Category: Business

JAKARTA Indonesia has penalized JPMorgan Chase & Co after the investment bank's research arm recommended a smaller exposure to the country's sovereign bonds, a senior finance ministry official said on Tuesday."After we did a comprehensive review, we said no need to use JPMorgan's services as a primary (bond) dealer and a perception bank," Suahasil Nazara, the head of the ministry's fiscal policy office, told Reuters.A 2006 government decree says a perception bank is one appointed by the finance minister to

SEOUL Oil prices rose in the first trading hours of 2017, buoyed by hopes that a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC members to cut production, which kicked in on Sunday, will be effective in draining the global supply glut.International Brent crude oil prices LCOc1 were trading up 31 cents, or 0.55 percent, at $57.13 a barrel at 0203 GMT on Tuesday - close to last year's high of $57.89 per barrel, hit on Dec. 12. Oil markets were closed on

LONDON Euro zone stocks opened 2017 by climbing to their highest in more than a year on Monday after data showed manufacturers in the currency bloc ramped up activity at the fastest pace in more than five years.With all of Asia's major markets closed for the New Year holiday - along with Britain and Switzerland in Europe - trade was thin, which could cause some volatility. The United States and Canada will also be closed. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro

SEOUL South Korea has banned the sale of 10 models of Nissan, BMW and Porsche vehicles after the carmakers were found to have fabricated certification documents, in the latest fallout from the Volkswagen emissions scandal. The government announced in August that it would ban all 10 models after conducting an investigation into whether foreign carmakers besides Volkswagen AG falsified documents on emissions and noise-level tests.Nine of the models have been banned since last month and Nissan's Qashqai diesel sport utility

LONDON Digital currency bitcoin kicked off the new year by jumping above $1,000 for the first time in three years late on Sunday, having outperformed all central-bank-issued currencies with a 125 percent climb in 2016.Bitcoin - a web-based "cryptocurrency" that has no central authority, relying instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new bitcoins to the system - jumped 2.5 percent to $1,022 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, its highest since December 2013.

By Sankalp Phartiyal | MUMBAI MUMBAI Smartphone component maker Wistron Corp, which counts Apple Inc among its customers, has applied for permission to expand its plant in the Indian city of Bengaluru, a high-ranking regional government official said on Monday.The Taiwanese contract manufacturer has also requested that its application be fast-tracked, the official at the state government of Karnataka in southern

SEOUL Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) will announce this month the results of an investigation into what caused some of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday citing unnamed sources. The South Korean firm said in October it was examining all aspects of the phone, suggesting there may be a combination of factors that contributed to one of the costliest product safety failures in tech history.The world's top smartphone maker warned of

By Hyunjoo Jin and Se Young Lee | SEOUL SEOUL Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and affiliate Kia Motors (000270.KS) said on Monday they aim to increase their combined sales to 8.25 million vehicles globally in 2017, despite rising competition.The 2017 target is slightly higher than their 2016 goal of 8.13 million vehicles. The South Korean automakers' final sales figures for 2016

BEIJING A joint venture between Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (2354.TW), known as Foxconn, and Sharp Corp (6753.T) plans to build a 61 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) factory in China to produce liquid-crystal displays (LCDs).Sakai Display Products Corp's plant will be a so-called Gen-10.5 facility specializing in large-screen LCDs and will be operational by 2019, the company said at a signing event with local officials in Guangzhou on Friday. It said the plant will have capacity equating to 92 billion

U.S. fishing and hunting equipment retailer Cabela's Inc (CAB.N), which is being bought by privately held rival Bass Pro Shops, said the Federal Trade Commission had sought more information from the companies about the deal.Cabela's shares were down 7.6 percent at $56.98 in premarket trading on Friday.Cabela's did not provide details about the FTC's request.As part of the proposed $5.5 billion deal, announced in October, Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) had said it would buy Cabela's credit card business and

LIMA Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said on Saturday that he is evaluating the possibility of suing Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht [ODBES.UL] for damages after the company admitted to using bribes to secure public contracts in the Andean nation.Odebrecht, Latin America's largest construction outfit, acknowledged in a U.S. settlement earlier in December to having doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to public officials in 12 nations. That led the Peruvian government to announce on Wednesday that the

