News Archive - 28 January 2016

>The planemaker said the deal, signed amid a raft of others during a visit by President Hassan Rouhani, was conditional on getting U.S. export licenses because more than 10 percent of their parts were made in the United States.Airbus said the order included 73 wide body and 45...

>"The price of oil is at a low level ... I don't think it will last in the long term ... The pressure on oil-producing nations means balance will be restored in the short term," Rouhani, whose country is the third-largest producer in OPEC, said at the French Institute of International Relations.

>PARIS France and Iran hailed a set of business tie-ups and export deals on Thursday including the sale of dozens of Airbus planes and a car factory revamp that re-ignites a decades-old relationship between Tehran and carmaker Peugeot.The deals, some of which were not yet finalised, were announced at...

>DES MOINES As seven Republican presidential contenders squared off here for the final debate before voters begin winnowing the field, Donald Trump presided over his own, separate rally a mile away in front of a packed house of cheering supporters. It would be hard to find a more ideal metaphor...

>WASHINGTON U.S. economic growth likely braked sharply in the fourth quarter as businesses doubled down on efforts to reduce an inventory glut and unseasonably mild weather cut into consumer spending on utilities and apparel. Gross domestic product probably rose at a 0.8 percent annual rate, according to a...

>Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014, sparking one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. The Chinese vessel Dong Hai Jiu 101 was offered to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in November and will be deployed...

>DES MOINES, Iowa Donald Trump shunned Thursday night's debate of the Republican presidential candidates hosted by Fox News and instead filled an auditorium a few miles down the road, trying to prove his widespread support only days before Iowa kicks off the nominating voting process. Trump, with just one day's...

>A third-party presidential run by Michael Bloomberg would be a long shot for the former New York City mayor but could help real estate mogul Donald Trump if he lands the Republican nomination, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.In a matchup between Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, adding Bloomberg's...

>U.S. crude CLc1 climbed 32 cents at $33.54 a barrel as of 2338 GMT, after it settled up 92 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $33.22 per barrel, down from a high of $34.82.Global benchmark Brent LCOc1 ended up 79 cents, or 2.4 percent,...

>SINGAPORE The yen dived on Friday after the Bank of Japan stunned financial markets by adopting a negative interest rate policy.The Japanese central bank's action comes as investors around the world have been swept up by turmoil in markets amid fears of slackening global growth, a collapse in oil...

>Brookfield Asset Management Inc (BAMa.TO) has been exploring an acquisition in recent months of General Growth Properties Inc (GGP) (GGP.N), the U.S. mall operator with a market value of $24 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.A potential deal would illustrate how major property investors...

>Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.N) fell on Thursday after the campaign of Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton posted a blog from an Iowa event detailing exorbitant price hikes for a migraine drug made by the company.At an Iowa town hall over the weekend, Clinton read from...

>One of the companies will house Xerox's hardware operations and the other its services business, the Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. (on.wsj.com/1Tqk0bj)Icahn will be given the seats on the board of the company holding Xerox's services business, the Journal reported. Xerox declined to...

>Under "Google", Alphabet will report the results of its main Internet and related businesses such as Search, Ads, Commerce, Maps, YouTube, Apps, Cloud, Android, Chrome and Google Play, and hardware products such as Chromecast, Chromebooks and Nexus and its virtual reality offerings. (bit.ly/1PlN7uS)"Other Bets" will detail Alphabet's other businesses...

>WASHINGTON Five U.S. Republican lawmakers raised concerns on Thursday with the Obama administration about implementation of a law meant to make it harder for people to enter the United States if they have visited certain countries, in a letter seen by Reuters.Kevin McCarthy, top Republican in the House...

>BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their left-leaning Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners agreed on Thursday to tighten asylum rules, reaching a compromise on how to stem an influx of migrants that topped one million last year.The new measures include a two-year ban on family reunions for asylum...

>North Korea tested a nuclear device on Jan. 6 that it said was a hydrogen bomb.U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters earlier on Thursday that the United States still believes that Pyongyang did not test a hydrogen bomb.(This version of the story corrects to show...

>WASHINGTON Large financial firms will have to show how they would survive a "severely adverse scenario", including a global recession where U.S. unemployment shoots up to 10 percent and short-term U.S. Treasuries pay negative yields, in this year's bank stress tests, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday.In...

>SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON In the U.S. Federal Reserve's arsenal of tools the characterization of economic risks is heavy artillery, used to flag the moments when major events like the 2003 Iraq war or the near crack-up of the euro zone in 2011 make forecasting even trickier than usual.The U.

>Microsoft, under Chief Executive Satya Nadella, has been focusing on cloud services and mobile applications as growth slows in its traditional software business. The cloud, in which growing numbers of companies move much of their information technology off premises, proved a bright spot for the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant.

>Amazon.com Inc's holiday quarter profit missed Wall Street's estimates by a wide margin as the world's No. 1 online retailer faced rising operating costs and growth slowed in its cloud services business. Its shares plunged 12 percent after hours on Thursday, after its quarterly report, following a 9 percent...

>Earlier this week, the BBC reported that Adam Szubin, acting Treasury secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, said in an interview the United States considers Putin corrupt. The Kremlin later described the remarks as an "official accusation." (Reporting by Jeff Mason, Doina Chiacu and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Bernadette...

>Republican Senator Cory Gardner said he had been concerned that the Obama administration would move too quickly to ease sanctions on Myanmar before it had made the transition to democratic government.But Gardner said during Thursday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting he had been assured that the sanctions policy had...

>WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS A U.S. Senate panel approved measures on Thursday that were causing concern in Europe among negotiators hammering out a new trans-Atlantic pact on electronic data transfer, an issue for many companies such as Facebook and Microsoft.In a step toward addressing global concerns about data privacy, the Senate...

>ST PETERSBURG, Russia/DUBAI Russia said on Thursday that OPEC's largest producer Saudi Arabia, had proposed oil production cuts of up to 5 percent in what would be the first global deal in over a decade to help clear a glut of crude and prop up sinking prices.Benchmark Brent futures...

>NEW YORK U.S. companies are singing the warm weather blues this corporate earnings season. The long spate of warm temperatures this winter likely will have a slightly positive affect on the U.S. economy, as a whole as construction projects can continue unabated and fewer workers will need to...

>The company will maintain its Latin American operations through its teams in Brazil and Coral Gables, Florida.Yahoo declined to specify how many jobs were affected, but said the offices were "small sales-focused". Technology news website TechCrunch first reported the closures. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by...

>Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters and Rep. Dan Kildee of Flint said they will offer an amendment to a pending Senate Energy bill that would provide up to $400 million to replace or fix lead pipes and other water infrastructure issues. The proposal would require the state of Michigan...

>The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday its pending home sales index inched up 0.1 percent to 106.8. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.8 percent increase in December. The trade group also said the index declined slightly more in November than initially estimated.

>A police source said the 28-year-old man of European origin had been carrying the two guns, including an automatic handgun, concealed in a bag that also contained a copy of the Koran religious text.A woman who had been accompanying the man was also arrested, the source said. France remains...

>Morgan Stanley (MS.N) has scaled back a group that invests in financial technology on behalf on the bank's equities division, according to people familiar with the matter. Most of the eight to 10 members of the principal strategic investments group have left the Wall Street firm in the last...

>Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR) said on Thursday that it had canceled $42.5 billion of a record $75 billion senior acquisition loan after raising a hugely successful bond which was used to repay part of the loan. The Belgium-based brewer, which is taking over rival SABMiller (SAB.L) in a...

>LONDON BG Group (BG.L) shareholders overwhelmingly approved Royal Dutch Shell's (RDSa.L) $52 billion takeover on Thursday, clearing the way for the two firms to create the world's biggest trader of liquefied natural gas (LNG).BG will now merge with Shell on Feb. 15, nearly two decades after the...

>The official added such a launch could happen within a couple of weeks. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Susan Heavey)...

>Local officials and eyewitnesses reported the death toll and said 10 other people were injured. Officials said Hadi was inside his residence at the time of the attack and was unharmed."A suicide car bomb targeted a security checkpoint about 500 meters (yards) from the Maashiq palace. The majority of...

>LONDON/DUBAI Iran, boosting oil exports after the lifting of sanctions, is talking of a need to recoup its market share, making the OPEC member a challenge to any deal among producers to fix a supply glut, OPEC sources said on Thursday.Russian officials have decided they should talk to Saudi...

>WASHINGTON New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods in December recorded their biggest drop in 16 months, the latest indication that U.S. economic growth braked sharply at the end of 2015. Despite the slowdown in growth, which was acknowledged by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, the labor market remains on...

