Christine Lagarde was found guilty of negligence in public office by a special Paris court on Monday in a ruling that will cast a cloud over her position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Within hours, however, the former French finance minister won the support of her board, clearing the way for her to continue on at the head of the fund. The board’s decision came […]
By Renita D. Young | CHICAGO CHICAGO In a word, 2016 was “surreal.” Surreal, meaning “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream” was looked up so much by online users that Merriam-Webster on Monday dubbed it the 2016 word of the year. Surreal joined the Oxford English Dictionary’s “post-truth” and Dictionary.com’s “xenophobia” as top words of the year. “Our word of the year is one […]
By Roberta Rampton and Eric M. Johnson | WASHINGTON/SEATTLE WASHINGTON/SEATTLE At least five Democrats who had been committed to back Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Electoral College cast ballots for other people on Monday, the largest number of “faithless electors” seen in well over a century. The 538 electors were voting across the country to confirm Republican Donald Trump as the next president. The event is normally […]
Our annual collection of media corrections is, undoubtedly, an excuse to chuckle at our industry’s missteps. But it’s also a recognition of an honorable practice that not everyone follows. Outlets that mark their corrected articles clearly or collect them in one easily searchable section (for example, The Guardian) may be over-represented in this list, but they should be commended. A note on selection: This is a list of media […]
U.S. stocks were higher on Monday in light trading, with the three major indexes hovering near record levels, driven by a rise in technology shares. The S&P technology index .SPLRCT rose 0.94 percent, leading the 11 major sectors. Microsoft (MSFT.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Apple (AAPL.O) were up between 1-1.8 percent, providing the biggest boost to the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. “Traditionally, as you head into the […]
VIENNA Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) offered on Monday to act as a go-between for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after signing a cooperation agreement with Putin’s party. Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache and the FPO’s recently defeated presidential candidate Norbert Hofer attended the signing ceremony in Moscow, as did officials of Putin’s United Russia party including Pyotr Tolstoy, a deputy chairman of the […]
WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Virtu Financial founder Vincent Viola as secretary of the Army, the Trump transition team said on Monday. Viola is a West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran who has founded companies, including the high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial. He is a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career, and is a leader […]
About nine months before George W. Bush became president I, along with about 70 others, were asked to join an independent tech advisory board to help Bush, then governor of Texas, understand the role of tech in the new decade and help craft a tech policy should he become president. Our first meeting took place in Austin, and from that came various subcommittees to research […]
Lennar Corp (LEN.N), the No. 2 U.S. homebuilder, reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue and said the housing market continued to make a “slow and steady recovery.” An improving job market and attractive mortgage rates continue to fuel demand for housing in the United States, helping homebuilders such as Lennar and PulteGroup Inc (PHM.N). U.S. home prices are set to rise almost 5 percent next year, despite […]
By Letitia Stein | ATLANTA ATLANTA Inside a sunny classroom at a church decorated with rainbow flags, two transgender teenagers exploded into giggles during a dance break from math at Pride School Atlanta. They are among a handful of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) youth who have found a haven at the school, which opened this fall at a time when the number of discrimination complaints […]
If you are an emerging market investor, things at least look a little rosier than they did 12 months ago. Then sentiment was souring thanks to doubts about China’s economy, a slumping oil price and plenty of political upheaval. There is, of course, much to concern the EM universe going into 2017, notably a rising dollar, the prospect of higher interest rates in the US and president-elect […]
TOKYO Asian shares slipped to four-week lows on Monday as the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates and a strong dollar stemming from the incoming Trump Administration’s purported policies of cutting taxes and spending heavily threatened to suck capital out of emerging markets. European shares are seen having better luck, following recent gains in shares of banks, resource companies and some automakers. Spread-betters see a rise of […]
As Trump prepares for his presidential inauguration, the connections to Russia of people who will likely serve in his administration have come under scrutiny. In 2013, Vladimir Putin awarded Tillerson with the Order of Friendship, a state decoration for foreigners whose work improves their countries’ relations with Moscow. “I don’t know what Mr. Tillerson’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I’ll tell you it is a matter of […]
With Tesla’s success and financial muscle, its CEO Elon Musk is free to explore new ventures such as his SpaceX and the solar roof project he has just unveiled. His latest interest seems to have zoomed in on tunnels. Musk vs. Traffic This came after an exasperated Musk posted at Twitter that the traffic is driving him nuts so he is going to build a machine that will bore […]
By Ben Blanchard | BEIJING BEIJING An underwater drone taken by a Chinese naval vessel in the South China Sea last week is part of U.S. surveillance efforts in the disputed waterway, but Beijing won’t likely make a big fuss about its handover, Chinese state media and experts said. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to take a more aggressive approach in dealing with China over […]
On Saturday morning, the Pentagon was eager to announce that China would return a U.S. Navy underwater drone after its military scooped up the submersible in the South China Sea late this week and sparked a row that drew in President-elect Donald Trump. As previously reported, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that “through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will […]
LONDON Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage said on Sunday he wanted to be a bridge between the British government and the new U.S. administration. Last month U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Farage – the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) – would be great as Britain’s envoy to Washington, but the British government dismissed the suggestion. “I can help to be a bridge between […]
By Jeffrey Heller | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Settlers due to be evicted from an outpost in the occupied West Bank under an Israeli court order accepted a government-proposed deal on Sunday to head off a forced evacuation and confrontation with troops. The Supreme Court had ruled that the Amona outpost, where 330 settlers live, must be evacuated by Dec. 25. The court found that Amona was built illegally […]
A flagship of the settler enterprise, Amona, established 20 years ago, is testing how far Israel’s right-wing government is willing to go to protect the 100 or so outposts that were built without authorization across the West Bank. The case of Amona has also stretched the country’s democratic system, with right-wing politicians pushing to flout the 2014 Israeli Supreme Court order to demolish the outpost, and advancing […]
The Federal Reserve will wait six months before raising interest rates again, according to a survey of top economists that suggests policymakers will maintain a cautious approach to tightening policy until they see the economic package US president-elect Donald Trump has promised. Officials will raise the Fed’s key short-term rate just twice in 2017, starting with a move in June, an FT survey of 31 Wall Street […]
In his characteristic third-person style, One River Asset Management’s Chief Investment Officer Eric Peters takes on all-comers in his latest letter to investors; lamenting the rapidity of losses, juxtaposing Michelle Obama’s “hopeless” America with the US equity markets’ near-record “hope”, and denouncing the scourge of risk managers everywhere – central bankers… Hope all goes well… “No one has real risk on,” said the CIO, dizzy. “We’ve all […]
By David Morgan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A top aide to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said on Sunday it was an “open question” whether President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers colluded with Russia to hack into Democratic Party emails to try to sway the Nov. 8 election. Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said there was evidence that Trump associates had contact with a Russian intelligence official and the website Wikileaks […]
Iran has shown commitment to the deal on its nuclear programme agreed with world powers, the head of the United Nations atomic energy watchdog said on Sunday, following complaints by Tehran over what it calls a US violation of the accord. The White House said on Thursday that a bill extending US sanctions against Iran for 10 years would become law without President Barack Obama’s signature, adding […]
By Sarah N. Lynch | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff on Sunday played down the prospect that Trump would revisit Washington’s decades-old “one China” policy, even though he suggested as much a week ago. Since 1979, the United States has acknowledged Taiwan as part of “one China” but Trump prompted a diplomatic protest from Beijing after he accepted a congratulatory phone […]
