DETROIT The connection between Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert and billionaire magnate Warren Buffett became evident last month with news that Buffett was backing Gilbert’s surprise bid for Yahoo Inc. But the two men have another business connection that... More »
SAN FRANCISCO The California Public Employees’ Retirement System recently bought a stake in a private Indiana toll road with a troubled history, one sign of how popular infrastructure investments have become among U.S. pension funds. In May, CalPERS bought a 1... More »
BEIJING China has promised to implement measures to improve laws and government services for businesses in response to slowing private investment growth, state media reported late on Saturday. China is counting on the private sector to invest more in the econo... More »
OTTAWA Governments and central banks need a certain amount of coordination so they can discuss policies and consider the implications on debt levels and financial stability over the medium-term, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said on Saturday. One good ... More »
ASUNCION, Paraguay Paraguay’s state-run oil firm Petropar said Saturday that Venezuelan state oil producer PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] had set a 10-day deadline for the Paraguayan company to pay off $287 million of long-standing debt. The demand comes shortly after Parag... More »
TRENTO, Italy Britain’s exit from the European Union would likely trigger turmoil on financial markets prompting the European Central Bank to act, Governing Council Member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Saturday. Villeroy de Galhau told an economic confer... More »
STOCKHOLM The latest disappointing U.S. jobs number has not changed the overall economic picture and gradual rate hikes remain appropriate, Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said on Saturday. The Fed raised rates in December for the first time... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, called the May employment report on Friday a “real body blow” and said it means an interest rate increase later this month is an “impossibility.” In a telephone interview, Gundlach also said the... More »
NEW YORK Investors pulled approximately $1 billion from the Pimco Total Return Fund, one of the world’s largest bond funds, in May following cash withdrawals of the same amount the previous month, the Newport Beach, California-based firm said on Thursday. Pimc... More »
ATHENS Greece’s government trumpeted a debt relief deal with other euro zone countries on Wednesday as the beginning of the end of its bruising six-year financial crisis but Greeks remained skeptical and markets were cautious. After years of austerity demanded... More »
BRUSSELS The euro zone and International Monetary are struggling with Greece’s debt crisis – not with Athens this time, but with each other over when to give Greece a break on its future massive debt repayments. The euro zone has begun talks on debt relief for... More »
ATHENS Greece’s parliament will vote on a new package of tax hikes and reforms demanded by its international lenders on Sunday, two days before euro zone finance ministers assess whether Athens qualifies for much-needed bailout loans. The bill would increase v... More »
DUBLIN Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny intends to serve a full term before stepping aside to allow a new leader take his Fine Gael party into the next parliamentary election, the recently re-elected premier said on Monday. Kenny, 65, became the first European ... More »
LONDON European shares fell in subdued, holiday-squeezed trade on Monday, unable to maintain the momentum of Asian stocks that shrugged off sub-par Chinese economic data to eke out modest gains. Wall Street appeared set to open flat to marginally higher, accor... More »
MUNICH A German national stabbed four passengers at a train station near Munich early on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring three, in an attack police said appeared to have an Islamist motive. Witnesses said the assailant, a 27-year-old man, shouted “Allahu... More »
LONDON Sterling is likely to fall by a fifth in the immediate aftermath of a British vote to leave the European Union on June 23, triggering intense inflation pressure, Britain’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research said on Tuesday. NIESR, an aca... More »
NEW YORK The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee said on Monday legislation to address Puerto Rico’s growing debt and humanitarian crisis will be introduced for discussion on Wednesday, with a committee vote a week later.... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump backtracked on Monday on his remarks about raising taxes on wealthy Americans, saying the rich might simply get a smaller tax cut than he originally proposed. Trump walked away from his Sunday comment t... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Euro zone finance ministers offered on Monday to grant Greece debt relief by giving it longer grace periods and bond maturities from 2018 if the country delivers by then on all reforms agreed under its latest bailout. The offer, to be worked ou... More »
WASHINGTON The White House said on Monday it was concerned the debt crisis confronting Puerto Rico could hamper its ability to deal with the potential public health crisis caused by the spread of the Zika virus, which has sickened nearly people 700 on the isla... More »
