Category: Business

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

FRANKFURT German trains-to-turbines group Siemens is well placed to do business in the United States, regardless of whether President-elect Donald Trump backs fossil-fuels at the expense of renewable energy, its CEO told a newspaper."The good thing is that we can offer everything. Steam power plants that are powered by coal, state-of-the-art gas-fired power plants, wind energy, we can build solar parks and the necessary link to the power grid," Joe Kaeser told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) in an interview.Siemens employs

By Kirstin Ridley | LONDON LONDON Three former Barclays (BARC.L) traders jailed for manipulating Libor benchmark interest rates after a London trial have been denied a request to appeal against their conviction and sentence, the wife of one said on Friday.Julie Pabon said her husband, Alex, and former colleagues Jay Merchant and Jonathan Mathew were recently notified that their requests had

By Sam Forgione | NEW YORK NEW YORK Key stock indexes on Wall Street swept to record intraday and closing highs on Black Friday thanks to gains in consumer staple and technology shares, while European stocks climbed and a stabilization in U.S. Treasury yields promoted investors to sell the dollar. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes, as well as the

By Paul Arnold and Ludwig Burger | ZURICH/FRANKFURT ZURICH/FRANKFURT U.S. healthcare company Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) said on Friday it was in preliminary talks with Actelion (ATLN.S) about a potential takeover of Europe's largest biotech firm, currently valued at about $20 billion. Lung disease specialist Actelion confirmed it had been approached and said there was no certainty a deal would occur.An

By Nandita Bose and Siddharth Cavale Crowds were thin at U.S. malls and stores on Black Friday morning, formerly the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, and online channels were expected to show the strongest gains in sales over last year.Consumers' greater interest in shopping online was reflected in glitches for the Macy's Inc website, which was overwhelmed and

By Francesca Landini and Stephen Jewkes | MILAN MILAN France's Amundi has submitted the highest offer to buy Italian UniCredit's asset manager, Pioneer, while a consortium led by Poste Italiane and Ameriprise Financial are scrambling to stay in the race, three sources close to the matter said on Friday.Two of the sources also said that Australia's Macquarie (MQG.AX) was practically out

BOSTON Activist shareholders plan a record number of resolutions focused on climate change at U.S. company annual meetings in 2017, even as President-elect Donald Trump looks set to loosen environmental regulations.Based on filings so far, U.S. companies are on track to face roughly 200 resolutions on climate matters at their shareholder meetings next year, according to Rob Berridge, who follows the subject for Ceres, a sustainability advocacy group. There were 174 such resolutions this year, Berridge said, compared with 167

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices fell over 1 percent on Friday, dragged by a strong dollar, rising Saudi supplies to Asian clients, and a fall in Chinese imports.Brent crude futures were trading at $48.42 at 0753 GMT, down 58 cents, or 1.2 percent, from their last close, although overall activity was thin after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and

By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks advanced on Friday as the Thanksgiving break in the United States helped slow a relentless surge in the dollar that has sucked capital out of most emerging markets. The respite for Asian assets may be short-lived, however, with U.S. Treasury yields resuming their climb after the holiday as investors bet

By Tim Hepher and Johanna Decosse | TOULOUSE, France TOULOUSE, France Europe's largest twin-engined passenger jet, the Airbus (AIR.PA) A350-1000, took to the skies for the first time on Thursday, seeking to grab the spotlight from Boeing's popular 777.The lightweight carbon-fiber plane, 7 meters longer and able to carry 40 more people than A350s already in service, began a three-hour debut

U.S. healthcare company Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) has approached Swiss biotechnology firm Actelion Ltd (ATLN.S) about a potential takeover, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people it said were familiar with the matter.The report said that deliberations are still at an early stage following Johnson & Johnson's initial offer, and Actelion is working with an adviser to explore options. Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Alex Gorsky said earlier this year that the company was interested in making deals to expand its

By Stanley Carvalho and Agnieszka Flak | ABU DHABI/MILAN ABU DHABI/MILAN Alitalia could cut up to 2,000 jobs as controlling shareholder Etihad Airways pushes for sweeping changes to turn the loss-making airline around, according to sources close to the matter.The Italian carrier may also ground at least 20 planes to cut certain unprofitable routes on domestic and regional services where it

CASSINO, Italy Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) (FCHA.MI) will add as many as 2,000 new jobs at its Alfa Romeo Cassino plant in Italy by 2018, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Thursday.Speaking at a conference at the factory, Renzi said there were 4,300 workers at Cassino at present, but added that the number would rise to up to 6,300 over the next 18 to