SAN FRANCISCO Tesla Motors Inc was sued on Friday by a Model X owner who said his electric SUV suddenly accelerated while being parked, causing it to crash through the garage into the owner's living room, injuring the driver and a passenger.The Model X owner, Ji Chang Son, said that one night in September, he slowly pulled into his driveway as his garage door opened when the car suddenly sped forward."The vehicle spontaneously began to accelerate at full power, jerking

By Lewis Krauskopf and Chuck Mikolajczak | NEW YORK NEW YORK After a late-year rally fueled by the U.S. election pushed stocks to surprising new peaks, investors are wary that the market could be primed for a spill to start 2017.The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX is set to post a roughly 10 percent price gain for 2016 and around 12 percent

SHANGHAI A Shanghai court ordered two Chinese firms to pay Walt Disney Co and Pixar more than 1.35 million yuan ($194,440) compensation for copying parts of their hit movies "Cars" and "Cars 2", the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.The ruling is the latest in a slew of intellectual property wins for large foreign firms, who have complained about widespread copyright infringement in China.Disney and Pixar took the Chinese firms to court saying the characters, titles and posters from

FRANKFURT German utility E.ON (EONGn.DE) plans to cut administrative jobs as part of efforts to reduce costs by 400 million euros (340.78 million pounds), Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen told newspaper Rheinische Post."Based on previous experience, 50 percent of savings in such efficiency programs come from personnel costs and 50 percent from the cost of material," he said in the interview, published on Saturday, adding the company was in the process of determining how many jobs are to go.He said staff

BEIJING China's economy is on a steady growth path as 2016 ends, supported by a housing boom and billions in government investment, but the mood of policymakers is more cautious than celebratory as they face "complexity" in the new year. Controlling risks has been a constant refrain in recent months as the focus of policymakers switches to taming asset bubbles and checking unbalanced growth stemming from efforts to fuel the economy with credit.The central bank - while reaffirming a long-standing

Social media firm Snap Inc may be the highest profile tech IPO planned for 2017, with the potential to raise billions.But more than a dozen expected stock offerings of relatively obscure software firms targeting business customers - little-known names such as Apttus, Tintri and Okta - could be just as important in thawing a long-frozen IPO market, according to investment bankers and advisers who work on IPOs. Such firms are a "leading indicator" of broader investor demand for market debuts,

By Sam Forgione | NEW YORK NEW YORK The U.S. dollar slipped on Friday but notched its fourth straight year of gains against a basket of major currencies.The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained about 3.7 percent for the year.The index rose about 7.1 percent during the fourth quarter, more than half

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) will trim production of iPhones by about 10 percent in the January-March quarter, the Nikkei financial daily reported, citing calculations based on data from suppliers.The company slashed output by 30 percent in the January-March quarter this year due to accumulated inventory, the Nikkei reported. s.nikkei.com/2hClWTvApple's shares were down 0.85 percent in midday trading.

By Yashaswini Swamynathan Wall Street aimed to end 2016 on a positive note, setting up the Dow for its best annual performance since 2013 amid increasing optimism about the outlook for the economy. The markets have shown surprising resilience to major political events, such as Britain's vote in June to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as

FRANKFURT China's Midea said it will complete its takeover of German robotics maker Kuka in the first half of January after the United States authorities gave the deal a green light.Midea, which launched a 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) offer for Kuka in May, said Germany's markets regulator had approved the settlement of the transaction, allowing it to control a 94.55 percent voting stake in Kuka from January onwards. The bid for Kuka, a high-tech robotics manufacturer,

HONG KONG China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers, said on Friday it expects 2016 revenue growth to slow slightly to 32 percent and forecast greater uncertainties next year. The Shenzhen-based company, which competes with Sweden's Ericsson (ERICb.ST) for the top spot in the global market for telecoms equipment, sees 2016 revenue hitting 520 billion yuan ($74.8 billion), said Eric Xu, Huawei's rotating chief executive. The expected growth rate for this year