BERLIN A batch of Greek economic reforms must be reviewed by euro zone finance ministers before any additional debt relief can be decided on, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday. Seibert said there was a clear process for determining furthe... More »
LONDON Greek banking stocks could rise 90 percent from current levels and yield premiums over German benchmark bonds narrow if Greece and its creditors can reach a deal on releasing new bailout funds and debt relief, Morgan Stanley said on Wednesday. The broke... More »
BRUSSELS/BERLIN Overcoming years of poor health and crisis, the euro zone economy grew at its fastest pace in five years in the first quarter, driven by unlikely stars such as France and Spain. It now stands larger that in did at its peak before the financial ... More »
BRUSSELS Euro zone finance ministers will not meet on Thursday and need more time to discuss Greek reforms that would unlock new loans, signaling significant differences remain between Athens and its lenders on bailout targets. The meeting was a possibility be... More »
SAO PAULO Oi SA (OIBR3.SA) will start talks to restructure $14.3 billion of bonds as early as Monday, sources familiar with the situation said, pitting some of the world’s biggest investors against each other as Brazil’s most-indebted phone carrier fights for ... More »
NEW YORK Argentina’s celebrated $16.5 billion return to international capital markets last week was the final mile of a tortured 14-year path from historic default through the U.S. court system. Along the way, the saga included a death threat against a judge, ... More »
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are expected to hold interest rates steady when they meet this week, but may tweak their description of the economic outlook to reflect more benign conditions, leaving the path open for future rate rises... More »
VIENNA Europe and Japan’s central bank policies of negative interest rates are a “horror” and will run counter to the desired effect, Jeffrey Gundlach, the widely followed investor who runs DoubleLine Capital, said in an interview with a Swiss newspaper. Gundl... More »
NEW YORK Measures intended to control extreme swings in the U.S. Treasury market might end up hurting other markets and erode investor confidence in U.S. government bonds as a safe haven, according to a private report released on Friday. Some U.S. regulators h... More »
AMSTERDAM Greece should prepare a package of additional measures to guarantee it will reach fiscal targets agreed with international lenders to conclude the bailout reform review, the head of euro zone finance ministers said on Friday. “We came to the conclusi... More »
LONDON Investors withdrew $7.3 billion from stocks in the week to April 20, the largest outflows in nine weeks, while continuing to shovel money into corporate and emerging market debt, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) (BAC.N) said on Friday. The equity re... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Euro zone finance ministers are ready to hold an extraordinary meeting next week if negotiations on the review of the Greek reform program are concluded, a senior EU official said on Wednesday, commenting that talks remained difficult. Discussi... More »
CHICAGO Bonds valued at up to $1.5 billion would be issued under Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal to bring a museum, proposed by “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, to Chicago, the city said on Monday. The museum will feature Lucas’ collection of paintings, illus... More »
BRASILIA Brazil’s leftist President Dilma Rousseff suffered a humiliating loss in a crucial impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress on Sunday and is almost certain to be forced from office months before the nation hosts the Olympics. Fireworks lit up t... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, the widely followed investor who runs DoubleLine Capital, said on a webcast on Tuesday that the Federal Reserve’s rate hike cycle “increasingly likely” looks like a one and done scenario this year. Gundlach, who oversees $95 billion ... More »
Piper Jaffray cut its rating on Wells Fargo & Co to “underweight” from “neutral” citing concerns about the bank’s credit costs. The downgrade comes a day after Wells Fargo reported a 7 percent decline in quarterly profit. The bank has set aside more than $1 bi... More »
Ailing Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone opposes Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman’s plan to sell a minority stake sale in Viacom’s Paramount Pictures movie studio, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The report added to... More »
Nearly two years into an epic oil rout, U.S. shale drillers that have upended global energy markets are finally feeling a credit squeeze as banks make their biggest cuts yet to their loans. Every six months, oil and gas producers and their banks negotiate how ... More »
ATHENS Greece and its international lenders were edging closer to a compromise on signing off on a review of bailout reforms which could unlock more aid to the country, government sources said on Monday, after marathon talks with creditors. Just over ten hours... More »
NEW YORK Debt may be a drag for millennials, but apparently not as much as cooking their own dinner. A survey from Citizens Bank found that fewer than half (47 percent) of millennials, those in the 18-35 age group, who are college graduates, would be willing t... More »
