Business
Thu, 23 May 2013 21:09:58 -0400
Investors have grown nervous that the Federal Reserve will scale back its efforts to boost the U.S. economy sooner than many expected. Yet almost lost in the anxiety that gripped the stock market this ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 20:39:41 -0400
By Ian Chua SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares opened cautiously higher on Friday with Tokyo's Nikkei steadying from its biggest one-day drop in two years as investors breathed a sigh of relief when Wall Street cut losses on an upbeat outlook from Hewlett-Packard. As some semblance of calm returned to markets, the yen drifted lower against the dollar and euro, giving back some of the chunky gains made on Thursday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2 percent, having slumped more than 2 percent on Thursday in its largest one-day decline in 10 months. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 20:30:38 -0400
By Noel Randewich (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc's quarterly earnings and outlook disappointed investors as costs rise following a spree of acquisitions, sending its shares lower. Under Marc Benioff, Salesforce's CEO and founder, the company's fast revenue growth has made it a favorite with investors eager to own part of the growing trend among businesses to outsource their information technology needs - from servers to software, a phenomenon known as cloud computing. But Salesforce has struggled to earn consistent profits. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 20:03:46 -0400
By Ann Saphir SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The clearinghouse for all stock options said Thursday it will adopt a policy aimed at abolishing a dividend-linked trading strategy that critics say could destabilize markets if left unchecked. The change at Chicago-based OCC is likely to hurt market share at Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's biggest options venue, where nearly all of U.S. dividend-linked options trading takes place. "The new policy will likely result in a significant reduction in dividend plays," OCC said in a statement. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 19:58:44 -0400
(Reuters) - The chief executive of Royal Mail, Moya Greene, who is responsible for leading a turnaround of the business, is set to receive an annual bonus worth nearly 500,000 pounds, as the company readies itself for a stock market listing this year, Sky News reported. Royal Mail's remuneration committee has yet to sign off on the pay proposals for the 2012-13 financial year, but is expected to do so ahead of the release of the company's annual report, which will be published by the end of July, Sky News said on its website. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 18:25:27 -0400
MADRID (Reuters) - Small investors in shares of in Spain's nationalised lender Bankia suffered new massive losses on Thursday as the stock plunged by more than 50 percent amid an abnormally high volume of trading which the stock market regulator said would be looked at closely. Tens of thousands of small savers, who were often missold preference shares and hybrid debt in Bankia, swapped their investment for ordinary shares on Thursday at a an average discount of around 40 percent. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 18:04:59 -0400
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors recovered their poise after a shaky start to trading on Wall Street that sent stocks sharply lower.
Thu, 23 May 2013 17:53:31 -0400
UPS AND DOWNS: Stocks plunged at the opening of trading but recovered by midday. A rout overseas and in the early going on Wall Street was set off by a slowdown in China and worries that the Federal Reserve ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 17:38:49 -0400
Investors recovered their poise after a shaky start to trading on Wall Street that sent stocks sharply lower. The dip gave investors who missed this year's stock market surge an opportunity to get into ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 17:23:36 -0400
By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - All trades in American Electric Power Inc and NextEra Energy Inc in a crash that happened in the first minute of trading on Thursday will stand, the New York Stock Exchange said, following the latest in a flurry of unexplained sharp drops in the market. The stocks each dropped more than 50 percent in the first minute of trading, though ended just down slightly. The share drops were the latest such incidents for the market since the May 6, 2010, "flash crash," a computer-driven trading glitch that caused a sudden afternoon tumble in the major U.S. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 16:31:39 -0400
By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slipped on Thursday but finished sharply off their session lows as a rally in Hewlett-Packard's shares offset worries about weak Chinese manufacturing data and the prospects of the Federal Reserve reducing its monetary stimulus. Trading was choppy as many traders were adjusting their positions ahead of the long holiday weekend. Markets will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day. Hewlett-Packard shares jumped more than 17 percent to a fresh 52-week high a day after the world's largest PC maker raised its outlook. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 13:58:02 -0400
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors are seeking testimony from three senior executives of the $15 billion hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York issued subpoenas to SAC's president, chief compliance officer and head of trading, according to the Journal's report. Others at SAC, including the firm's founder Steven A. Cohen, were asked last week to testify before a grand as part of the U.S. government's insider trading probe of the hedge fund, Reuters has previously reported. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 11:54:20 -0400
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock prices are slightly lower at midday on Wall Street after manufacturing contracted unexpectedly in China this month.
Thu, 23 May 2013 09:50:48 -0400
NEW YORK (AP) — A global stock market slump is continuing on Wall Street as traders worry about how committed the Federal Reserve remains to keeping up its bond-buying program.
