Category: Business

CARACAS OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo forecast on Monday that stability would return to oil markets this year while price hawk Venezuela said it hoped its crude basket would rise to $70 in coming months. The head of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was back in Caracas for a second meeting in two months with President Nicolas Maduro whom he lavishly praised for an "inspirational" role in the producers' pact to cut output."We remain optimistic Mr. President that with

By Jessica DiNapoli and Lisa Richwine American Apparel LLC started to lay off staff on Monday after Canada's Gildan Activewear Inc (GIL.TO) withdrew its initial plan to buy some of the bankrupt U.S. fashion retailer's manufacturing operations, company employees said.Gildan won the rights to American Apparel's brand with an $88 million bid in a bankruptcy auction last week. It had previously

By Nigel Stephenson | LONDON LONDON Investors sold sterling and stocks on Monday, seeking shelter in gold and the Japanese yen as uncertainty over Britain's departure from the European Union and the policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump curbed appetite for risky assets.U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, crimping market activity and potentially exacerbating price

By Noah Barkin | DAVOS, Switzerland DAVOS, Switzerland A trade war between the United States and China and a strengthening dollar are among the biggest threats to a brightening global economic outlook, according to leading economists at the World Economic Forum in Davos.As political leaders, businessmen and bankers converge on the resort in the Swiss Alps this week, they can draw

LONDON British luxury brand Burberry (BRBY.L) said on Monday its incoming chief executive Marco Gobbetti will initially join the company on Jan. 27 as executive chairman, Asia Pacific and Middle East, before joining the board and taking the top job on July 5.Italian Gobbetti, the former boss of French brand Celine, was named as Christopher Bailey's successor as CEO last July. Bailey will take on the new role of president and chief creative officer.

SYDNEY Plans to provide government support to keep open a 30-year-old aluminum smelter in Australia owned by Alcoa (AA.N) have made "progress", parties involved in talks said on Monday without giving details.The government is offering financial support to help supply the Portland smelter in southern Australia with sufficient power in the wake of a blackout late last year that left it running at only one-third of its 300,000-tonnes-per-year capacity. However, details are still being discussed."Significant progress has been made over

DAVOS, Switzerland - The global economy is in better shape than it's been in years. Stock markets are booming, oil prices are on the rise again and the risks of a rapid economic slowdown in China, a major source of concern a year ago, have eased.And yet, as political leaders, CEOs and top bankers make their annual trek up the Swiss Alps to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the mood is anything but celebratory.Beneath the veneer of optimism over

BRUSSELS The European Union and the United States agreed on Friday to reduce legal and capital barriers to boost the $3 billion transatlantic insurance and reinsurance market.The accord has been under negotiation for more than a year and follows an agreement last year on derivatives.U.S. and EU representatives said in a joint statement they had reached a deal "that will ensure ongoing robust insurance consumer protection and provide enhanced regulatory certainty for insurers and reinsurers operating in both the U.S.

PARIS A judicial investigation into diesel emissions testing in France could widen beyond Renault after tests showed other carmakers had exceeded the authorized levels, the French environment minister said on Sunday, without elaborating.Shares in Renault fell more than 4 percent to their lowest level in around a month on Friday after a source at the Paris prosecutor's office said it had launched a judicial probe into possible cheating on exhaust emissions at the French carmaker.Volkswagen's admission that some of its

PARIS/MILAN European carmakers were drawn into a widening probe of diesel emissions testing on Friday, with French prosecutors examining Renault and British authorities seeking answers from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.Volkswagen's VOW_p.DE admission that some of its diesel vehicles were fitted with software designed to hide their true level of emissions has highlighted that most cars spew out far higher levels of health-threatening nitrogen oxide (NOx) in everyday driving conditions than in laboratory tests. Shares in Renault fell more than