NEW YORK Exchange-traded fund investors showed continued confidence in U.S. markets, delivering stock ETFs based in the country $3.5 billion and their sixth straight week of net new cash during the latest week, Lipper data showed on Thursday. Stock mutual fund... More »
ST PETERSBURG, Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin said a friend of his named in the “Panama Papers” leaks had done nothing wrong and spent the money he earned from business on buying expensive musical instruments which he was donating to public institutio... More »
TOKYO Making preparations with other governments for a Group of Seven summit next month, Japan has sought to emphasize the role of fiscal spending in countering deepening uncertainty over the global outlook, the Sankei newspaper reported on Monday. Monetary po... More »
BRUSSELS Euro zone finance ministers are likely to start discussing debt relief for Greece on the sidelines of the IMF’s spring meetings in mid-April, if there is a deal by then with Athens on a reform package, euro zone officials said. Representatives of Gree... More »
MADRID U.S. President Barack Obama will not visit Spain until its parties manage to form a government and end over 100 days of political deadlock, delaying a trip that had been under consideration for July. “What (Obama) told me is let’s see if we form a gover... More »
NEW YORK The U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise short-term interest rates more than twice, if at all, in 2016, on expectations of slowing hiring in the second half of the year, a top bond manager at BlackRock, the world’s top asset manager said on Friday. Des... More »
HELSINKI If one fist bump could endanger Finland’s increasingly stressed tradition of consensus politics, then Prime Minister Juha Sipila and a cabinet colleague may just have achieved this dubious distinction. In a nod to popular culture, a smiling Sipila and... More »
TOKYO Driving interest rates below zero, the Bank of Japan has turned a comatose government bond market into an enormous free-for-all, complicating the central bank’s own efforts to kick-start growth and end deflation. The $9 trillion market for Japanese gover... More »
WILMINGTON, Del A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled that creditors of the Tribune Co cannot claw back the $8 billion paid to the multimedia company’s public shareholders nearly a decade ago in a buyout that was blamed for its bankruptcy. The ruling stems from the s... More »
BRASILIA Brazil’s National Development Bank will provide 500 million reais ($136.6 million) in funding to fight mosquito-borne illnesses, including the Zika virus, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. The funds are to help bolster the prevention, diagnos... More »
MILAN/LONDON Telecom Italia Chief Executive Marco Patuano officially resigned on Monday, confirming reports at the weekend he was on his way out as top shareholder Vivendi tightens its grip on the Italian phone group. Telecom Italia’s shares rose 4 percent, ad... More »
NEW YORK Some cash-strapped U.S. oil and gas companies are considering creating an unusual layer of debt as a way of surviving the rout in oil and gas prices, according to restructuring advisors. Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N) for example is considering the st... More »
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians flooded the streets on Sunday in the biggest ever protests calling for President Dilma Rousseff’s removal, reflecting rising popular anger that could encourage Congress to impeach the leftist leader. The d... More »
SAN FRANCISCO The Federal Reserve won’t raise interest rates this week, but will likely make clear that as long as U.S. inflation and jobs continue to strengthen, economic weakness overseas won’t stop rates from rising fairly soon. That will be a big change fr... More »
ACAPULCO, Mexico BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said on Friday that China may be the biggest hurdle to global financial markets and that central bankers are adding to risks with negative-interest rate policies. “China does represent maybe mor... More »
NOTTINGHAM, England The Bank of England (BoE) is still more likely to raise interest rates than to cut them over the next two years, but it has plenty of scope to stimulate the economy if needed, one of the bank’s policymakers said on Tuesday. Martin Weale, in... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer at DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday the recent rally in risk assets is nearing an end as those assets will struggle in sympathy with oil. “Oil, like I said, had an easy time rallying from 28 to 38. Now the ... More »
NEW YORK Stocks “can go up five, 10 percent, maybe” despite a slowing U.S. economy, BlackRock Inc’s chief investment officer of global fixed income Rick Rieder said on Tuesday. The market’s negative attitude towards the high-yield corporate debt market – relat... More »
The 2016 U.S. presidential election may succeed where the world’s central banks have failed, but not as they would wish: in bringing back inflation through protectionism. One of the most striking aspects of the election campaign is the way in which Donald Trum... More »
BRUSSELS A team of international lenders from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund is likely to return to Athens in the coming week to begin to finalize a review of reforms, paving the way for more loan payouts and debt relief talks, officials sai... More »