Thu, 23 May 2013 09:11:16 -0400
By David Randall NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - Japan's white-hot stock markethas investors crowding in, but there are a few reasons why youshouldn't follow the pack. It's a temptation, of course. The benchmark Nikkei 225 indexis up 50 percent for the year, more than any other developedmarket, and nearly triple the approximate 17 percent gain forthe Standard & Poor's 500 stock index through May 21. This streak prompted investors to put a net $9.1 billioninto Japan equity funds and exchange-traded funds in April. Infact, that's the bulk of the $9. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 09:06:51 -0400
NEW YORK (AP) — The momentum of a late sell-off on Wall Street carried over into a second day, sending U.S. futures and global stock markets into retreat.
Thu, 23 May 2013 07:18:50 -0400
By Shrikesh Laxmidas LISBON (Reuters) - Angola plans to open its much-delayed stock market in 2016 and could even bring it forward to 2015 if the bourse was used to privatise state-owned companies, the country's Capital Markets Commission (CMC) said on Thursday. A Luanda bourse, a potential entry point for foreigners, has been in the pipeline for more than a decade, but delays - most due to lack of transparency - have frustrated investors looking to tap into one of Africa's fastest-growing, but most impenetrable economies. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 05:50:34 -0400
By Stanley Carvalho and David French ABU DHABI, May 23 (Reuters) - An Abu Dhabi government-ownedholding company may sell its own shares or off-load a stake inone of its main businesses as part of plans to spur listings onthe local stock market, three sources familiar with the mattertold Reuters. General Holding Corp (Senaat), which has nearly $7 billionin assets, has approached banks with a proposal for a potentialshare listing. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates, andits neighbouring city state Dubai are leading a revival ofeconomic growth in the United Arab Emirates. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 05:38:41 -0400
By Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co raised its 2013 earnings outlook after quarterly results beat low expectations, as CEO Meg Whitman's turnaround plan helped offset shrinking personal computer sales with enterprise computing services. While fiscal second-quarter profit plummeted 32 percent, Wall Street had braced for worse. HP shares gained 14 percent after the company projected full-year earnings per share of $3.50 to $3.60, raising the lower end by 10 cents, and fiscal third-quarter profit that topped analyst estimates. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 03:12:43 -0400
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African investment bank and asset manager Investec reported an 18 percent rise in full-year profit on Thursday, boosted by strong income from fees and commissions. Investec, which is also listed in London, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 30 pence in the year to end-March, compared with 25.4 pence a year earlier. Headline EPS, the main measure of profit in South Africa, excludes certain one-time items. Fee and commissions rose 10 percent to 972. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 02:54:42 -0400
BOSTON (Reuters) - The average 401(k) retirement balance for U.S. workers hit a record high of $80,900 in the first quarter, a growth spurt of 75 percent since the stock market's nadir in March 2009, Fidelity Investments said on Thursday based on a survey of its accounts. Most of the recovery is linked to a stock market rally that has lifted the broad S&P 500 Index 145 percent since the close of trading on March 9, 2009. The 401(k) recovery looks even better for workers 55 and older, according to Boston-based Fidelity, the largest U.S. administrator of 401(k) retirement plans. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 02:37:44 -0400
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan lender I&M plans to list shares on the stock market by next month after it completed a merger with small investment company City Trust, I&M said on Wednesday. I&M and City Trust combined through a share swap and the new company, named I&M Holdings Limited, holds the assets of both banks. "The transaction ... provides us with the platform to raise additional capital in the future to facilitate the achievement of our long-term growth and expansion strategy," Arun Mathur, I&M Bank's chief executive, said in a statement. ...
Thu, 23 May 2013 01:15:55 -0400
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares in Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd jumped more than 4 percent after it reported a forecast-beating 90 percent rise in quarterly profit, its fastest in seven quarters. The stock rose as much as 4.3 percent in afternoon trade to HK$7.49 after it posted net profit of $126.9 million in the quarter ended in March, up from $66.8 million a year earlier, based on Reuters calculations using full-year and nine-month financial data. (Reporting By Christina Lo and Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
Wed, 22 May 2013 19:09:48 -0400
By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest decline in three weeks, after minutes from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed some officials were open to tapering large-scale asset purchases as early as at the June meeting. Trading was volatile - the Dow and the S&P indexes both rose more than 1 percent during the morning, but fell more than 1 percent in the afternoon. ...
Wed, 22 May 2013 17:20:14 -0400
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hewlett-Packard's slump is deepening as the world's largest personal computer maker scrambles to meet the growing demand for more versatile and less expensive mobile devices.