PARIS Over the past two decades, planemakers Airbus (AIR.PA) and Boeing (BA.N) have traded the crown in the annual orders race, and it was usually clear who had bragging rights in the fiercely competitive $120 billion annual jet market.On Wednesday, Airbus retained the top spot when it said it had recorded a total of 731 net orders for 2016, beating Boeing's tally of 668 for the year released a week ago.Standing out as the unusual kingmaker between the two Western

|By Saifur Rahman|Dubai added 26,707 new companies last year to the existing 107,043 trade licenses, reflecting strong investor confidence in the emirate, the Department of Economic Development, Dubai’s trade licensing authority, said in a statement. “The number of licenses renewed in 2016 was 107,043 while 20,873 initial approvals were issued and 38,918 trade names were reserved,” the statement said. This means Dubai now has 133,750 companies active as at December 31, 2016. “The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai issued a record

By Paul Lienert and David Shepardson | DETROIT/WASHINGTON DETROIT/WASHINGTON Japan's Takata Corp (7312.T) on Friday agreed to plead guilty to criminal wrongdoing and to pay $1 billion to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into ruptures of its air bag inflators linked to at least 16 deaths worldwide.The deal was announced hours after prosecutors in Detroit charged three former senior Takata

By Sinead Carew and Lewis Krauskopf | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. bank stocks will stay in favor with investors as long as earnings reports in the coming week show an improving profit outlook while investors wait to see if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump lives up to his campaign promises.Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank

By Karen Freifeld | NEW YORK NEW YORK Moody's Corp (MCO.N) has agreed to pay nearly $864 million to settle with U.S. federal and state authorities over its ratings of risky mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday.The credit rating agency reached the deal with the Justice Department, 21 states

By Lisa Richwine | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Sony Entertainment Chief Executive Michael Lynton will step down to become chairman of messaging app owner Snap Inc, a move that puts an experienced Hollywood executive in a prominent role as the technology company prepares for an initial public offering. Lynton will give up his current role at Sony's movie and television unit

An increase in Facebook pushed the Nasdaq to a record high on Friday, and the S&P 500 also rose after major U.S. banks kicked off the fourth-quarter earnings season with strong results.Wall Street has surged since President-elect Trump's unexpected election victory on optimism he will cut corporate taxes, spend on infrastructure and deregulate banks. With stocks trading at price-to-earnings valuations well above historical averages, many investors believe further gains will depend on S&P 500 companies handing in strong report cards

By Jonathan Stempel | NEW HAVEN, Conn. NEW HAVEN, Conn. A former Jefferies Group Inc bond trader being tried a second time for defrauding clients about prices of mortgage bonds should be convicted because he lied repeatedly to his own customers to boost profits, a U.S. prosecutor argued on Friday.Jesse Litvak, 42, was "motivated by greed," and it was no excuse

By Trevor Hunnicutt | NEW YORK NEW YORK BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), the world's biggest asset manager, reported better-than-expected quarterly profits on Friday as it clamped down on expenses and investors stormed into lower-cost funds to take advantage of a year-end rally.Investors poured $88 billion into the company's market-tracking index investments and its iShares exchange-traded funds during the quarter, while pulling $546

By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON European and U.S. stocks looked to end a sluggish week on a high note on Friday, while the dollar was on track for its biggest weekly fall in two months and U.S. bond yields eyed their longest run of weekly declines since July. Investors largely shrugged off figures that showed Chinese exports fell the most

By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee left the South Korean special prosecutor's office early on Friday, more than 22 hours after arriving for questioning on bribery suspicions in an influence-peddling scandal that could topple President Park Geun-hye.Lee left the special prosecution office without answering reporters' questions and headed to a waiting

By David Shepardson | NEW YORK NEW YORK Japan's Takata Corp is expected to plead guilty to criminal wrongdoing as early as Friday as part of a $1 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over its handling of air bag ruptures linked to 16 deaths worldwide, sources said.The settlement includes a $25 million criminal fine, $125 million in victim compensation

