LONDON (Reuters) – As major oil companies prepare to spend billions on renewable energy assets to stay relevant in a low-carbon future, the industry’s patchy track record on takeovers is a red flag for some investors. Ten years ago, the world’s top energy comp... More »
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s official interest rates and the average cost of servicing its public debt have never been lower, but investors are becoming worried that the government could face a funding crisis next year. The premium that investors demand to le... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s $6.2 billion foray into Japan’s five largest trading houses may signal billionaire Warren Buffett’s expectation that inflation and a falling U.S. dollar may make international equities more attractive when economie... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – BP (BP.L) will need to invest tens of billions of dollars over the next decade and may have to accept lower returns than it can get from oil if it is to meet its target of becoming one of the world’s largest renewable power generators. The B... More »
SHANGHAI/SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies Co [HWT.UL] will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of U.S. pressure on the Chinese tech giant grows. U.S. pressure on Huawei’s ... More »
BOSTON/CHICAGO, August 3 (Reuters) – A decline in U.S. Treasury yields over recent weeks has investors eyeing the approach of an unusual phenomenon – the entire U.S. yield curve sinking below 1%. Policymakers are looking to position the country to recover once... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The survival of J.C. Penney Co Inc hangs on whether the department store chain can reach a complex deal within days to sell itself to an alliance of retail mavens and distressed-debt investors. The 118-year-old retailer blew through a Frid... More »
CAIRO/LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) – The threat of conflict in Libya, water security worries and a flatlining tourist sector risk upending a nascent rally in Egyptian bonds, bankers and economists say. The North African country has attracted a wave of foreign invest... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A growth spurt in the balance sheets of the world’s biggest central banks has crested in recent weeks, drawing warnings from investors that any signs of backpedaling on stimulus will jolt financial markets and strangle economic recovery. The... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. equity funds that were able to best weather the global economic upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic this year are turning to healthcare, e-commerce and electric vehicle stocks as they look ahead to 2021. Few expect a quick economic... More »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s promise in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to flood the U.S. economy with trillions of dollars seemed like the proverbial central bank bazooka. It has been more of a trickle in practice, with activity outside the U.... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Changes to the composition of Germany’s top court are likely to make it less confrontational towards the European Central Bank following a ruling about bond purchases that sent shockwaves around Europe, according to two sources close to the ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – G7 government bonds? Check. Gold? Check. But that may not be enough as the coronavirus crisis accelerates a hunt for a wider pool of assets to better balance investment portfolios during stressful times. Corporate and Chinese government debt... More »
(The author is editor-at-large for finance and markets at Reuters News. Any views expressed here are his own) By Mike Dolan LONDON (Reuters) – Many households have built up a stash of savings during the coronavirus lockdowns of the past three months — and how ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The coronavirus crisis may have dealt a lethal blow to the idea that the euro could one day replace the dollar as the world’s preferred currency, by exposing euro zone frailties and cementing the U.S. Fed’s role as global lender of last reso... More »
TOKYO/FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After years of applying plenty of stick to commercial lenders unhappy with negative interest rate policies, central bankers in the euro zone and Japan are experimenting with some carrot, too. With the coronavirus pandemic... More »
NEW YORK/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Negative interest rates in the United States were once unimaginable. The coronavirus has changed that. While the Federal Reserve has all but ruled it out, the sweeping economic and financial-markets impact of the pandemic has for... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. Now, as major economies prepare green investments to kickstart growth, advocates spy a golden chance to drag the niche energy into the mainstream of a post-pandemic world.... More »
(Reuters) – Insurers are normally great with numbers. But the coronavirus pandemic has them struggling to estimate how many billions of dollars in losses they face, and what the fallout will be for their massive investment portfolios. Executives, lawyers and a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Like the myriad approaches governments are taking to tackle the coronavirus crisis, the way the world’s top banks are calculating their potential losses also differs widely, with puzzling outcomes for investors. These discrepancies are roote... More »
TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) – Before the coronavirus pandemic, Desi Marinov considered herself “apolitical.” The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, flight attendant didn’t even bother to vote in the 2016 presidential election. Losing her job due to lockdowns to curb the spre... More »
BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve has offered more than $3 trillion in loans and asset purchases in recent weeks to stop the U.S. financial system from seizing up, but it has not yet directly helped large swaths of the real economy: companies, ... More »
(Reuters) – A massive federal spending bill aimed at deflecting the economic harm caused by the spreading coronavirus does not address the billions of tax dollars U.S. states stand to lose as major parts of the nation have shut down. While the $2.2 trillion bi... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has a concrete reason for putting pressure on euro zone governments to finance the fight against coronavirus with joint debt — avoiding trouble with the courts. These common “coronabonds” ... More »
BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The havoc wrought by the coronavirus crisis could give investors leverage to put new limits on CEO pay packages and link them more closely to a range of social and environmental issues at companies’ annual meetings this spring. Execut... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With Bernie Sanders on the ropes in the race for the Democratic Party nomination, Joe Biden can turn his attention now to a November matchup against Republican Donald Trump, backed by momentum in states that decide U.S. presidential elec... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faced off on Sunday in what was possibly the final debate of the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating contest, with their ideological differences laid bare amidst the national crisis over the coronavirus p... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The hit to U.S. corporate earnings from the coronavirus epidemic is getting harder and messier to predict. Wall Street strategists have been slashing forecasts as the impact from the virus is set to be felt far further than the first quart... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some asset prices are moving together in unusual ways, an indication that investors may be preparing their portfolios for a coronavirus-led global slowdown. U.S. stocks, gold, Treasuries and the dollar have all surged in 2020, a climb that... More »
RIYADH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Central bankers from the United States, Japan and the euro zone meeting in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend had their own shifting sands to cross – those of elusive inflation. The problem facing all three is that pr... More »
BUDAPEST/WARSAW (Reuters) – Eastern Europe is a new frontier for private medical care, and insurers and tech startups are racing to steal a march on their rivals by harnessing the region’s health data. Growing numbers of people in Eastern European states, from... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – From Harley Davidson to Colgate-Palmolive, U.S. companies are flocking to borrow in euros and their record issuance is breathing life into a market where yields have been hammered by the European Central Bank’s renewed stimulus push. Offshor... More »
SEATTLE/CAPE CANAVERAL (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s (BA.N) stunted Friday debut of its astronaut capsule threatens to dent the U.S. aerospace incumbent’s self-declared competitive advantage of mission reliability against the price and innovation strengths of “new s... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Matteo Salvini has recently dropped threats to take Italy out of the euro zone but the hard-right leader is now alarming European authorities with a new target for his eurosceptic anger: a planned reform of the region’s bailout fund. Euro zone... More »
NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) – As jihadists wreaked ever more havoc in the last two years, mining firms in Burkina Faso rolled out extra security measures, from barracks for government troops protecting them to safe rooms for workers behind barbed wir... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Asian countries held conclusive talks on what could be the world’s biggest trade pact and there will be an announcement of success at a summit in Bangkok, despite doubts raised by India, the Thai hosts said on Monday. But questions still hu... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand said on Sunday that Southeast Asian nations are committed to signing a pact by February 2020 on forging what could become the world’s largest trade bloc, even after new demands by India dealt a blow to the process backed by China. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s plan for universal healthcare rests on an assumption she can radically change an industry the size of Germany’s entire economy without new costs for the average taxpayer. On paper, the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – From the pinnacle of the City of London’s largest skyscraper, Stuart Lipton is wagering a $1.2 billion bet that the British capital remains a master of the international financial universe no matter what happens with Brexit. The 76-year-old ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – WeWork has opened almost as many new locations in the last 3-1/2 months as it did in the whole first half of this year, likely accelerating the speed with which the office-sharing company is burning through cash as increasingly hard-nosed ... More »
BERUWALA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been a polarizing figure for much of his political life. It is an image he is trying to change. When he was defense chief in his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government he c... More »
STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) – Automakers around the world are pushing hard for new networks that can charge electric cars fast. In Europe, some power companies and grid operators are testing whether it might be smarter and cheaper to move into the slow lane. ... More »
ALGIERS (Reuters) – On the face of it, Algeria’s state-dominated economy has weathered six months of turmoil well, with flightloads of public sector workers heading abroad for holidays even as protesters who ousted the veteran president in April now target his... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Three names dominate the U.S. world of bond investing – Jeffrey Gundlach, Dan Ivascyn and Scott Minerd. But funds run by these star investors are lagging their respective benchmarks this year. The proximate cause for the underperformance o... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China is unlikely to face serious consequences from the Trump administration’s decision to label it a currency manipulator given the apparent lack of G7 and IMF support for the move, former and current U.S. and G7 officials said. The U.S... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Last week’s announcement of more U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods may have undermined the prospects for small-cap stocks to rebound this year, even after a brief respite from the Federal Reserve’s recent interest-rate cut. Just a day after th... More »
(Reuters) – With his decision to join the Brooklyn Nets, Kevin Durant ended an era in Golden State while advancing a trend of the NBA’s elite players forging their own paths with new teams. Durant will now team up with fellow All Star Kyrie Irving, who will de... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Mario Draghi’s dramatic Tuesday hints of further monetary easing by the European Central Bank has stabilized collapsing euro zone inflation expectations, but the departing ECB chief will struggle to calm market fears of Japan-style economic ... More »
LONDON – The persistence of Congo’s Ebola outbreak and its deadly spread to Uganda in recent days show how societal issues are as crucial as scientific advances in controlling disease outbreaks, specialists in global public health say. Medical scientists, prom... More »
SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) – China may be an odd choice for investors seeking shelter from a Sino-U.S. trade war. Yet, money managers in Asia are pouring funds into Chinese stocks as the long-term promise of a growing middle class trumps more immediate fears a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Joe Biden Express to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination went a bit off track this week. Since Biden joined the race in April, his campaign has worked to craft an aura of inevitability around the former vice president’s bid. ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – After almost three years of successfully predicting a global economic revival, world bond markets are furiously flagging the risk of yet another recession, as well as low inflation for a generation. Spooked by the escalating U.S.-China trade... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a tariff on all Mexican goods to push Mexico to halt a surge in illegal immigrants is likely to be challenged in court and will test the scope of the president’s emergency powers. Trump dramatically ... More »
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Growing demand by Asia’s rich for independent advisory services and access to a wide variety of investment products is spurring the surge of boutique wealth managers more associated with the established wealth hubs of Switzerlan... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shares of smaller publicly listed U.S. companies have fallen more on recent U.S.-China trade tensions than larger corporations and could face an even rougher road as the year wears on unless the prospects for economic growth improve. Wall ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s export earnings are booming as resource prices surge but a statistical quirk means tens of billions of dollars go missing from main measures of growth, making the economy seem weaker than it actually is. The cash is still coursin... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When he ran for president in 2016, Donald Trump delighted crowds with his harsh rhetoric on China. As he runs for re-election in 2020, he is likely to keep talking tough, but the reception – at least in some key states – may not be as eu... More »
BERLIN Reuters) – Facing tough competition from China, the United States and even tiny Luxembourg, Germany is racing to draft new laws and attract private investment to secure a slice of an emerging space market that could be worth $1 trillion a year by the 20... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – It looks like something has to give in global markets. Stocks and bonds around the world have rallied atypically together since the start of the year, rewarding investors both bullish and bearish on the direction of global growth. The main... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As recently as February, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team dropped hints that the inquiry into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election might unearth evidence of active cooperation between Moscow and President Donald Trump’s ... More »
MEXICO CITY/OTTAWA (Reuters) – More than six months after the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed a new deal to govern more than $1 trillion in regional trade, the chances of the countries ratifying the pact this year are receding. The three countries stru... More »
WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s blunt-force use of tariffs in pursuing his “America First” trade agenda has angered many, from company executives to allied governments and members of both parties of Congress. But there’s o... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion that Donald Trump did not collude with Russia to win the presidency in 2016 gives the president a powerful weapon to use against his Democratic opponents and a potential boost to what is s... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Having spent three years and more than 2.6 trillion euros ($3 trillion) trying to boost economic growth across the euro zone, the European Central Bank’s mixed record may open the door for a high-spending, radical alternative. With populist ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Collapsing asset price volatility has turned ‘carry trading’ into one of investors’ top plays of 2019. Many reckon the run is far from over. This strategy sees investors borrow in currencies where interest rates are low to invest in countrie... More »
(Reuters) – Corporate America’s biggest shareholders have traditionally been content with sharing their views on a company’s strategy privately with management. But now some mutual funds are beginning to rethink their stance, amid pressure from investors for t... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s fourth round of cheap long-term loans targeted at banks may steer euro zone lenders away from a cliff edge in funding. But it is a symptom of, rather than a cure for, the bloc’s economic malaise that appears to... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – High-grade euro zone debt remains scarce even though the European Central Bank has stopped its huge purchases of new bonds, intensifying concerns that banks will face future collateral shortages and highlighting the need for safe assets. The... More »
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (Reuters) – Long-time rivals Barrick Gold Corp and Newmont Mining Corp renewed their animosity on Monday with their chief executives trading insults after Barrick launched an $18 billion hostile bid for the U.S. company, presaging an aggressive... More »
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – African nations with rich reserves of copper and cobalt needed for the shift to electric vehicles sense they have the upper hand in negotiations with mining companies that are struggling to secure better terms. Days of talks at the Mining... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell widened its lead over Exxon Mobil as king of cash among the world’s top oil and gas companies last year but its U.S. rival could catch up with its investment drive in new production. The five leading firms, known as oil maj... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cryptocurrencies may be facing a prolonged bear market. Companies that issued tokens, or digital currencies, over the last two years through initial coin offerings (ICOs) may have to sell more of these assets to finance their operations. T... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ebbing global growth and shaky financial markets threw the U.S. Federal Reserve off course in early 2016, and it took nearly a year for officials to regain confidence growth would continue and convince investors they would again raise in... More »
