Category: Business

By Alexandria Sage | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google self-driving car project will become an independent entity within the technology company called Waymo, executives said on Tuesday, signaling a willingness to finally monetize its valuable research amid fierce competition from rivals. The announcement marks a crucial step in the development of Google's high-profile program, now in its seventh

Wall Street looked set to open higher on Tuesday, as investors keep a close watch of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting where it is widely expected to raise interest rates for the second time since the financial crisis.A hike of 25 basis points in the Fed's target range of 0.25-0.50 percent is priced in, but investors will be examining the Fed's statement and economic forecasts for signs of the central bank's thinking on how Donald Trump's election has affected the

By Nigel Stephenson | LONDON LONDON Global shares edged up on Tuesday, helped by gains in banks after Italy's largest lender unveiled a 13 billion euro share issue, while the dollar held steady before a Federal Reserve meeting expected to deliver higher interest rates.UniCredit launched Italy's biggest share issue to clean up its balance sheet and boost profitability in the latest

Michael Moritz - chairman of Sequoia Capital and one of the most successful venture capitalists in history - says a simple vision led him to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in on-demand delivery startups. "The movement of goods and services and people, by easier, more convenient means," he said in an interview. "That's a huge trend, enabled by smartphones."Led by Sequoia and another blue-chip Silicon Valley firm - Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers - venture investors have poured at

By Nick Carey and Ginger Gibson | CHICAGO/WASHINGTON CHICAGO/WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's challenges to China on trade and Taiwan are rattling American companies who have long benefited from stable relations between the two countries but now fear retaliation by Beijing if Trump were to act.Trump jarred Chinese officials on Sunday by saying the United States did not necessarily have to

By Tom Bergin and Jim Finkle | LONDON/BOSTON LONDON/BOSTON Cyber attacks on the global banking system have continued - and succeeded - since February’s heist of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank, underscoring the continuing vulnerability of the SWIFT messaging network, a SWIFT official told Reuters.The network, which handles trillions of dollars in transfers daily, has warned banks of the

WASHINGTON Donald Trump on Monday criticized Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet program as too expensive, the latest attack by the U.S. President-elect on large defense contractors.Lockheed shares dropped 5.1 percent and shares of several other defense contractors also tumbled. "The F-35 program and cost is out of control," Trump said on Twitter, echoing campaign promises to cut waste in federal spending. "Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th."Last week, he also

By Sophie Sassard | LONDON LONDON Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O) aims to make a firm cash bid for British broadcaster Sky (SKYB.L) this week, valuing the company at 10.75 pounds ($13.60) per share, several people familiar with the matter said on Monday.Fox and Sky have agreed to press ahead with a scheme of arrangement which could make it easier

Goldman Sachs said the formal agreement by non-OPEC oil producers this weekend in Vienna to help curb output was reached with a goal of "normalization" of inventories and not necessarily just at raising oil prices. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had previously agreed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), and on Saturday, 11 non-OPEC producers agreed to join the effort and reduce output by 558,000 bpd. The cut was short of an initial

By Howard Schneider | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve inaugurates the Trump era this week with a near-certain interest rate increase and new economic forecasts providing a first glimpse into whether the U.S. election has reshaped the central bank's growth and inflation outlook.Fed fund futures show a 97 percent probability that the Fed will lift rates by a quarter of a

Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Lonza Group AG (LONN.S) is in advanced talks to acquire Capsugel, a U.S. maker of capsule products and other drug delivery systems, for more than $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.The deal would come as Lonza seeks to boost its life sciences capabilities and produce a wider range of molecules used in active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug delivery. It held unsuccessful talks to acquire U.S. drug delivery technology company Catalent Inc (CTLT.N) earlier this

MILAN Italy's biggest bank by assets UniCredit (CRDI.MI) has reached a deal to sell its asset manager Pioneer to France's Amundi for more than 4 billion euros ($4.2 billion), a source with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday.The deal, which the source said involves a special dividend of about 500 million euros to be paid to UniCredit, is one of various disposals being pursued by newly-appointed Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Mustier to boost capital levels at the Italian lender, slim