MIAMI/NEW YORK A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered a Volkswagen executive charged in the Justice Department's diesel emissions investigation held without bail pending trial.Oliver Schmidt was arrested Saturday at Miami's International Airport as he planned to fly home after a vacation. He was one of six current and former VW executives charged this week in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The other five are in Germany and are unlikely to be extradited.U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff ruled Schmidt was a

By David Shepardson and Bernie Woodall | NEW YORK/DETROIT NEW YORK/DETROIT The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday accused Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV of illegally using hidden software that allowed significant excess diesel emissions, the result of a probe that stemmed from regulators' investigation of rival Volkswagen AG.The EPA action affects 104,000 U.S. trucks and SUVs sold since 2014, about one-sixth

LONDON Asset management giant PIMCO said on Thursday it thought there was a chance China could freely float its currency, the yuan, this year.The firm's head of Asian portfolios, Luke Spajic, said in a note Beijing was finding it impossible achieve three goals simultaneously: a stable or fixed foreign exchange rate, free capital movement and an independent monetary policy. Combining tighter financial conditions with this policy trilemma therefore means the yuan would probably remain an "escape valve".

HONG KONG Property developer China Vanke (000002.SZ) (2202.HK), embroiled in a high-profile corporate power tussle for over a year, said on Thursday its No. 2 shareholder China Resources Group is considering a major plan.The country's second-largest developer said in a statement it had been informed on Wednesday that China Resources and a unit were 'formulating a major plan involving its holdings in Vanke but are still finalizing the details.'China Resources said it had nothing further to add at this point.Vanke

Foreclosure proceedings affected nearly a million U.S. homes and other real estate last year, down 14 percent from 2015 and down 70 percent from the worst of the housing crisis in 2009, a report released Thursday shows.Foreclosures hit a 10-year low and property owners in all but 15 states experienced fewer of the early stages of foreclosure, usually begun after owners have missed four mortgage payments, according to the report by ATTOM Data Solutions, formerly called RealtyTrac. Final repossessions of

By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Volkswagen AG, as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. regulators, on Wednesday agreed to sweeping reforms, new audits and oversight by an independent monitor for three years to resolve diesel emissions cheating investigations.Under the settlement of charges it installed secret software in U.S. vehicles to allow them to emit up to 40 times

By Julia Fioretti | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS The United States has not satisfied the European Union's concerns about Yahoo's (YHOO.O) scanning of all customers' incoming emails for U.S. intelligence purposes, the bloc's justice chief told Reuters in an interview.The European Commission, the EU executive, asked the United States in November for clarifications on the secret court order served to Yahoo as part

By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) has agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement to resolve the U.S. government's civil and criminal investigations into the German automaker's diesel emissions cheating, two sources briefed on the matter said Wednesday.U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy will announce the settlement in Washington on Wednesday at a

By Andreas Cremer | BERLIN BERLIN Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) supervisory board is meeting on Wednesday to approve a draft $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, marking a milestone in its attempts to recover from its emissions test cheating scandal. Shares in Europe's biggest carmaker rose as much as 4 percent as investors welcomed the latest move to draw a line

By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL A South Korean special prosecutor's office will question Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a widening influence-peddling scandal that may force President Park Geun-hye from office.Prosecutors have been looking into whether Samsung payments of about 30 billion won ($25 million) for a business and foundations backed

By Engen Tham and Samuel Shen | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI China's forex regulator is telling banks to keep its instructions about curbing capital outflows secret and to ensure that research analysts keep any negative views about the yuan's prospects to themselves, several bankers said.Both demands are seen as an attempt by the authorities to prevent alarm that could trigger further declines in

SEATTLE Boeing Co (BA.N) warned on Tuesday that it will conduct involuntary layoffs of engineers, part of a cost-cutting drive as the aerospace and defense company responds to increasing competition amid slowing aircraft sales.The reductions, disclosed in an internal memo seen by Reuters, also include dozens of job categories eligible for voluntary layoffs in Washington state, southern California and South Carolina.Boeing did not indicate the number of reductions the company planned. Vice Chairman Ray Conner and Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive