Category: Business

By Corina Pons and Eyanir Chinea | CARACAS CARACAS Multinational companies are selling their Venezuelan operations at hefty discounts - or even giving them away - as they to seek to escape the OPEC nation's soaring inflation and chronic supply shortages.Six firms, including General Mills and oil producer Harvest Natural Resources, have sold operations for as little as half their assessed

SINGAPORE Oil prices rose around 2 percent on Tuesday to move away from multi-month lows struck the day before, pushed higher by expectations of falling shale output and renewed optimism that OPEC will deliver on touted production cuts. U.S. crude futures for December delivery CLc1 had climbed 90 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $44.22 a barrel by 0340 GMT. They struck their lowest in nearly two months the session before.January Brent futures LCOc1 were up 81 cents, or 1.9 percent, at

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is considering expanding into wearable glass headsets and has talked about the project with potential suppliers, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.The wearable headset would show images, along with other information and may use augmented reality, according to the report. Chief Executive Tim Cook, who has been struggling with a slowdown in iPhone sales in recent quarters, said earlier this year that the company would continue to invest a lot into augmented reality.Apple, the world's

By Ann Saphir | WICHITA FALLS, Tex. WICHITA FALLS, Tex. Markets are betting heavily that the man Americans last week elected as their next president will enact fiscal and other policies that will boost U.S. growth and inflation, but at least one U.S. central banker is pushing back. Since Republican Donald Trump was elected U.S. president last week, the 10-year Treasury

NEW YORK A measure of U.S. inflation expectations held mostly steady at low levels in October, with only some momentum higher, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey taken before Americans voted in this month's presidential election.The survey of consumer expectations, an increasingly influential gauge of prices for the U.S. central bank, found that inflation is expected to be identical one and three years into the future, according to the median.It found that year-ahead inflation expectations edged

By Elias Glenn and Kevin Yao | BEIJING BEIJING China's economy largely showed further signs of steadying in October as expected, but disappointing retail sales growth and fears of U.S. trade frictions under incoming President Donald Trump are increasingly clouding the outlook.Fixed-asset investment quickened slightly and beat expectations in January-October as the government stepped up infrastructure spending to support growth, official

By David Morgan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON With a bitter election campaign finally over, the Congress will reconvene this week to try to set aside its partisan differences long enough to keep the government from closing.As President-elect Donald Trump shapes his administration, Republicans are expected to move away from initial plans for compromise funding legislation and opt instead for a short-term measure

By Jessica DiNapoli | NEW YORK NEW YORK American Apparel LLC filed for its second bankruptcy protection in just over a year on Monday, weighed down by intense competitive pressures facing U.S. teen retailers and a rocky relationship with its founder.The second bankruptcy comes as the retailer struggles to overcome years of losses and rising online competition. The company became a

BEIJING Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi premium brand is in talks with China's largest automaker, SAIC Motor, on a potential long-term collaboration, Audi said in a statement on Monday.Reuters reported on Saturday, citing a source familiar with the matter, that the two had signed an agreement that could pave the way for Volkswagen's joint venture with SAIC to make Audi brand cars.

By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO The dollar rose to a nine-month high against a basket of major peers early on Monday, as a risk-on mood in global markets triggered by Donald Trump's election to president remained firmly intact.The dollar index .DXY was up 0.4 percent at 99.428 after touching 99.445, its highest since Feb. 1.The greenback has strengthened as expectations

SYDNEY The U.S. dollar touched a nine-month peak in Asia on Monday as the risk of faster domestic inflation and wider budget deficits sent Treasury yields ever higher, a painful mix for assets in many emerging market countries.The dollar bounded above 107 yen in brisk morning trade to hit 107.37 JPY=, while the euro touched its lowest since January around $1.0773 EUR=. It also made a nine-month high against a basket of currencies .DXY.The dollar has been on a tear

By Richard Leong and Jennifer Ablan | NEW YORK NEW YORK Donald Trump's stunning victory for the White House may mark the long-awaited end to the more than 30-year-old bull run in bonds, as bets on faster U.S. growth and inflation lead investors to favor stocks over bonds.A two-day thumping wiped out more than $1 trillion across global bond markets worldwide,

