond the scope of existing legal guidance in seeking certain kinds of internet records from Twitter as recently as last year, legal experts said, citing two warrantless surveillance orders the social media company published on Friday.Twitter said its disclosures were the first time the company had been allowed to publicly

By Lauren Hirsch and Liana B. Baker Snap Inc, the secretive technology company that owns the popular messaging service Snapchat, is due to reveal its financials within a week as it moves toward its eagerly awaited initial public offering (IPO), sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.The Venice, California-based company will publish the registration document it secretly filed with U.S

By Anna Irrera | NEW YORK NEW YORK Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O), Bosch Ltd (BOSH.NS) and several other companies, have set up a consortium to work on how blockchain can be used to secure and improve "internet of things" applications, as sectors beyond finance seek to benefit from bitcoin’s underlying technology. The group, which also includes Bank of New York Mellon

TORONTO General Motors Co will cut 625 jobs at its auto assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, by the end of July and move some production work to Mexico, the president of Canada's largest auto workers union said on Friday."This came right out of left field," said Jerry Dias, the president of the union, Unifor, in a phone interview. "This is NAFTA, this has nothing to do with Trump, but it has everything to do with NAFTA."U.S. President Donald Trump met

By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected in the fourth quarter as a plunge in shipments of soybeans weighed on exports, but steady consumerspending and rising business investment suggested the economy would continue to expand.Gross domestic product increased at a 1.9 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its first estimate of

By Vikram Subhedar | LONDON LONDON The dollar extended its recovery against a basket of other currencies on Friday, while banks dragged European shares slightly lower following underwhelming results from Swiss major UBS.The two-day recovery comes after the dollar suffered a 4 percent drop in the three weeks from Jan. 3 reflecting doubts about how U.S. President Donald Trump's policies will

TOKYO Toshiba Corp's (6502.T) board on Friday approved plans to make its core chip business a separate company and seek outside investment in it, aiming to avoid being crippled by an upcoming multi-billion dollar writedown for its U.S. nuclear business.Toshiba estimates the value of its chip business - the world's biggest NAND flash memory producer after Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) - at 1-1.5 trillion yen ($9-13 billion), a person with direct knowledge of the matter has told Reuters.The partial sale of

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stayed firmly above 20,000 on Thursday, after breaching the milestone a day earlier, while losses in tech stocks weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes.The S&P technology index's .SPLRCT 0.47 fall led the decliners, weighed down by Qualcomm (QCOM.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O).Qualcomm fell 5.1 percent to $54.04 after the chipmaker reported a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue. The stock was the biggest drag on the two indexes.Alphabet, which is scheduled to report

Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), the world's largest construction and equipment maker, reported a bigger fourth-quarter loss on Thursday, hurt by higher-than-expected restructuring costs.The company's loss ballooned to $1.17 billion, or $2.00 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $94 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier. Net sales fell 13.2 percent to $9.57 billion.

By John Miller and John Revill | ZURICH ZURICH U.S. healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) will acquire Swiss biotech company Actelion (ATLN.S) in a $30 billion all-cash deal that includes spinning off Actelion's research and development pipeline, the companies said on Thursday.The acquisition gives J&J access to the Swiss group's line-up of high-price, high-margin medicines for rare diseases, helping it

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices edged up on Thursday, driven up by a weakening dollar, but gains were capped by plentiful supplies and inventories despite an effort by OPEC and other producers to cut output and prop up the market.Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $55.44 per barrel at 0137 GMT,

AT&T Inc (T.N), the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier, reported quarterly results that matched analysts' estimates, as it added more smartphone customers in a saturated wireless market, and said it was confident its deal to buy Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) would be approved.Thirteen Democratic senators on Wednesday asked AT&T to explain how its planned $85.4 billion takeover of Time Warner is in the public interest.In October, the company said it would buy Time Warner, a deal that was objected by

The Dow Jones Industrial Average marched higher after hitting 20,000 for the first time on Wednesday as strong earnings and President Donald Trump's pro-growth initiatives reignited a post-election rally.Trump has made several business-friendly decisions since taking office on Friday, including signing executive orders to reduce regulatory burden on domestic manufacturers and clearing the way for the construction of two oil pipelines. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes also hit record highs. The Dow came within a point of

NEW YORK New York prosecutors have dropped charges that Lapo Elkann, grandson of late Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli, falsely reported that he had been kidnapped in November in an effort to get ransom money, the prosecutors' office said on Wednesday.The Manhattan District Attorney's Office said it had declined to prosecute the case but provided no further details.

LAGOS General Electric Co (GE.N) has proposed investing in Nigeria's oil refineries, potentially convening a consortium of companies to improve capacity at the run-down facilities.GE's plan and similar promises from companies like Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) to work with Nigeria to rehabilitate the country's three oil refineries could help the government as it tries to reduce costly imported oil products. The work was raised during a meeting with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a GE spokeswoman said late on Tuesday."We

By Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japan's exports rose for the first time in 15 months in December on strong sales of electronics and car parts, a positive sign for the export-reliant economy even as U.S. protectionism threatens to hurt trade across the region and dent external demand. Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday that exports rose 5.4 percent

TOKYO Shares in Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp (7312.T) gained 18.2 percent on Wednesday, rising by a daily limit of 80 yen to 519 yen ($4.56), stemming four days of steep decline brought about by investor fear of a court-mediated bankruptcy.Takata shares were down 40 percent from a week earlier.

