Category: Business

By Anshuman Daga and Marius Zaharia | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Singapore's central bank imposed penalties on the local units of U.K.-based Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and private bank Coutts for money laundering breaches related to Malaysia's scandal-tainted 1MDB fund and said it was nearing the end of its probes.The penalties - of S$5.2 million ($3.65 million) and S$2.4 million, respectively - were the

By Roslan Khasawneh | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices slipped on Friday as some investors opted to cash out after Brent touched 16-month a high on Thursday, with optimism over this week's OPEC-Russia accord on cutting output giving way to questions on the "sticking point" of implementing the deal.International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were trading at $53.36 per barrel at 0446

By Alicia Powell | NEW YORK NEW YORK From a whimsical enchanted winter forest-scape to candy-laden backdrops for festive fashion, New York department stores have spent a year conjuring up eye-catching holiday window displays. "Right when they start coming down, we start thinking about what's going to be the vision for next year?" said Roe Palermo, divisional vice president, store visual

NEW YORK A sharp decline in technology stocks pulled both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 indexes into the red on Thursday, while gains in bank and energy shares helped push the Dow to a record high close.Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 68.49 points, or 0.36 percent, to 19,192.07, the S&P 500 .SPX had lost 7.72 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,191.09 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC had dropped 72.57 points,

By Kristina Cooke | MENLO PARK, Calif. MENLO PARK, Calif. Facebook Inc (FB.O) is working on automatically flagging offensive material in live video streams, building on a growing effort to use artificial intelligence to monitor content, said Joaquin Candela, the company’s director of applied machine learning.The social media company has been embroiled in a number of content moderation controversies this year,

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen | COPENHAGEN COPENHAGEN Maersk Line, the world's biggest shipping company, is to buy smaller rival Hamburg Süd, joining a wave of M&A in the industry just over two months after the Danish company revealed plans to bolster its transport operations.The deal, announced by parent A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) on Thursday, is the group's first full takeover in more than

By Saikat Chatterjee | HONG KONG HONG KONG China's factories notched their strongest growth in activity in two years and Japanese firms' order books rose in November, masking concern about the protectionist leanings of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and an OPEC-induced oil price rally.Factory surveys produced stronger purchasing manager index (PMI) numbers in China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and while activity in

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices shot up more than 12 percent, smashing trading volume records, after producer club OPEC and Russia cut a deal to reduce output to drain a global supply glut, but analysts warned prices could recede as other producers stand by to fill the gap.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)agreed on Wednesday its

By Jonathan Stempel and Nate Raymond | NEW YORK NEW YORK Billionaire Steven A. Cohen's former hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LP will pay $135 million to settle a lawsuit by investors in the drugmaker Elan Corp, who said they lost money because of insider trading by one of his portfolio managers.The preliminary class-action settlement with SAC, now known as Point72

By Devika Krishna Kumar and Jessica Resnick-Ault | NEW YORK NEW YORK Oil's blistering rally of up to 10 percent to $50 a barrel on Wednesday should continue into next week, analysts and fund managers said, after the world's top producers announced a historic deal to rein in output. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries reached its first deal

Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) on Wednesday climbed to their highest levels since the financial crisis, as the bank benefited from a post U.S. presidential election rally. The stock reached $220.77 in late morning trading, returning to a point not seen since December 2007.

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said on Wednesday the administration would target tax reform and trade pact overhauls as top priorities as they seek to achieve 3 percent to 4 percent economic growth.Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, Trump's nominee for commerce secretary, outlined their agenda, including what Mnuchin called the largest tax overhaul since the Ronald Reagan administration, in an interview on CNBC. Both men confirmed they had been tapped for the jobs."We think by

By Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler | VIENNA VIENNA OPEC began on Wednesday debating a deal to curtail oil production and prop up the price of crude, with Iran and Iraq resisting pressure from Saudi Arabia to participate fully in any action.Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries started an informal meeting at 0700 GMT at the Vienna

COLOGNE, Germany Ford (F.N) wants to raise profitability in Europe by adding higher-margin versions of the Fiesta subcompact, its best-selling regional model, the carmaker's top European executive said.High-volume carmakers such as Ford have for several years been squeezed in a downmarket expansion by luxury rivals including Daimler's (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi.But Ford, which already targets premium buyers with higher-end versions of some of its larger cars under the Vignale label, now wants to take further advantage of

By Ahmad Ghaddar and Vladimir Soldatkin | VIENNA VIENNA Iran and Iraq are resisting pressure from Saudi Arabia to curtail oil production, making it hard for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reach a deal to limit output and boost the price of crude when it meets on Wednesday.OPEC sources told Reuters a meeting of experts in Vienna on

By Lawrence Delevingne | NEW YORK NEW YORK At least four U.S. agencies are investigating former officials of a now-bankrupt oil and gas company once majority owned by troubled hedge fund manager Platinum Partners, according to a legal filing submitted last week.In a motion filed with federal bankruptcy court on Nov. 23, a group of 10 directors, officers and employees of

By Pamela Barbaglia and Anjuli Davies | LONDON LONDON U.S. healthcare company Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) is raising its offer for Swiss biotech group Actelion (ATLN.S) in an attempt to win it over for a buyout, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.Actelion shares closed up 10 percent at 209 Swiss francs, rebounding from negative territory.The source said Johnson

By Alexander Winning | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russia's former Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev privately argued to colleagues in government that the state should give up control over oil giant Rosneft, before he was arrested two weeks ago in a sting inside the company's offices, according to two sources. A source familiar with Ulyukayev's thinking, speaking before Ulyukayev was arrested

