Nobody likes to admit going along with the consensus. It sounds better to be contrarian, and in markets there is far more money to be made when you latch on to an unpopular notion that turns out to be correct. That is how you get to buy things cheap. But sometimes the herd gets it right, even if it gets overexcited and “overshoots” its target. On balance, […]
TOKYO U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) over its Mexican-built cars, but the biggest risk from a punitive tariff would be for its compatriot Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), the largest automaker operating in the country. Trump has criticized U.S. companies like General Motors (G.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) which manufacture abroad, accusing them of costing U.S. jobs. On Thursday he took on […]
WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump called the controversy over Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential campaign a “political witchhunt” on Friday in an interview hours before he was to receive a U.S. intelligence briefing on the topic. “China, relatively recently, hacked 20 million government names,” Trump told the New York Times, referring to the Office of Personnel Management breach in 2014 and 2015. “How come nobody even talks […]
January 6, 2017 by: Adam Samson in New York US wage growth accelerated to the quickest pace since 2009 last month, underscoring rising inflationary pressure as President Barack Obama prepares to pass the torch to Donald Trump. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.4 per cent in December from the previous month, beating expectations for a 0.3 per cent pick-up, the Labor Department said in the final employment report […]
By Yashaswini Swamynathan U.S. stocks edged lower on Friday after data showed employment in December rose less than expected but a rebound in wages suggested sustained growth in the labor market. The public and private sectors together added 156,000 jobs last month, a U.S. Labor Department report showed, compared with 204,000 jobs added in November. Average hourly earnings increased 10 cents, or 0.4 percent, after slipping 0.1 […]
By Richard Balmforth | PARIS PARIS France’s far-right leader fired broadsides at the European Union and the euro currency on Friday, marking out Europe as a major plank in her programme as the battle lines took shape in the campaign for the presidential election in spring. Marine Le Pen, head of the anti-EU, anti-immigrant National Front (FN) and seen by pollsters as highly likely to make a […]
WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump criticized news stories on Friday that reported U.S. taxpayers would pay for his planned border wall with Mexico, saying they were failing to report that U.S. funds used to start the project would be repaid later by Mexico. “The dishonest media does not report than any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico […]
When Donald Trump comes to Washington on January 20, his YouTube supporters Diamond and Silk will be travelling to the capital with him. Then, they will turn round and go home. Over the course of the tycoon’s campaign, Diamond and Silk served as two of the president-elect’s biggest surrogates to the African-American community, talking him up on their hit video blogs, speaking alongside him at rallies and […]
Argentina is looking to sell up to $10bn of debt, taking advantage of calmer conditions across bond markets and a pullback in the US dollar. The year-old government of Mauricio Macri is just one of a host of other emerging markets, including Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, all racing to raise finance soon to mitigate risks stemming from the uncertainty over the direction of US policy, with […]
SEJONG, South Korea China is suspected to be taking indirect action against South Korea’s decision last year to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system, South Korea’s finance minister said. China worries that the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system’s powerful radar can penetrate its territory and it has objected to the deployment. South Korea and the United States say the missile system is aimed solely at […]
What with the Golden Globes, the Oscars, the Baftas and the host of other award ceremonies jamming up their calendars, it’s a wonder that the stars of stage, screen and television ever have time to act. Plus, as British comedian Ricky Gervais liked to point out on each of the four occasions he presented the annual Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles, watching the impossibly wealthy and […]
A prominent Republican lawmaker is taking another shot at tightening U.S. rules for high-skilled worker visas ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president later this month. Rep. Darrell Issa, one of the highest-profile Republicans in Congress and a supporter of Mr. Trump, said Wednesday in a statement on his website that he is reintroducing a bill designed to “stop the outsourcing of American jobs” and ensure laws are not […]
For the past 24 hours, Chicago media have been cautiously running gruesome video of four people tying up, cutting, beating and taunting a mentally disabled man while broadcasting the ordeal live on Facebook. The video is hard to watch. One of the captors slapped the victim repeatedly and used a knife to cut the victim’s clothing then cut a plug of his hair and scalp. While the […]
Donald Trump has turned his Twitter ire on Toyota, telling the Japanese carmaker that it will face heavy penalties if it chooses to make cars for the US market in Mexico. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax,” the President-elect wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The […]
With all eyes likely on wage growth indications in the subtext of tomorrow’s payrolls report (following The Fed Minutes’ comments on full employment), Goldman Sachs is forecasting a better-than-expected 0.3% rebound in average hourly earnings (helped by more favorable calendar effects) and a better-than-expected 180k payrolls print (albeit with a small rise in the unemployment rate). However, they are careful to note that any downside can be […]
By Mark Hosenball and Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON There is disagreement within President-elect Donald Trump’s camp about the structure of the top U.S. intelligence agency when he takes office and it is unclear whether his national security adviser will prevail in advocating a reorganization, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. At issue is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which Congress […]
Mexico’s central bank intervened in the foreign exchange markets to halt the peso’s record slide against the dollar but failed to provide anything more than temporary respite for its battered currency. The peso responded to the move, the first of its kind since the election of Donald Trump, with a 1.5 per cent rise against the dollar. Having tumbled to another all-time low of 21.61 pesos on […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump targeted Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Thursday, threatening to impose a hefty fee on the world’s largest automaker if it builds its Corolla cars for the U.S. market at a plant in Mexico. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday picked former U.S. Senator Dan Coats as his director of national intelligence, two senior transition officials said, as he puts his own stamp on a U.S. intelligence community that he frequently criticizes. The official announcement was expected this week as Trump makes decisions on some of the remaining major positions he must fill as he prepares […]
By Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded an ethics probe into Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. health secretary, following a report that the fierce Obamacare critic traded in healthcare company stocks while pushing legislation in Congress that could affect those shares. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others made their comments as congressional Republicans moved ahead with […]
It appears Newt Gingrich was right in his outrage at the hypocrisy surrounding the kidnapping and abuse of a mentally-ill white teen by four young black assailants. Despite the suspects shouting “fuck Donald Trump” and “fuck white people”, Chicago police said today that they do not believe the attack was motivated by race, more likely due to his “special needs.” As a reminder, this is what Gingrich, […]
After a near double-digit rally in US stocks since Donald Trump’s election victory, the question for investors is whether the outlook for corporate profits can begin to justify investors’ newfound optimism. Much of the rally has been underpinned by hopes that a Trump administration will boost corporate profits through lower corporate taxes, a more accommodative regulatory regime and a more confident US consumer. Corporate chief executives will […]
By Dustin Volz and Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The top U.S. intelligence official told Congress on Thursday he was “even more resolute” in his belief that Russia staged cyber attacks on Democrats in the 2016 election campaign, rebuking persistent scepticism from Republican President-elect Donald Trump about whether Moscow was involved. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he had a very high level of confidence that […]
Donald Trump remains opposed to AT&T Inc’s (T.N) planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), Bloomberg reported, citing people close to the president-elect. Trump, who has been silent about the transaction for months, told a friend in the last few weeks that he still considers the merger to be a bad deal, Bloomberg reported. (bloom.bg/2jfkJlx) He believed the deal would concentrate too much power in […]