Alcoa Corp (AA.N) reported a loss in its first quarterly results after the metals company split into two in November.The New York-based company reported net loss of $125 million, or 68 cents per share, for the fourth quarter.On an adjusted basis, Alcoa earned 14 cents per share. Analysts had expected earnings of 19 cents per share for

BERLIN Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said it will halt production at one of its biggest auto-making factories in Germany on more days than originally planned because of shrinking demand for the Passat saloon and estate models.Production of the Passat at VW's northern German plant in Emden will be stopped on Feb. 16-17 and Feb. 21, a spokesman said, adding to disruptions agreed earlier this month.Europe's largest automaker said last week it will shut down the Emden plant which employs about 9,000 people

By Bernie Woodall | DETROIT DETROIT Ford Motor Co (F.N), in a bid for a piece of the rapidly growing global auto parts market, is launching a new brand called Omnicraft to sell parts to Ford dealers and independent repair shops to fix competitors' vehicles.Omnicraft joins Ford's established Motorcraft which makes parts for Ford vehicles.Frederiek Toney, president of Ford's customer service

SYDNEY The dollar was under pressure in Asia on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump's focus on trade protectionism fueled suspicions his administration might seek a competitive advantage through a weaker currency.The talk of trade wars favored safe-haven Treasuries and the Japanese yen while leaving equities mixed.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent but Tokyo's Nikkei slipped 0.3 percent.Sentiment took a fresh knock when U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin told senators that he would

By Toni Clarke | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Endo International Plc (ENDP.O) said on Monday it had reached a proposed settlement with U.S. anti-trust regulators under which it will not pay rivals to delay the introduction of generic competitors to its medications.The Federal Trade Commission had alleged Endo paid Impax Laboratories Inc (IPXL.O) to delay the introduction of a generic version of its

By Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump met with a dozen American manufacturers at the White House on Monday, pledging to slash regulations and cut corporate taxes, but warning them he would impose taxes on imports if they move production outside the country.Trump, who took office on Friday, promised to bring manufacturing plants back to the United States

McDonald's Corp's (MCD.N) U.S. comparable restaurant sales fell less than analysts had expected in the fourth quarter as strong demand for its all-day breakfast brought more people to its restaurants.The operator of the world's largest fast-food chain posted overall quarterly revenue that beat analysts' expectations.The company's stock initially rose in premarket trading on Monday, before reversing course to trade down 0.38 percent at $121.95.Sales at established McDonald's restaurants in the United States declined 1.3 percent in the three months ended

TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he believed U.S. President Donald Trump understood the value of free trade and that he would keep pitching a multinational trade pact that Trump's administration has vowed to exit."I believe President Trump understands the importance of free and fair trade, so I'd like to pursue his understanding on the strategic and economic importance of the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade pact," Abe told a session of parliament's lower house.Abe also said

By Naveen Thukral | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil ticked lower on Monday, falling for the first time in three sessions as prospects of rising U.S. production weighed on the market.U.S. energy companies last week added the most rigs drilling for new production in almost four years. Drillers added 29 rigs in the week to Jan. 20, bringing the total count up to

By Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japanese companies believe that neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe want to see the yen weaken significantly, a Reuters poll showed, a development they worry could spark an unwelcome political backlash.The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted Jan. 4-17, also found that Japanese firms want Abe to push Trump hard on trade

By Carmel Crimmins and Pamela Barbaglia | DAVOS, Switzerland DAVOS, Switzerland U.S. bankers, buoyed by a resurgence in profits, are advising their counterparts in Europe to think positively about the new administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.But many Europeans still need convincing.At the annual gathering of the world's political and business elites in the Swiss resort of Davos, U.S. financiers told

TAIPEI Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, is considering setting up a display-making plant in the United States in an investment that would exceed $7 billion, company chairman and chief executive Terry Gou said on Sunday. The plans, which would be carried out with its unit Sharp Corp (6753.T), still depend on many factors such as investment conditions that would have to be negotiated at the U.S. state and federal levels, Gou told reporters on the sidelines of

By Rania El Gamal and Vladimir Soldatkin | VIENNA VIENNA A committee of OPEC and non-OPEC countries responsible for monitoring compliance with a global agreement to reduce oil output is set to meet for the first time in Vienna on Sunday.The committee is expected to discuss how to best monitor compliance with the deal reached late last year as well as

TAIPEI The head of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic goods and a major Apple Inc supplier, said on Sunday that the rise of protectionism is unavoidable. Terry Gou, chairman of Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, warned that uncertainties for this year make it tough to have a very clear analysis and outlook, but he said it was clear politics would underpin economic development.His remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to put

By Pamela Barbaglia and Arno Schuetze | LONDON/FRANKFURT LONDON/FRANKFURT U.S. banks Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Citigroup (C.N) have identified many of the roles that will need to be moved from Britain following its exit from the European Union, sources involved in the processes told Reuters. Morgan Stanley, which bases the bulk of its European staff in Britain, will have to move

By Nandita Bose and Siddharth Cavale | CHICAGO CHICAGO U.S. department store chains, hit by slowing sales for more than two years, have used layoffs, store closings and cutbacks to maintain one aspect of stability: profit margins.An analysis of two important indicators of retail profitability, gross margins and operating margins, shows retailers like Kohl's Corp (KSS.N), JC Penney Co Inc (JCP.N),

By Catherine Ngai and Liz Hampton | HOUSTON HOUSTON Commodities trader and investor TrailStone Group has purchased Cargill Inc's gas and power trading group, three sources familiar with the deal said this week.The move, first reported by Sparkspread, comes amid a reshuffling in the power and natural gas industry as private equity firms and hedge funds pour into the space, filling