LONDON A major shareholder in British pay-TV company Sky (SKYB.L) will vote against Twenty-First Century Fox's (FOXA.O) $14 billion takeover bid, the investor told Reuters on Sunday, while another said it is unhappy about the offer. Rupert Murdoch's Fox offered 10.75 pounds ($13.52) a share in cash on Friday in its second attempt to buy the 61 percent of the business that it does not own, with Sky's independent directors backing the latest bid.The shareholder, which declined to be named

MUMBAI Tata Sons on Sunday renewed its appeal to shareholders of Tata group companies to remove Cyrus Mistry from the board of those companies, saying his presence as chairman "is likely to lead to fragmentation of the Tata Group".In a boardroom coup in October, Mistry was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons, holding firm of the $100 billion Tata empire, but he remains on the board of some group companies.Patriarch Ratan Tata is back at the helm temporarily, and a

DUBAI Iran Air said it signed a deal on Sunday to buy 80 passenger planes from U.S. aircraft maker Boeing (BA.N), state news agency IRNA reported.The agency quoted Farhad Parvaresh, the head of the country's flag carrier, as saying that the 10-year deal included 50 Boeing 737 aircraft and 30 777 planes.

By Caroline Valetkevitch | NEW YORK NEW YORK Next week's Federal Reserve meeting and possible signals on the pace of rate hikes for next year could pose the biggest risk yet to the rally the U.S. stock market has seen since last month's presidential election.While investors have long anticipated the Fed will raise rates at the Dec. 13-14 meeting - in

By Joseph White | DETROIT DETROIT General Motors Co's (GM.N) Cadillac brand on Saturday disavowed a casting notice that called for an "alt-right (neo nazi)" role in a Cadillac commercial amid a storm of outrage on social media.The casting notice, circulated on Twitter and Facebook, said an agency was looking for "any and all real alt-right thinkers/believers" and indicated the call

VIENNA OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Saturday reached their first deal since 2001 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices that overstretched many budgets and spurred unrest in some countries.With the deal finally signed after almost a year of arguing within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and mistrust in the willingness of non-OPEC Russia to play ball, the market's focus will now switch to compliance with the

NEW YORK U.S. insurer Prudential Financial (PRU.N) is investigating whether Wells Fargo (WFC.N) employees signed up customers for its life insurance policies without their knowledge, a spokesman said on Saturday.Sales practices at Wells Fargo have been under a spotlight since September when federal regulators ordered the San Francisco-based bank to pay $190 million in fines and restitution because they said its high pressure sales environment pushed employees to open as many as 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without

DUBLIN A group of British and Irish lawyers are seeking to challenge Britain's decision to leave the European Union in the Irish High Court to try to establish if Brexit can be reversed once divorce talks have been triggered.British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants to invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, kicking off up to two years of exit negotiations following the vote to leave in a referendum last June.The

LONDON Rupert Murdoch's new takeover approach for British pay-TV firm Sky should be investigated by the UK's competition authorities, according to the former minister who referred the tycoon's previous bid.Vince Cable, who was Britain's business secretary at the time of Murdoch's first bid in 2010-11 told BBC radio the media tycoon's new takeover attempt would not be in the public interest.On Friday Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox said it had struck a preliminary deal to buy the 61 percent of Sky

By Steve Holland | GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson emerged on Friday as President-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate for U.S. secretary of state, a senior transition official said.Trump met Tillerson on Tuesday and may talk to him again over the weekend, the official said. Trump appears to be in the final days

President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday he would name Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemical Co, to head the Manufacturing Council, a private sector group that advises the U.S. secretary of commerce.Trump made the announcement during a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he introduced Liveris, 62, a dual U.S.-Australian citizen who said he had accepted the appointment.