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – When Fabio Schvartsman took the reins of Vale SA in 2017, he suggested a motto for the world’s largest iron miner, turning the page on a tailings dam disaster that hit a small Brazilian town two years before: “Mariana, never again.” That ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, who famously vowed to negotiate big deals in the White House, came out of a government shutdown battle on Friday politically wounded and outmaneuvered by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. With Am... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – France’s response to “yellow vest” protests could be a turning point for euro zone bond markets if it kicks off an era of increased public borrowing in the bloc and loads additional debt on to a market already nervous over the removal of ECB... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s new curbs on e-commerce companies may not be enough to win over small store owners and traders in next year’s general election, with the key voting bloc still seething over what it sees as broken promises by Prime Minister Narendr... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – As the developed world’s cheapest equity market and home to a rising breed of more profitable companies, the Japanese market should be a safe investment bet. Yet fund managers are bypassing it on fears ebbing global growth could knock Japan’s... More »
(Reuters) – The onset of a U.S. recession could take longer than usually thought after key points of the Treasury yield curve invert, as a surge in U.S. short-dated debt issuance has altered the dynamics of the Treasury market and other indicators show an econ... More »
FARNBOROUGH, England (Reuters) – Britain’s showy launch of a new fighter jet project at this week’s Farnborough Airshow has laid bare political tensions that are threatening to tear Europe apart and deepened scepticism about the future of European defense coop... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The U.S. and euro zone economies remain a world apart and growth data due in the coming days will only highlight the widening gap, suggesting that monetary policy will continue to move in opposing directions on the two sides of the Atlant... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese companies are increasingly turning to investment banks and public relations firms for advice on dealing with potential approaches by activist investors who are targeting low valuations and cross-shareholdings in the nation. Among tho... More »
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuters) – If U.S. President Donald Trump was inclined to be tentative when raising election meddling with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking in 2016 has made that appr... More »
SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Six months of wrangling over trade tariffs with the United States has wiped out about a fifth of China’s stock market value and driven its currency down sharply. But those moves may have just been a downpayment on what is yet to ... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to block Chinese investment in U.S. companies could be trouble for a number of American automotive and technology companies using Chinese funds to develop electric and self-driving cars and related servi... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – For a year, billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb has watched quietly from afar as Nestle SA tries to energize its business. But his patience has worn thin and he has been telling associates and his own investors that time is now up for... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors have sharply increased their use of hedging strategies, signaling concerns that the intensifying trade battle between the United States and China might hit economies from Germany to South Korea. Money managers say that mounting bar... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Switzerland’s banking and monetary system is facing the possibility of a huge shake-up, and while the possibility looks remote, investors are buying up insurance against swings in the franc and the shares of the biggest Swiss lenders. Swiss ... More »
(Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk faces votes at Tuesday’s shareholder meeting that will challenge his grip on the electric carmaker, but he may be able to count on some powerful friends: big fund managers likely to be fans. These stockp... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is running out of time to deliver a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) he promised for this year and people involved in the talks say the crunch is largely of his administration’s own making.... More »
MANAGUA (Reuters) – A thuggish response to weeks of protests has eroded carefully constructed pillars of support in the Church, military and business world for Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, emboldening calls for the ouster of the former Marxist guerrilla... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italy’s emerging ruling coalition is likely to put deeper euro zone integration on hold and could set the stage for the bloc’s next crisis if it delivers on its tax-cutting and high-spending policies, European policymakers and economists f... More »
(Reuters) – After two years of sharp gains for U.S. bank stocks, investors betting on another big boost for 2018 may be disappointed unless loan growth accelerates or regulations slacken considerably. The S&P 500 bank sector index .SPXBK beat first quarter ear... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund managers are barreling into the energy sector by making broad bets on anything connected with oil, finally convinced that gains in crude prices – on track for their fourth consecutive quarterly gain, the longest such stretch for ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A resurgent dollar and higher borrowing costs are smashing through Argentina and Turkey’s currencies like a wrecking ball and raising the likelihood more broadly that emerging markets’ three-year long interest rate cutting cycle is at an end... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – To deal with a familiar combination of falling currencies and uncertainty about economic growth, Asian central banks are reverting to their classic policy playbook. They are intervening in currency markets while concurrently injecting cas... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – As speculation about interest rate rises and policy ‘normalization’ in the euro zone, Japan, Britain and China falls away rapidly, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s now lonely monetary tightening has suddenly supercharged the dollar. The revival of... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – On top of the years in prison comedian Bill Cosby faces for sexual assault, his criminal conviction increases the likelihood he will have to pay hefty damages in civil lawsuits brought by women who say he assaulted or defamed them, legal e... More »
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia’s most externally vulnerable economies – India, Indonesia and the Philippines – have just taken a one-two punch. U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields US10YT=RR hit 3 percent this week, a level long touted as one to watch for p... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Corporate pensions are shifting a chunk of their $1.55 trillion in assets into fixed income, which may be sizeable enough to flatten the yield curve further. The funding gap, between what corporations owe in pension plan obligations and th... More »