MILAN The board of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) will meet on Monday to set the terms for a bond-to-equity conversion that is part of the lender's capital boosting plans, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.Italy's third-biggest bank is planning to lay off a tenth of its staff, shut branches and sell assets to win investor backing for a 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) cash call, its third recapitalization in as many years. To help

By Patrick Rucker and Lisa Lambert | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. officials are striving to put finishing touches on a slew of banking rules before President Barack Obama leaves office and hands regulatory power to Donald Trump who has vowed to rewrite the existing financial rule book.President-elect Trump will take over on Jan. 20 and his fellow Republicans will have control of

By William Schomberg | LONDON LONDON Five months to the day after Britain voted for Brexit, its finance minister will outline how the government plans to cope with the economic fallout and voters' frustrations which had echoes in Donald Trump's U.S. election triumph.Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is due on Nov. 23 to announce spending and tax plans until

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) has agreed to a settlement of up to $3.4 billion for a federal class action brought by U.S. owners of pickup trucks and SUVs whose frames could rust through, plaintiffs lawyers have said in court papers.The proposed settlement covers about 1.5 million Tacoma compact pickups, Tundra full-size pickups and Sequoia SUVs alleged to have received inadequate rust protection that could lead to corrosion serious enough to jeopardize their structural integrity, according to court papers.Attorneys for the

GREENSBORO, United States Honda Motor Co (7267.T) expects to ramp up production of business jets as part of its plan to expand in the growing industry, the head of the Japanese automaker's aircraft operations said in the United States.The firm hoped to produce 80 business jets annually by March 2019, from up to 36 currently, Honda Aircraft Company CEO Michimasa Fujino told reporters at its plant in Greensboro, North Carolina."By the end of the 2018 financial year (in March 2019),

BERLIN A U.S. government regulator has started investigating Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi brand over a reported discovery of a new cheat software device at the luxury carmaker, Bild am Sonntag reported, without citing the source of the information.The German weekly paper said a week ago that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) had this summer discovered cheating software in an automatic transmission Audi which is unrelated to the device that triggered last year's diesel emissions test-cheating scandal at parent VW.The software

Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) shares posted one of their best weeks in years, soaring 9.5 percent and touching a record high, even though Chairman Warren Buffett's choice for the White House, Hillary Clinton, was defeated by Donald Trump.The conglomerate's Class A shares closed on Friday up $1,110 at $234,860, a day after surpassing their record set in December 2014. Its Class B shares did even better, rising 9.8 percent.Berkshire's gains trounced the 3.8 percent increase this week in the Standard

SAO PAULO The Brazilian unit of Ford Motor Co (F.N) plans to resume 24-hour production at its Camaçari, Bahia, plant, in a sign of optimism with Brazil's economic recovery, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said on Saturday. About 400 workers who have been suspended since March, when Ford paralyzed the unit's third shift, will return to the production lines, Estado said.Lyle Watters, Ford's chief executive for South America, told Estado that Camaçari's third shift will resume

BEIJING China is greatly concerned about the European Union's protectionist measures against Chinese steel products, the commerce ministry said on Saturday."The Chinese side has expressed great concerns and worries about the EU's trade protectionist tendency over steel," the ministry said in a statement on its website.The ministry was responding to the EU's latest decision to take temporary anti-dumping measures against imports of Chinese seamless steel pipes, based on preliminary investigations, it said.