By David Lawder | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump is stacking his trade transition team with veterans of the U.S. steel industry's battles with China, signaling a potentially more aggressive approach to U.S. complaints of unfair Chinese subsidies for its exports and barriers to imports.Led by Wilbur Ross, a billionaire steel investor and Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, Dan DiMicco, the

Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp is in talks to acquire InvenSense Inc, a U.S. chip maker that produces motion sensors for Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.The deal would allow TDK, already a major smartphone components supplier, to boost its sensor technology offerings. InvenSense designs gyroscopes which help smartphones calculate motion, enabling augmented reality games such as Pokemon Go.TDK has offered $12 per share to acquire InvenSense, one of the people

American Airlines Group Inc (AAL.O) raised its current-quarter forecasts for pre-tax margin and a key profitability metric, citing an improvement in average fares.The company said it now expects fourth-quarter unit revenue to range between a decline of 1 percent and an increase of 1 percent, compared with its previous forecast of a decline of 2.5-0.5 percent.Unit revenue compares sales to how many seats an airline flies and how far it flies them.

FRANKFURT German semiconductor chipmaking machinery company Aixtron (AIXGn.DE) is considering reducing the size of the business with a partial sale, its chief executive said in an interview published on Friday, opening the door for bidders after a deal with a Chinese firm collapsed."There are two options: First, we could hope that the markets for our products recover and continue investing high sums in new equipment. But that would come with high development and ramp-up costs, and risks," Martin Goetzeler told

By Lisa Twaronite and Wayne Cole | TOKYO/SYDNEY TOKYO/SYDNEY Asian shares edged down on Friday but were on track for weekly gains, while the euro became more settled after the volatility seen in the wake of the European Central Bank's decision to trim the size of its asset purchase program while also extending it for longer than many analysts had expected.MSCI's

3M Co (MMM.N), the maker of Scotch tape and Post-it notes, said it had entered into agreements to sell its identity management business to Amsterdam-based digital security company Gemalto (GTO.AS) for $850 million.The unit, which provides biometric solutions used in law enforcement, border control and civil identification, has annual global sales of about $215 million."We believe that the identity management business will be better positioned with a company that is primarily focused on security solutions," the company's vice president of

Major U.S. stock indexes climbed again on Thursday and set fresh record highs as a month-long rally following the presidential election of Donald Trump rolled on.Investors have driven up equities since Trump's Nov. 8 election over optimism about domestic economic stimulus and reduced corporate taxes and regulations.Supporting the upbeat sentiment on Thursday was a report that showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell from a five-month high last week, pointing to labor market strength that underscored the

By Alex Lawler and Rania El Gamal | LONDON/DUBAI LONDON/DUBAI Only five of 14 non-OPEC oil producers have agreed so far to meet the group on Saturday for talks aimed at widening a deal to reduce output, casting doubt on whether OPEC will secure the full cuts it is seeking, two OPEC sources said.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which

FRANKFURT China's Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund has dropped its takeover bid for German chip equipment maker Aixtron after U.S. President Barack Obama blocked the deal.Fujian's takeover vehicle Grand Chip Investment said on Thursday its offer had lapsed as it had failed to obtain U.S. regulatory approval for the purchase, which had been a condition of the deal.Investors who had already accepted its takeover offer will have their shares returned on Dec. 13, it said.Shares in Aixtron were down 3.1

By Christopher Johnson | LONDON LONDON Oil prices steadied around $50 a barrel on Thursday, close to the week's lows, on doubts proposed OPEC production cuts would be sufficient to balance the market, although a weaker dollar supported sentiment. North Sea Brent crude was up 25 cents at $53.25 a barrel by 0940 GMT. U.S. light crude was up 20 cents

SYDNEY Asian shares hustled to one-month highs on Thursday after Wall Street strode to another record, while bonds rallied on wagers the European Central Bank would extend its stimulus campaign at a policy meeting later in the session.Risk appetite got an extra boost when China reported upbeat trade figures with exports and imports both beating forecasts. Resource imports were very strong, a major reason prices for bulk commodities have been going gangbusters."The improvement reflects a strengthening in global demand, with