>NEW YORK There were stays at boutique hotels featuring rooftop pools, private soirees at members-only, jacket-and-tie clubs and fundraisers at the Four Seasons, the St. Regis and the Mandarin Oriental.In the world of Jeb Bush, the campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination has at times been a whirl...

>YouTube has introduced schemes that allow artists to earn money from advertising sold alongside their videos but many in the music business argue this does not go far enough.However, the regional court in Munich on Thursday rejected Gema's demand that YouTube pay 0.375 euro cents ($0.004) per...

>The 130 million pound ($185 million) settlement, announced on Friday, was hailed by the UK government as a major success but dismissed as "derisory" by the opposition Labour Party and criticized by other parties.The European Commission itself took aim on Thursday at tax avoidance by multinationals, proposing that EU...

>Sony said October-December operating profit rose to 202.1 billion yen ($1.68 billion) from 182.1 billion yen a year prior, beating the average 175 billion yen forecast of 8 analysts according to Thomson Reuters data.The company maintained its outlook for full-year operating profit to grow to 320...

>JERUSALEM It appeared to have hallmarks of the first Islamic State attack in Israel: A Muslim citizen opened fire on a Tel Aviv bar days after the militant group threatened the country, and left behind a black ISIS banner. But security officials, given pause by the erratic conduct of the...

>BEIRUT Talks to end Syria's civil war risked being delayed for the second time this week as the opposition stuck to its demands for an end to air strikes and blockades and said on Thursday it was waiting for a response from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.The opposition High...

>Facebook Inc's (FB.O) shares surged 12 percent in premarket trading on Thursday, after smashing ad sales powered the company's quarterly results and cemented its status as one of the most bankable technology players in the industry.The jump in shares was set to add nearly $33 billion to Facebook's...

>The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 102.24 points, or 0.64 percent, to 16,046.7; the S&P 500 .SPX rose 13.84 points, or 0.74 percent, to 1,896.79; and the Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC gained 60.35 points, or 1.35 percent, to 4,528.52.

>DES MOINES, Iowa Donald Trump has figured out how to make the buzz around a Thursday night debate of Republican presidential candidates all about him: by vowing to skip it.But the billionaire’s move, days before Iowa holds the first nominating contest of the 2016 election, is a gamble.After...

>The sales represents a tiny fraction of those on Amazon's third-party marketplace platform, which allows other merchants to sell on Amazon's site. Third party merchants account for roughly 40 percent of Amazon's total site sales.But Amazon said the store serves as an important avenue for the retailer to get...

>The finance police report was due to be delivered to the Internet giant later in the day and comes amid an increasingly angry debate across Europe over taxation of multinationals who park earnings in low-tax nations. Asked about the Italian report, a Google spokesperson said: "Google complies with the tax...

>There were no other reported deaths in the double suicide bomb attack, though an unknown number of people were injured, one official said."The double attack occurred in the public school in the town of Kerawa," the official said. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack,...

>The Syrian opposition has said it wants such steps implemented before the start of negotiations, which the United Nations aims to convene on Friday in Geneva in an indirect format. The opposition has yet to say whether it will attend.The source, familiar with an opposition meeting in Riyadh, said...

>The 130 million pounds ($185 million) settlement, announced on Friday, was hailed by the UK government as a major success but dismissed as "derisory" by the opposition Labour Party. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told BBC radio she would be willing to probe Google's tax arrangements with Britain."If we...

> (Reporting by Alexander Winning; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Lidia Kelly)...

>Samsung Life, an insurance arm of Samsung Group, the country's biggest conglomerate, already owns 34.4 percent of the credit card business. Analysts and investors had long speculated that Samsung Group would eventually consolidate control of its financial arms under the life insurer. The move is seen as part of...

>TOKYO Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari resigned abruptly on Thursday to take responsibility for a political funding scandal that has rocked the government, but denied having taken bribes.The resignation of Amari, who has spear-headed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies, could pose a setback to the administration's "Abenomics" growth...

>NEW YORK While airlines are in no rush to pass on fuel savings to passengers brought by the collapse in oil prices, the Houston travel market has left them little choice.Airlines serving the U.S. oil capital have resorted to steep discounts to lure newly budget-conscious energy executives back...

>Grab, previously known as GrabTaxi, allows users to book motorbikes, private cars and taxis. It also provides carpooling and last mile delivery in some cities."Certain verticals will be profitable this year," CEO Anthony Tan told reporters at a briefing, but did not specify which ones. Grab, whose investors include...