By Catherine Cadell | SHENZHEN, China SHENZHEN, China Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) Singles' Day festival posted a record 120.7 billion yuan ($17.73 billion) worth of sales on Friday, though the gala shopping day saw growth slow as Chinese shoppers searched for deeper discounts and lower pricetags.Amid fanfare and celebrity razzmatazz, sales on Alibaba's platforms had raced to a billion dollars

By Sumanta Dey | BENGALURU BENGALURU After Donald Trump's unexpected victory in the U.S. presidential election, investors may refocus in the coming week on the health of the world economy and any signs that years of rock-bottom interest rates and fiscal austerity are coming to an end.Trump's victory poses a major challenge to the conventional wisdom on the global economy, which

By Sinead Carew | NEW YORK NEW YORK The U.S. banking sector's dramatic rally post Election Day is likely just a taste of bigger gains to come, as investors expect banks to reap huge benefits from rising interest rates and lighter regulation under a Donald Trump presidency.In recent years, bank stocks have been held back by heavy regulation and historically low

Saudi Arabia’s government has set aside 100 billion riyals ($26.7 billion) to pay debts that it owes to private sector companies after payment delays that have lasted months, Reuters reported citing an official document.To help curb a huge budget deficit caused by low oil prices, the government of the world’s largest oil exporter has slashed spending and reduced or suspended payments that it owes to construction firms, medical establishments and even some of the foreign consultants who helped to design its

By Heather Somerville | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO The fledgling drone industry is in the throes of change as weak consumer demand and falling prices drive startups to shift their focus to specialized business applications.3D Robotics - an early drone startup that raised more than$125 million from investors - has seen its consumer business all but crash. This week, it unveiled

J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) reported a 0.8 percent fall in quarterly comparable store sales on Friday, reflecting weak store traffic, increased price competition from online and off-price retailers and a general shift away from spending on apparel.Analysts on average had expected Penney's same-store sales to increase 2.7 percent in the quarter, according to research firm Consensus Metrix. Penney's net loss narrowed to $67 million, or 22 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Oct. 29, compared with a

By Yashaswini Swamynathan U.S. stock index futures fell sharply on Friday as investors tailored their portfolios to benefit from president-elect Donald Trump's proposed policies. The decline on Nasdaq futures was more pronounced. Facebook (FB.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Netflix (NFLX.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) were off more than 1 percent in premarket trading, indicating that Thursday's selloff in the technology sector was likely to

By David Randall | NEW YORK NEW YORK Donald Trump's surprise victory in the U.S. presidential race is pushing mutual fund managers out of dividend stocks and into the shares of financial, industrial and materials companies that stand to benefit from rising inflation. Although inflation remains subdued by most measures, U.S. longer-dated Treasury yields rose on Thursday to their highest levels

MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday there was a risk this year's federal budget deficit could slightly exceed 3.7 percent of gross domestic product.Putin told a meeting with government officials on the economy that it would not be a disaster if the deficit were to hit 3.8-3.9 percent of GDP, but that Russia should aim for a level of 3.7 percent of

By Vladimir Soldatkin | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russia's top oil producer Rosneft reported strong cashflow on Friday, strengthening its position for a continuing acquisition drive despite a worse than expected 77 percent decline in third-quarter net profit.Rosneft, which bought a controlling stake in mid-sized oil company Bashneft for 323 billion rubles ($4.9 billion) last month, has been looking for ways to increase

MUMBAI Tata Motors (TAMO.NS) said on Friday that Tata Sons has called for an extraordinary general meeting to oust two directors, Cyrus Mistry and Nusli Wadia, from the automaker's board, as the nasty spat between the Tata and Mistry camps escalates. In a securities filing, Tata Motors said top shareholder Tata Sons, which controls a 26.51 percent stake in the automaker that owns luxury brand Jaguar Land Rover [TAMOJL.UL], sent in a requisition calling for a special meeting. Details of

LONDON A "hard" Brexit in which Britain loses its free access to the European Union market now looks like the most likely outcome of the country's plan to leave the bloc, ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Friday.Britain will suffer the brunt of the economic impact of Brexit and the effects on the world economy will be more limited, S&P said in its latest update on Britain's economy.S&P cut Britain's top-notch AAA credit rating by two places to AA

|By Arabian Post Staff| The UAE has started the process of staffing the Federal Tax Authority, which will be responsible for the implementation of the proposed federal tax system, beginning with the introduction of VAT.The Ministry of Finance is scouting around for a Compliance and Enforcement Director, who will help maximise Federal tax revenues through the development and implementation of compliance and enforcement strategies.Deloitte LLP is advising the Ministry of Finance on the structure and enforcement mechanism of the new