BUDAPEST The euro zone’s troubles are forcing its member states to forge closer integration and Hungary will have to decide in coming years whether to give up some sovereignty in economic policy and join the group, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday. O... More »
NEW DELHI The government unveiled a budget for the poor on Monday, announcing new rural aid schemes and skimping on a bank bailout, in a strategy shift that seeks to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party in coming state elections. Finance Minister ... More »
SHANGHAI Financial leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies agreed to inform each other in advance about policy decisions that could lead to devaluations of their currencies, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Saturday. ... More »
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s board of governors has approved a plan that would require brokerage firms to disclose how much they mark up the price of most bonds they sell to retail customers, the Wall Street watchdog said on Friday. FINRA’s co... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, the co-founder and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said on Friday that his firm purchased some U.S. stocks two weeks ago after their rocky start in January and early February. “I thought it was a good buy point two wee... More »
HONG KONG Credit conditions for Asia-Pacific borrowers could become less favorable in the coming years, raising refinancing risk as weak commodities and slow growth take their toll against the backdrop of a strong dollar, rating agency Standard & Poor’s warned... More »
BRASILIA World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan said on Tuesday Brazil is doing a good job tackling the Zika virus and ensuring that the Olympic games it will host in August will be safe for athletes and visitors. Chan said Brazil’s gov... More »
The former JPMorgan Chase & Co trader who became known as the “London Whale” as his unit generated $6.2 billion of trading losses in 2012 said he is not to blame for the scandal and was made a scapegoat for decisions made by his superiors. In a roughly 2,100-w... More »
FRANKFURT It doesn’t look like much, but a boxy wooden vintage Swedish footstool isn’t just a place to rest your weary feet after cross-country skiing. It is the latest competition to hedge funds or high end real estate. And that means it will cost you $17,000... More »
PARIS Distracted by an unresolved migration crisis and negotiations on keeping Britain in the European Union, euro zone leaders could be caught unprepared by a new storm on financial markets. Global market turmoil since the start of the year has helped set war... More »
TORONTO Prem Watsa, the head of Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO) and a well known contrarian investor, said on Friday he is concerned about the global economy, pointing to record low bond yields and limited policy levers left in the hands of central bankers... More »
BRUSSELS International lenders are concerned with the quality of reforms in Greece, in exchange for which Athens is getting loans, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the European Parliament’s economic committee on Thursday. Di... More »
LONDON European shares plunged to 16-month lows on Monday, extending a aggressive sell-off, while bond yields and oil also fell as investors shed risky assets on persistent concern over the pace of global growth. Data over the weekend showing China’s foreign r... More »
TOKYO The Japanese government fund may reduce its stake in Tokyo Electric Power Co to below 50 percent in 2017 if the company achieves its goals including its first bond issuance in six years, the company’s president said. Tepco was saved from bankruptcy by th... More »
RECIFE, Brazil For scores of women in the epicenter of the Zika outbreak in Brazil, the joy of pregnancy has given way to fear. In the sprawling coastal city of Recife, panic has struck maternity wards since Zika – a mosquito-borne virus first detected in the ... More »
Rio de Janeiro Last January, long lines formed outside health clinics in Recife, a city in Brazil’s northeast hit hard in recent years by outbreaks of dengue, a painful tropical disease. Doctors were on guard because federal health officials and the World Heal... More »
NEW YORK Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic advisor at Allianz, said on Friday the Bank of Japan’s shocking move to take one of its main interest rates into negative territory underscored the country’s hope to weaken the yen to re-inflate its economy. “Count... More »
NEW YORK BlackRock Inc said on Friday it will change the benchmarks on four iShares Treasury exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from Barclays’ Treasury bond indexes to ICE’s Treasury bond indexes, effective on or after March 31. The four iShares ETFs affected by the... More »
MILAN Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI) on Wednesday reported better-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter operating profit as strong results from North America and improving operations in Europe offset weakness in Latin America and Asia. The world’s seventh-... More »