By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Most Asian stock markets fell on Thursday as upbeat economic data strengthened the prospect for higher U.S. interest rates, while the dollar's bull run continued with U.S. bond yields propelled to multi-year highs.Japanese stocks swam against the tide and rose to a near 11-month high as the yen weakened. Spreadbetters saw a mixed opening for

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices were little changed on Thursday as uncertainty ahead of a planned OPEC-led crude production cut and thin liquidity due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday kept traders from making big new bets on markets.International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were trading at $49.00 at 0403 GMT, up 5 cents from their last close.U.S. West

LONDON Britain made fewer cars last month for the first time in more than a year, driven by slower domestic demand and prompting the industry's lobby group to renew its call for the government to maintain free trade as Britain leaves the European Union. Overall output fell by an annual 1 percent to 151,795 units in October, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said on Thursday, although year-to-date volumes remain on course to beat the ten-year high achieved

By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON New orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods rebounded in October, driven by rising demand for machinery and a range of other equipment, the latest indication of an acceleration in economic growth early in the fourth quarter. The brightening economic outlook received a further boost from other data on Wednesday showing a jump in consumer sentiment

U.S. crude oil stocks fell last week after three straight weeks of builds as imports dropped and refineries hiked output, while gasoline inventories rose sharply amid weak demand, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday.Crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell 1.3 million barrels in the week to Nov. 18, compared with expectations for an increase of 671,000 barrels. Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for crude futures USOICC=ECI fell 87,000 barrels, the EIA said.Crude oil prices were relatively steady after

By Bernie Woodall | DETROIT DETROIT Automakers in the United States are ramping up holiday sales promotions ahead of Black Friday, aiming to clear out bulging inventories of unsold cars and dispel investor doubts about consumer demand.Detroit automakers need a strong year-end sales push. They are sitting on hefty inventories of unsold sedans, compact cars and sports cars as consumers shift

BERLIN Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) pilots in Germany began a two-day strike on Wednesday, grounding hundreds of flights at one of Europe's largest carriers in a bid to increase pressure on management in a long-running pay dispute. The pilot's union initially called a walkout for 24 hours for Wednesday, but after two courts rejected attempts by Lufthansa to halt the strike, the union extended the strike for a further 24 hours until Friday. The strike is the 14th to hit the airline

WASHINGTON A U.S. banking regulator is considering whether to harden sanctions against lenders that abuse their clients or violate banking laws, according to a draft plan, seen by Reuters, that was drawn up in the wake of a scandal at Wells Fargo.Wells Fargo in September agreed to pay $190 million to settle charges that bank employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers' knowledge. The fraud went on for at least five years, said the San Francisco-based bank

SYDNEY Asian stocks crept to one-week highs on Wednesday as investors tried to share in the exuberance of Wall Street, where the three main indices seized record peaks for a second straight session.Australia's main index led the early action with a rise of 0.5 percent to a one-month top, helped by strength in bulk commodity prices.Japan's Nikkei .N225 was closed for a holiday after enjoying a five-session winning streak that took it to the highest finish since January.MSCI's broadest

By Caroline Valetkevitch | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. stocks edged higher in afternoon trading on Tuesday, pushing the Dow above the 19,000 level and the S&P 500 above 2,200, though a fall in healthcare stocks weighed on the market.All three indexes along with the small-cap Russell 2000 index again hit intraday record highs, a day after all four indexes

Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR.O), the biggest U.S. dollar-store chain after its acquisition of Family Dollar in 2015, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by lower merchandise costs and freight expenses.Shares of the company, whose same-store sales also beat expectations, jumped as much as 11.5 percent.Dollar-stores such as Dollar Tree and Dollar General Corp (DG.N) have been expanding aggressively in recent years, taking market share from Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and other retailers, thanks to their smaller store sizes,

Soft-drinks maker Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc (DPS.N) said it would buy Bai Brands LLC, a maker of antioxidant beverages, for $1.7 billion in cash.The purchase price includes a tax benefit of about $400 million on a net present value basis, Dr Pepper Snapple said on Tuesday.Dr Pepper Snapple bought a minority stake in Bai last year and is one of the company's "Allied Brands," which are healthy-drinks companies that it distributes through its network.

By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices rose to their highest level since October on Tuesday as the market priced in an expected output cut led by producer cartel OPEC, but analysts warned that a failure to agree on a cut could lead to a deepening supply glut by early 2017.International Brent crude oil futures rose as high as $49.63

By Saikat Chatterjee | HONG KONG HONG KONG Asian stocks struck one-week highs with investors undeterred by a powerful earthquake in Japan on Tuesday, but after Wall Street closed at a record peak they were also wary of chasing prices higher until President-elect Donald Trump picks his economic team.Crude oil extended gains in Asian trading with U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)