By Christopher Johnson | LONDON LONDON Oil prices slipped on Tuesday on signs that leading oil exporters were struggling to agree a deal to cut production to reduce global oversupply.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Vienna on Wednesday aiming to implement an agreement outlined in September to cut output by around 1 million barrels per day (bpd),

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SYDNEY Three of Australia's four biggest banks will be barred from collectively bargaining with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) in relation to its mobile digital payments system, under a draft decision released by the antitrust regulator on Tuesday.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said letting banks collectively offer their own integrated digital wallets in Apple iPhones, in competition with Apple's Apple Pay system, would reduce each bank's ability to negotiate with the U.S. firm."While the ACCC accepts that the opportunity for the

By Nandita Bose and Sayantani Ghosh U.S. shoppers snapped up Cyber Monday deals on what is usually the single biggest day for internet shopping, after stellar online sales over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.Sales on Cyber Monday were expected to finish up 9.4 percent at $3.36 billion compared with last year, according to Adobe Digital Insights. As of 10 a.m. EST on

Time Inc (TIME.N), the publisher of Time, People and Fortune magazines, has rejected a takeover bid from billionaire investor Edgar Bronfman Jr., the New York Post reported on Monday.Bronfman offered $18 per share, the Post reported, representing a premium of 30.4 percent to Time Inc's Friday close and valuing the publisher at $1.78 billion. Time Inc's shares jumped 18 percent to $16.05 on Monday.Bronfman, who is a managing partner of private equity firm Accretive LLC, made the bid along with

SEOUL South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) will consider splitting itself into two as proposed by U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management, Seoul Economic Daily reported on Monday citing an unnamed source.A split would allow the heirs of the founding Lee family to strengthen their grip on the global smartphone leader, the crown jewel of the Samsung Group business empire. Elliott proposed a split in October to boost shareholder value. Samsung's board of directors will meet on

TOKYO Oil prices tumbled on Monday on fears that producer countries may fail to agree an output cut, pressuring U.S. stocks and the dollar as traders reversed their "Trumpflation" trade as weak oil prices would reduce pressure on U.S. interest rates to rise.That gave some relief to Asian shares, which had underperformed on worries about capital flight to higher-yielding U.S markets in the weeks since Donald Trump's Nov.8 election win.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.5

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices fell over 1 percent on Monday, extending declines from last Friday as doubts re-emerged over the ability of major producers to cut output at a planned meeting on Wednesday aimed at reining in global oversupply.Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $46.40 per barrel at 0035 GMT (7.35 a.m. ET), down 84 cents,

By Tom Westbrook | SYDNEY SYDNEY The ability of Australian telecoms company Telstra Corporation (TLS.AX) to offset the fall in its traditional revenue streams by diversifying into a range of technology and other businesses is in doubt. So far, Telstra's funding of 44 startups since 2013, the A$235 million ($175 million) spent acquiring 18 health-related companies, the purchase of more than

FRANKFURT German pilots union VC said on Sunday it was open to further talks with Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) to try to find a compromise over a long-running pay dispute that caused a four-day strike last week, adding the airline needed to present a new offer."It will become clear in the course of the day how the dispute will continue," a spokesman for VC told Reuters.Lufthansa said earlier that all flights would start on schedule on Monday, Nov. 28, as there had

By Edward Taylor and Jan Schwartz | FRANKFURT/HAMBURG FRANKFURT/HAMBURG Just as Porsche and Audi have fought for supremacy on the race track, the Volkswagen brands are now locked in a cut-throat battle to develop and manufacture the next generation of electric cars at a group embroiled in the "Dieselgate" scandal.Volkswagen Group denies that the kind of internal rivalry that it encouraged

Payday lenders asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., for emergency relief to stop what they called a coordinated effort by U.S. regulators to stop banks from doing business with them, threatening their survival.In Wednesday night filings, the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA) and payday lender Advance America, Cash Advance Centers Inc said a preliminary injunction was needed to end the "back-room campaign" of coercion by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the Office of

AMSTERDAM Royal Dutch Shell expects to pump out all the fossil fuel reserves listed on its balance sheet, its chief executive said, dismissing concerns that production limits in the wake of the Paris climate accord could hit the energy giant's valuation.In an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, Ben van Beurden said the issue of "stranded" reserves - deposits in the ground that cannot be used because of carbon emissions limitations - would have no impact on balance sheets."The

Sales and traffic at U.S. brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday declined from last year, as stores offered discounts well beyond the weekend and more customers shopped online.Internet sales rose in the double digits on both days, surpassing $3 billion for the first time on Black Friday, according to data released on Saturday. Data from analytics firm RetailNext showed net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 5.0 percent over the two days, while the number of transactions

By Noel Randewich | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Wall Street expects consumers to open their wallets a little wider this holiday shopping season but bargains among red-hot retail stocks could be hard to find, especially as profit growth proves elusive for many big names.Retailers, including Best Buy, Kohls Corp and Macy's, that were pummeled in last year's disappointing holiday quarter have

FRANKFURT Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa said it will cancel some flights on Sunday even though its pilots have ruled out strikes that day following a four-day walkout that started on Wednesday."Flight ops should proceed according to schedule on Sunday. Due to the strikes on the preceding days, there may still be a few cancellations," the company said via Twitter and email, asking customers to check the status of their flights.A Lufthansa spokesman said the airline would be able to give