LONDON European stocks succumbed to another slide in oil prices on Wednesday as markets waited cautiously to see what the Federal Reserve’s reaction will be to what has been a brutal start to the year for world markets. Asian and particularly Chinese bourses .... More »
SYDNEY Australian price pressures remained restrained last quarter as underlying inflation slowed to the very bottom of policy makers’ target range, offering the scope but not necessarily the trigger for a cut in interest rates. Key measures of underlying infl... More »
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve is expected to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and acknowledge that turmoil in financial markets threatens its upbeat view of the U.S. economy, leaving the chances of a March hike diminished but alive. All 69 analysts... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO As Rio de Janeiro prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for upcoming Carnival festivities and the Olympic Games in August, the city is scrambling to expel one unwelcome new arrival: the Zika virus. It will be an uphill battle. Zi... More »
BEIJING China’s economic growth in the fourth quarter slowed to the weakest since the financial crisis, adding pressure on a government that is struggling to restore the confidence of investors after perceived policy missteps jolted global markets. Concerns ab... More »
NEW YORK Puerto Rico, struggling to make its debt payments, outlined an increase in its financing gap on Monday, saying it now projects a $16.06 billion hole to fill, cumulatively, over the next five years, an increase of $2.1 billion from a September projecti... More »
LONDON European shares fell on Monday, following Asia lower and led by banks after the European Central Bank said it would quiz euro zone lenders about high levels of bad loans, while oil prices tumbled on the prospect of more supply from Iran. With U.S. marke... More »
NEW YORK – In recent years, bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach has been outperforming his rival Bill Gross. He has even been dubbed the “Bond King” by the media – a title Gross has held for many years. Now, Gundlach has replaced Gross on a high-profile investor pa... More »
NEW YORK With signs of a bear market in U.S. stocks emerging, some of the world’s biggest investors say the buying opportunity is not here yet and instead believe further drops of 10 to 20 percent are a possibility. However, they do not envision a repeat of a ... More »
LONDON World stocks fell to near 2-1/2 year lows on Monday as a fresh pounding for Chinese markets left Asia at a four-year trough and sent oil and commodity markets sprawling again. Europe’s main bourses saw a more steady start to the week but investors were ... More »
BERLIN Economic sentiment in the euro zone deteriorated more than expected in January as an economic slowdown in China and its impact on the world economy unsettled investors, survey data released on Monday showed. The Frankfurt-based Sentix research group’s i... More »
A federal appeals court on Friday set back Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s effort to recoup $312 million it lent to Sentinel Management Group Inc, a money manager that collapsed in 2007 and whose former chief is now in prison for fraud. The 7th U.S. Circuit Cou... More »
NEW YORK Citigroup retained its market-leading position at the top of the US Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) arranger league table in 2015 for volume and deal count while issuance fell 20% ahead of looming new regulations. Citigroup increased its share of... More »
FRANKFURT The European Central Bank will keep monetary policy easy for as long as necessary in light of risks such as slower growth in emerging economies, its chief economist said in an interview with a Belgian newspaper. The ECB cut its deposit rate earlier t... More »
BRASILIA Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s key ally in Congress is certain it can head off an impeachment threat, but in return the party demands a radical change of policy course to pull the economy out of its deepest downturn in 25 years. Senator Eunicio ... More »
ATHENS Greece faces relatively low debt servicing needs in the coming years and further debt relief is not a matter of urgency, Greek financial daily Naftemporiki quoted European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann as saying on Thursday. “In 20... More »
BEIJING The International Monetary Fund’s decision on Ukraine’s debt to Russia did not change anything to Moscow, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told reporters in Beijing on Thursday. The International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board decided t... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, the widely followed investor who runs DoubleLine Capital, said the U.S. economy faces a 30 percent chance of recession next year after the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate increase in nearly a decade on Wednesday. “Commodity pri... More »
TOKYO Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday he saw no need to implement negative deposit rates in Japan as borrowing costs were already very low due to the central bank’s aggressive asset purchases. The European Central Bank has adopted negativ... More »
SHANGHAI China’s economy will likely grow at or above 6.5 percent next year, an official think-tank said in a report in the China Securities Journal on Monday. The country’s consumer price index (CPI) will rise about 1.5 percent, government think-tank the Stat... More »