Singapore Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Friday shrugging off a second consecutive week of U.S. crude oil inventory builds, with a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report late on Thursday indicating an unexpected rise in crude stocks.U.S. benchmark West Texas intermediate (WTI) CLc1 crude futures were up 18 cents or 0.33 percent to $53.95 at 0105 GMT after settling 29 cents lower at $53.77 per barrel in the previous session.Brent front-month March crude oil futures LCOc1 were

By Jonathan Stempel | NEW YORK NEW YORK A founder of Run-DMC on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon.com Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc of selling a wide variety of clothing and accessories bearing the pioneering rap group's name without permission.Darryl McDaniels, the owner of Run-DMC Brand LLC, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is seeking at least $50 million of damages

By Tom Hals | WILMINGTON, Del. WILMINGTON, Del. Peabody Energy Corp said on Thursday the deadline for creditors to join financing deals aimed at bringing the largest U.S. coal miner out of bankruptcy had been extended after large investors sued to slow the process.Last week, Peabody unveiled its plan to eliminate more than $5 billion of debt and raise capital from

By Yashaswini Swamynathan Wall Street looked set to open little changed on Thursday, a day after the S&P 500 index suffered its biggest fall in two months, putting a damper on a post-election rally. A report showed the number of Americans applying for jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 265,000 last week, indicating sustained strength in the labor market.U.S. equities had

By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON European shares, the dollar and bond yields fell on Thursday, with traders using the quiet holiday period to book some profit on the rise that had lifted all three to multi-year and in some cases record highs recently. Weakness in European financial stocks helped push broader indices into the red, extending the slippage after soft

TOKYO Shares in Toshiba (6502.T) fell more than 19 percent in morning trade on Thursday, clocking a third day of heavy losses after the Japanese tech-to-nuclear conglomerate said earlier this week it faced a potential multi-billion dollar writedown.Late on Wednesday, Moody's became the second rating agency to downgrade the group, pushing it deeper into "junk", or non-investment grade territory, with a Caa1 rating, from B3."Although Toshiba is still assessing the exact amount of the impairment loss, its financial metrics will

Singapore Oil prices fell in early trade in Asia on Thursday following a surprise build in U.S. crude stocks shown in data published by the American Petroleum Institute (API) late on Wednesday.U.S. benchmark West Texas intermediate (WTI) CLc1 crude futures were down 31 cents or 0.57 percent to $53.75 at 0104 GMT after settling up 16 cents at $54.06 per barrel in the previous session.Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 also fell 13 cents or 0.23 percent to $56.09 a barrel

New York state's financial regulator on Wednesday revised a proposal for the nation's first cyber security rules for banks and insurers, loosening some security requirements and delaying implementation by two months to March 1.The rules from the New York State Department of Financial Services are being closely because they lay out unprecedented requirements on steps that financial firms must take to protect their networks and customer data from hackers and disclose cyber events to state regulators."Many organizations are going to

By Yashaswini Swamynathan Wall Street lost ground for the first time in three days on Wednesday due to declines across sectors, slowing the Dow's race to 20,000. The blue-chip index came within 19 points of the milestone shortly after the open, before slipping into negative territory as losses in Boeing (BA.N) offset Goldman Sach's (GS.N) 0.86 percent gain. Boeing fell 0.8

By Se Young Lee and Stephen Nellis | SEJONG, South Korea/SAN FRANCISCO SEJONG, South Korea/SAN FRANCISCO South Korea's antitrust regulator fined Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) 1.03 trillion won ($854 million) for what it called unfair business practices in patent licensing and modem chip sales, a decision the U.S. chipmaker said it will challenge in court.The fine, the largest ever levied in South

By Makiko Yamazaki | TOKYO TOKYO A looming writedown at Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp has wiped almost $5 billion off its value in two days and prompted a credit rating downgrade on Wednesday, as the company grapples to plug a potential multi-billion dollar hole.Toshiba said late on Tuesday that cost overruns at a U.S. nuclear business it bought from Chicago Bridge

By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asia stocks followed Wall Street higher on Wednesday, while the dollar firmed against the yen following the release of upbeat U.S. economic data overnight.Crude oil prices held large gains on expectations of supply tightening once oil-producing nations implement a scheduled output cut. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose