(Reuters) – Can a little device plugged into a port under your car’s dashboard help you drive better, save money and diagnose your car’s troubles? That’s the premise behind some new smartphone-linked gadgets, including one launched last week by Verizon Wireles... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in March but downsizing by retail companies still helped the first quarter rack up the largest amount of cuts in over a year, a report showed on Thursday. Employers announced 49,255 planned ... More »
(Reuters) – Whether out of necessity, mistrust or simply the feel-good factor of soaring asset markets, Americans appear to be cutting back once again on saving. The personal savings rate stood at just 2.6 percent in February, down nearly one percentage point ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Yes, stocks have been on a real tear lately, but guess who hasn’t been along for the ride: The millions of 401(k) investors who “moved to safety” after the 2008-2009 market and never felt comfortable enough to move back to stocks. Partic... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Money market fund assets fell by $11.33 billion to $2.614 trillion in the week ended April 2, the Money Fund Report said on Wednesday. Taxable money market fund assets fell by $9.54 billion to $2.341 trillion, while tax-free assets were do... More »
(John Lloyd is a Reuters columnist but his opinions are his own.) By John Lloyd (Reuters) – Jim O’Neill, head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, thinks Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement is a greater threat to Europe and the euro than the trials of little... More »
(Reuters) – Workers encounter confusion and misleading information when they leave their jobs and roll over their retirement money into individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, from company-sponsored 401(k) plans, according to a report released on Wednesday by... More »
(Reuters) – Just as Mario Draghi’s pledge to “do whatever it takes” to preserve the euro is being challenged, the very same unqualified promise, this time to simply stop prices falling, is about to be put into action in Japan. In both cases within months we ma... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attention job seekers! One of the best ways to get your foot in the door for a job interview is to get a job referral, or two. And it doesn’t stop there: according to StartWire.com, one of the web’s top sites for job searching, “Referral... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer and chief executive of DoubleLine Capital LP, said Monday that another “lost decade” in stocks is unlikely and that lower yields on 10-year Treasury notes have made them less attractive. Gundlach,... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – This is no April Fool’s day joke, but catastrophes are good for stocks – eventually. The market usually boomerangs into massive rallies in the wake of them. That’s what seems to be happening now, which sustains the argument for a continued ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Portfolio manager Will Danoff, whose $92 billion Fidelity Contrafund is the largest active shareholder in Apple Inc, cut the fund’s stake in the iPhone maker 10 percent during the first two months of 2013. Danoff began trimming his Apple sta... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Public pensions reached a milestone in the fourth quarter of 2012 when assets rose to the highest since a peak just before the financial crisis, according to Census data released on Thursday. Assets in 100 of the largest funds, including c... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. public pensions reached a milestone in the fourth quarter of 2012 when assets rose to the highest since a peak just before the financial crisis, according to U.S. Census data released on Thursday. Assets in 100 of the largest funds, i... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – How will it all end? It’s a question the Aluminum market has been asking itself for months now. Here’s a global industry, already burdened by the weight of massive stocks overhang and still, most analysts agree, generating surplus units mont... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top housing regulator said on Wednesday it will make it easier for struggling homeowners to lower monthly mortgage payments through a federal anti-foreclosure program. Under the initiative, mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Fredd... More »
(Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co said on Wednesday that customers had experienced problems early in the day using their debit cards but the “technical glitch” that prevented use of the cards had been fixed. Customers reported on Twitter that their debit cards were... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – United States prosecutors have asked Liechtenstein to hand over data on foundations and other financial vehicles as part of their investigation into tax evasion by wealthy Americans. Roughly 20 Liechtenstein-based fiduciary firms have been g... More »
(Reuters) – BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, hired Andy Stewart, head of one of Credit Suisse’s hedge fund units, to bolster its own alternatives business as it shutters a direct private equity strategy. Stewart will co-head New York-based BlackRo... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – When interviewing a money manager, most investors want to know investment performance. It is a natural question, but there is much more you need to know beyond absolute returns. In lieu of focusing exclusively on annual performance, it will... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Tired of the hefty fees charged by private equity firms and wanting more say over what they buy, big investors like pension funds and insurers are taking matters into their own hands. Some are buying stakes in companies directly or teaming u... More »
(Reuters) – Kenneth Griffin, chief executive of hedge fund Citadel LLC, will not seek re-election to E*Trade Financial Corp’s board after his fund sold its stake in the company earlier this month. Griffin, whose hedge fund bailed out E*Trade in November 2007, ... More »
(Reuters) – The founder of a medical devices company who racked up losses of $1.4 million in a Goldman Sachs Group Inc private debt fund is considering whether to appeal an arbitration ruling against him. Richard Caruso, who launched Integra LifeSciences Holdi... More »
(Reuters) – The founder of a global medical device company who racked up personal losses of $1.4 million in a Goldman Sachs private debt fund is concerned about practices that may lure investors into securities that are riskier than sales pitches indicate. Ric... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wouldn’t it be great if you could simply refinance your own high-interest mortgage, without going through a bank or paying closing costs? In a way, you can, says Keith Gumbinger of HSH.com, a Riverdale, New Jersey, mortgage research firm... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One of the most powerful members of the Congress – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor – signaled his support on Wednesday for maintaining the tax exemption of interest paid by municipal bonds, offering reassurance to the state and local g... More »
(Reuters) – Cry ‘Bubble!’ and let slip the dogs of subprime. Britain on Wednesday unveiled a new budget including 130 billion pounds of mortgage guarantees which will enable patsies, er, hardworking home-buyers, to buy properties worth as much as 600,000 pound... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former Oregon gubernatorial candidate was arrested on Tuesday for his alleged role in defrauding investors who had hoped to buy shares of Facebook Inc before its initial public offering in May 2012, federal authorities said. Craig Berkma... More »
(Reuters) – Bill Gross, who heads the world’s largest mutual fund, will offer some items from his rare U.S. stamp collection for the first time in a public auction conservatively estimated to bring $1.5 million to $2 million. All proceeds from the April 9 sale... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The economic recovery is not helping Americans shake a bad case of the retirement jitters. Workers and current retirees are less confident than ever in their ability to live comfortably in the post-employment world, according to the 2013 Re... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Bailing-in depositors with banks in Cyprus is a serious policy error that will destabilize the European banking system and threatens to accelerate bank runs in future. There is a good reason deposits have been the most protected form of bank... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – It’s not every day that a money manager gets tapped as the next ambassador to France, but investors in Marc Lasry’s $12 billion hedge fund Avenue Capital could be facing that scenario. Lasry, a longtime Democratic donor and chief executive... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing output bounced back in February in the latest signal of strength in an economy that is showing clear momentum despite the headwind from government austerity. While other reports on Friday showed a surge in gasoline pri... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Hedge fund titan John Paulson, who oversees $18 billion in assets from his offices in New York, said on Friday he has no plans to leave the island of Manhattan for the island of Puerto Rico. In an unusual move, Paulson, a life-long New Yorke... More »
ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) – UBS drew fire on Thursday as it announced it paid CEO Sergio Ermotti almost $9 million in 2012 and welcomed a new investment bank chief with a $26 million package, just as the Swiss bank is in the process of firing 10,000 staff. Execu... More »
(Reuters) – For many Americans, the health reform law passed in 2010 will forevermore tie their health to their taxes. And even though the big changes required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care don’t start until 2014, the tax impact starts now. “We... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – We’ve all heard the scary numbers. Experts say Americans need to set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for health care in retirement — $200,000, $300,000 or more. Billions and billions, as the late astronomer Carl Sagan would ha... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Need more people for your office March Madness pool? Call Brad Carlin, he is looking to enter one. On second thought, don’t call him. That’s because in his former NCAA basketball tournament pool, the professor of biostatistics at the Unive... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top Republican tax writer in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday proposed shaking up taxation of privately held businesses in ways that would tighten rules on partnerships, such as private equity and hedge funds. House Ways ... More »
(Reuters) – The Dow Jones industrial average is at an all-time high, the U.S. jobless rate has fallen to a four-year low and the housing market is seeing a recovery, but for many lower income and middle class Americans, the improving economy has yet to take ho... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Record low interest rates have helped investors rediscover a taste for bonds backed by everything from pizza to movie royalties, even though strong demand for these offbeat assets has already trimmed returns. Over the last year, investors ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you have kids in college, you already know that higher education isn’t getting any cheaper – some private schools will now set you back more than $60,000 a year. You may need a high-priced education just to figure out how to write it of... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – North America’s shale fields are the most visible symbol of the energy revolution, but they tell less than half the story. An even bigger transformation is taking place in the engines and fuel tanks of cars and trucks across the United State... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, the lesbian couple at the center of a major gay rights case set to go before the Supreme Court this month, were in many ways a typical New York power couple. Spyer was a psychologist- Windsor, a consultant a... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some formerly resolute do-it-yourselfers are giving up their calculators and turning to professional tax preparers for help with their returns, following the flood of tax changes that were enacted as part of the fiscal cliff deal at the be... More »
(Reuters) – Equity markets, especially in the U.S., are being held aloft by two historical anomalies – quantitative easing and high corporate profits – either of which could start to go away in 2013. Friday’s surprisingly good update on the state of the U.S. j... More »
(Reuters) – Barclays Plc’s head of wealth and investment management in the Americas has stepped down, the British bank said on Friday. Mitch Cox, who had overseen the division since October 2009, has decided to leave London-based Barclays to “pursue interests ... More »
(The author is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.) By Mitch Lipka NEW YORK (Reuters) – In the wake of the terrible tale of the stricken Carnival Triumph – and a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd ship hit with norovirus in the news Friday – th... More »
(The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) By James Saft (Reuters) – Now that it is official that the U.S. Justice Department pulls its punches when it comes to prosecuting the largest banks, it is time for investors to understand... More »
(Reuters) – If you’ve been hoarding hotel rewards points for your next vacation, you could be in for a jolt when you try to book your free room. Most of the major hotel chains have either devalued their points already or will soon. “This is the worst year I’ve... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson lost more money in February when his gold fund suffered double-digit losses as the metal and gold mining stocks extended losses. Paulson’s three-year old Gold Fund, with roughly $800 million in assets, tum... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – For hedge funds that specialize in mortgage bond investing last year was almost too easy when it came to making money. But this year, mortgage debt traders are cautioning investors to temper their expectations. Brazilian investment bank BT... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans are saving more in their workplace retirement plans than a few years ago, and Shlomo Benartzi is one of the people whom they can thank. Benartzi, professor and co-chair of the behavioral decision-making group at the UCLA Anderson... More »
(The writer is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. For more from Mark Miller, see link.reuters.com/qyk97s) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – Are employers stingier with their 401(k) matching contributions when they automate the enrollment... More »
ROCKAWAY BEACH, New York (Reuters) – Families whose homes were damaged by superstorm Sandy have one more insult they can add to their list of injuries: Unless they are careful, their children’s student aid packages might get nicked. There are two reasons for t... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Home prices rose at the beginning of the year, another sign the recovery in the housing market is gaining traction, data from CoreLogic showed on Tuesday. CoreLogic’s home price index rose 0.7 percent in January from the previous month and... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the co-founder of the Inditex fashion group, leapt over Warren Buffett and France’s Bernard Arnault to become the world’s third richest person on Forbes’ 2013 annual ranking of billionaires, with an estimated net wo... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mark Steber can’t file his taxes. This is especially annoying for a man who is chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc, the second-largest tax preparer in the United States. Steber uses his own company’s software and usually f... More »
(Reuters) – What can’t go on forever may be starting to stop in China. China on Monday unveiled steps to curb runaway housing price inflation, including measures to make speculation less profitable and loans more expensive. That sent stock markets down around ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Forbes’s 2013 list of the world’s richest people includes 1,426 billionaires, a record number, with a total net worth of $5.4 trillion, up from $4.6 trillion in the previous ranking. Following are key facts from the ranking. There are 210 ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Interest rates at 8 times the national average! Absolutely no overdraft fees! No minimums! Free checks! Get your ATM fees reimbursed! With nearly half of the $10 trillion in bank deposits in the U.S. concentrated in the top five banks, it ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The recovery in the state pension system suffered a setback in 2012 as the huge funding shortfall in a large swath of state pensions swelled more than 20 percent, interrupting two years of improvement following the devastation of the finan... More »
(Reuters) – A veteran Florida-based adviser from Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch has moved to rival brokerage Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, joining the firm’s Miami office. Adviser Victor Camara, who had been at Merrill for more than a decade, joined ... More »
(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) By James Saft (Reuters) – In case you were wondering, Jamie Dimon has thoughtfully explained why he’s richer than you and all the analysts covering J.P Morgan. It isn’t, as I thought, our... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – It’s all go at Peter Stratford’s Aston Martin dealership in London. “There is more money than there was before,” he said, pointing to a recent 1 million pound ($1.5 million) sale. “Aston Martin prices have gone through the roof in the last c... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – There may be no such thing as a sure bet on Wall Street, but junk bonds have come pretty close over the past four years. Now the high-yield market feels frothy enough to a number of the biggest bond market players that they are shying away... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Private equity investors hoping for outsized profits are facing an awkward truth – investment returns have shrunk and are unlikely to go back to their peak levels. At private equity’s annual global gathering in Berlin this week, investors ac... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Home sales and prices are rising briskly in those neighborhoods where the well-heeled like to plant their mailboxes: along Chicago’s north shore, in the San Francisco Bay area and in the haute Hamptons. Sales of properties worth between ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After years of changes and political arm-twisting, the federal estate tax rules became clear and stable with the year-end fiscal cliff deal. They are now set permanently into the tax code – at least until the tax code changes again. The am... More »
(Reuters) – Bank of New York Mellon Co has agreed to pay $114 million to settle claims over its role as trustee for debt issued by Medical Capital Holdings Inc, a medical receivables financing company that collapsed in 2009 amid fraud allegations. Investors ac... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal tax refunds are arriving later than expected for some lower-income Americans due in part to closer scrutiny of earned income tax credit claims by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the IRS said on Friday. IRS employees have been ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Less than half of adults received health insurance through their employer in 2012, but the market showed signs of stabilizing after three years of decline, according to a poll released on Friday. The Gallup survey said employer-sponsored... More »
(Reuters) – People who lost money by investing in funds that funneled their money to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme are not entitled to recover for their losses, in the manner that direct victims of the massive fraud can recover, a federal appeals court ruled o... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Andrew Adams takes the Wall Street adage “invest in what you know” literally. Adams, the Minneapolis-based manager of the tiny $62 million Mairs & Power Small Cap fund, invests all but a quarter of his portfolio in companies that are headq... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In the mercurial world of stock market trends, predicting whether the market is favoring growth or value styles is an either/or situation. Sometimes growth stocks, which tend to produce consistently higher earnings, dominate. Then they fall... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Asset-backed bonds, banished to the vaults of the European Central Bank (ECB) in return for emergency cash, are back on investor wish-lists, giving banks a fresh shot at profits that could spur lending to the real economy. Banks used to make... More »
(Reuters) – Wall Street brokers who dig in their heels when regulators ask for details about business dealings conducted outside of their brokerages play a risky and often career-ending game. A battle waged by one former broker against the Financial Industry R... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Keith Anderson, the former chief investment officer for billionaire trader George Soros’ money management firm, is raising money for a new macro hedge fund, according to a person familiar with the firm. Anderson left Soros Fund Management ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If you have ever been pitched an investment, you’ve probably been on the receiving end of a “limited time” offer – the kind where you have to act now or forever lose your chance of participating in a great opportunity. In fact, there are... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After a six-year lull, deal making is back with a vengeance. That means investors may need to rethink strategies to profit from increasing numbers of mergers and acquisitions. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazil’s 3G Capital Par... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Dan Gilbert has a vision for downtown Detroit that many would find hard to square with the long, painful decline commonly associated with this city: a vibrant urban core full of creative, innovative and talented young people. Yet Quicken Lo... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – When U.S. Federal Reserve governors start talking about “overheating episodes in credit markets,” as did Jeremy Stein in a February 7 speech in St. Louis, it is time to prick up your ears. Stein warned that in an attempt to “reach for yield... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – One of SandRidge Energy Inc’s largest shareholders, pushing to remove its chief executive, alleged on Tuesday that a company controlled by the CEO’s children has amassed around 475,000 acres near SandRidge’s operations. Hedge fund TPG-Axon... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. home-builder confidence in the market for single family homes eased slightly in February from last month’s seven-year high as builders faced higher material costs, an index showed on Tuesday. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Rapid moves in foreign exchange markets have sent strategists scrambling to revise 2013 forecasts as resurgent currencies outpace price predictions, wrong-footing the experts that many rely on for hedging, budgeting and investment. After two... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – European Central Bank president Mario Draghi has created a win-win situation for traders in the run-up to Friday’s announcement on early repayments of banking sector loans, with short-term rates expected to go anywhere but up. Traders are ba... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sandy Harsh never expected to find herself with $16,800 in credit-card debt and her retirement dreams drifting farther away. Harsh, an IT professional from Tuscola, Illinois, is 62, around the age at which a lot of people start actively pl... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Thursday that raising the minimum wage, as he has proposed, might trim corporate profits, but he added that U.S. firms were enjoying robust earnings and needed customers with money to spend. “It might have ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Some of the biggest hedge funds that helped make Apple Inc a stock market darling lost faith and dumped their stakes in the fourth quarter, fueling the massive drop in the iPhone maker’s share price. Noted stock pickers including Leon Cooper... More »
(Reuters) – The final two defendants convicted for helping the former Texas billionaire financier Allen Stanford swindle investors were each sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison over their roles in his $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Gilbert Lopez, the forme... More »
(Reuters) – Morgan Stanley expanded its risk-weighted asset reduction target, a move that will help the Wall Street bank’s capital levels under new rules and potentially boost shareholder returns. Morgan Stanley earlier said that it would reduce its fixed inco... More »
(Reuters) – Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch said on Wednesday it added four veteran advisers who managed nearly $1 billion in combined client assets from rival U.S. brokerages. The new hires, who moved to Merrill in January, came from Morgan Stanley Wealt... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Newly named Legg Mason Inc Chief Executive Joseph Sullivan on Wednesday vowed to reinvigorate the Baltimore-based asset manager and stanch the outflow of investor money from its funds. Sullivan, in a telephone interview shortly after he was ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – London’s colonies of super-rich have stopped spending freely over the last five years and the sellers of luxury cars in the millionaire ghetto of Mayfair report having to work as hard as their suburban mass market counterparts. Upmarket car ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. investors have had plenty of reasons to worry about what goes on in Washington, from “fiscal cliff” fears to concerns about a debt default or government shutdown. But President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday nigh... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission pledged to stay away from any matters involving her old law firm or former clients for one year, according to documents released on Friday. Mary Jo White is ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – It is almost time for Alvin’s massage. After a rubdown, he is off for a personal grooming session, to make sure he looks his best. Alvin is from Thailand originally but recently has been hanging out in California, and this weekend is jetti... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – NYSE Euronext plans to shut down the New York Block Exchange, a joint venture with dark pool operator BIDS Trading for executing large “block” trades because of a lack of market interest. The Big Board parent, which is being bought for abo... More »
(Reuters) – A proposed liquidation plan for MF Global Holdings Ltd fails to take into account that its finance unit is being hit twice for the same debt, undercutting what some creditors might recover, JPMorgan Chase & Co said in a court filing. Creditors of t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week and a trend reading hit a near five-year low, signs a grinding recovery in the labor market remains on track. Other reports on Thursday showed many top U.S. re... More »
