The shares of several competing food producers were under pressure on Friday after Kraft Heinz approached Unilever to propose a $143bn takeover. Mondelez, Kellogg, General Mills and Campbell Soup are all seen as potential buyout targets for Kraft, said Christopher Growe, analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “While this potential transaction does not count out a future acquisition of these businesses, it certainly delays the potential at least a […]
By Yashaswini Swamynathan U.S. stocks were set to open lower on Friday, after a record-setting few days on Wall Street, as investors await clarity on economic policy and ahead of a long weekend. The S&P 500 has risen about 5 percent so far in 2017, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 4 percent, mainly on signs of an improving economy and promises by President Donald Trump […]
The four major US stock benchmarks snapped their longest record setting streak since 1995 on Thursday. The S&P 500 closed 0.1 per cent lower at 2,347.22, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day little changed at 20,620.04. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.1 per cent to 5,814.90, while the Russell 2000, the benchmark index for US small cap stocks, fell 0.5 per cent to 1,397.18. […]
While the market itself has exhibited the exuberance we have all seen before (and never seem capable of learning from), BNP has quantified this love-panic relationship (and the news is not great for the bulls). When in ‘love’ mode, the average drop in stocks has been 12% in the next six months. The biggest drivers of this “love” have been investor confidence, CoT positioning, short-interest, relative trading […]
Sprint refuses to be left in the dust when it comes to all the new unlimited plan news. Getting in on the action, the carrier announced new improvements to its unlimited plan on Thursday in hopes to attract new customers. Calling it the “Best HD Plan Ever,” the new Sprint deal that will be available starting Friday includes unlimited talk, text and data, and HD video streaming […]
For a coking coal industry that enjoyed bumper profits last year off the back of a price rally that made it 2016’s best performing big commodity, Teck Resources’s chief executive summed up the industry’s uneasy reliance on policymakers in Beijing. “I think on Chinese policy, we could go around the table and everyone would have a different opinion on that one,” Don Lindsay told analysts after reporting […]
It is not just equities that are rebounding this month. The dollar is up almost 2 per cent against a basket of its peers as it resumes an upward path that most in the foreign exchange market believe is the natural consequence of the economic policies Donald Trump has vowed to deliver. Given the US president has suggested he prefers a weaker dollar, its fresh strength has […]
Thursday 05.10 GMT Overview The dollar was on the back foot in afternoon Asia trading on Thursday as US Treasuries steadied and oil prices found their footing after dipping on news of growing US stockpiles. Hot topic The dollar index tracking the greenback against a basket of peers was off as much as 0.3 per cent, as a rally spurred by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s […]
By David Shepardson and Jessica Toonkel Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) is close to a revised deal to buy Yahoo Inc’s (YHOO.O) core internet business for $250 million to $350 million less than the original agreed price of $4.83 billion, according to a source briefed on the matter. Since last year, Verizon had been trying to persuade Yahoo to amend the terms of the acquisition agreement to reflect […]
As central bankers seek to wean markets off quantitative easing and exit the dangerous experiment of negative rates, they increasingly fret about the resilience of credit markets. How worried should they be? The US Treasury’s Office for Financial Research, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have all issued warnings in their financial stability reports voicing concern over whether we might see fire sales that […]
SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, who has boasted of creating the “Berkshire Hathaway of tech”, has thrown himself into the world of private equity and hedge funds with a $3.3bn acquisition of US alternative asset manager Fortress Investment Group. The deal, which follows the Japanese group’s traditional focus on telecoms and internet, comes just as SoftBank is emerging as one of the world’s largest investors with the […]
On Valentine’s Day everyone is looking to celebrate love. But if you are a millennial, then you might have no problems breaking up and trading in a lover for the limelight. According to a study conducted by the social entertainment network Clapit, some millennials have no problem choosing fame over falling in love, getting married and having children. Clapit, the mobile-first platform that aims to helps users […]
Goldman Sachs shares shattered a 10-year record to reach a fresh closing high on Tuesday, buoyed by hopes that the Trump administration will bring a profit-boosting mix of higher interest rates, lower taxes and lighter regulation. All banks have rallied hard since November 8, when Mr Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House. But only a handful have done as well as Goldman, […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. producer prices recorded their largest gain in more than four years in January amid increases in the cost of energy products, but a strong dollar continued to keep underlying inflation at the factory gate tame. Rising raw material costs are boosting producer prices across the globe, notably in China, which is the biggest source of U.S. imports. But economists still […]
A striking feature of global financial markets since the crises of 2007 and 2008 has been the high propensity of many wealthy private investors to sit out all the turmoil, holding cash in bank accounts rather than in riskier assets. Might that be about to change? The word among bankers in conservative Switzerland — the world’s largest centre for cross-border private wealth management — is that it […]
US markets regulators have delayed enforcement of new derivatives rules due to come into effect in two weeks’ time because few of the hundreds of pension funds, insurers and asset managers affected would be ready in time. There were fears that the widespread lack of readiness to comply could have caused market disruption if they were enforced as planned on March 1. The rules require some derivatives […]
Donald Trump’s embrace of protectionism and opposition to multilateral trade deals has prompted EU leaders to ask how Europe might deepen ties with Asia as a way of bolstering global commerce and safeguarding export markets. Some officials have talked about Europe performing its own trade pivot to Asia as well as other emerging markets. But closer engagement, especially with China, at a time of global economic upheaval […]
Tuesday 04:40 GMT. Overview Equities in Asia were struggling ahead of comments by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and as oil prices climbed back from a drop spurred by a report indicating output from the US was set to pick up. Hot topic Stock markets in the region deteriorated in afternoon trading, with Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 flat after giving up an early gain of 0.4 per cent, […]
The value of stocks listed on the S&P 500 eclipsed $20tn on Monday for the first time, as investor optimism over faster US economic growth and stronger corporate profits propelled the Wall Street equity gauge deeper into record territory. The index, which tracks the largest American companies, has rallied by close to 25 per cent over the past year, pushing its market value $3.6tn higher, according to […]
Apple stock hit a new all-time high on Monday, driven by investor optimism about a coming iPhone sales “supercycle” and hopes that its $230bn in overseas cash might soon be put to greater use. It has taken two years for Apple to surpass its record closing price of $133 in February 2015, despite briefly breaking above that level during intraday trading at $134.54 in April of that […]
Optimism that the Trump administration is close to proposing a series of business-friendly tax reforms sent the main barometer for US small-cap stocks to a fresh high on Monday for the first time in more than two months. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks companies with market values of roughly $300m to $2bn, climbed as much as 0.7 per cent on Monday to 1,398.6, knocking out its […]
Top OPEC oil producer Saudi Arabia made a large cut in its crude output in January to support prices and lessen a glut, helping boost compliance with the group’s supply-reduction deal to a record high of more than 90 percent. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is curbing its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from Jan. 1. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC […]
Excerpted from today’s Blain’s Morning Porridge by Bill Blain of Mint Partners Over weekend drinks, dinners, very good lunches and rugby banter I was repeatedly told by my chums with real jobs in Industry, Services and Government how terrible this Trump fellow is turning out. It’s terribly liberal of us all to be illiberal about him. A couple of times I tried to respond in rational terms […]
The merger of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank will be official from April 1, with shares in the new company trading from the next day, it was announced on Monday. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange said that it had completed the procedures for the unification of the records of the stakeholders in both banks, state news agency WAM reported. The indicative market […]
