News Archive - 21 June 2016

>Musk, who is also the chairman and principal shareholder of SolarCity, described the deal as "no brainer" in a call with reporters. He said the acquisition of SolarCity would transform Tesla into "the world's only vertically integrated energy company offering end-to-end clean energy products to our customers," from solar panels...

>HONG KONG/SINGAPORE McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) has received more than half a dozen bids for its planned sale of China and Hong Kong stores, including offers from Beijing Tourism Group, Sanpower and ChemChina in a deal worth about $3 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.McDonald's is offering...

>U.S. crude futures' August contract, the new front month from Wednesday, had climbed 35 cents to $50.20 a barrel by 0039 GMT (8:39 p.m. ET). That marked the first time it had risen above $50 since June 10.Brent crude futures were up 25 cents at $50.

>SYDNEY/SEOUL Smartphone leader Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has for years been a spectator as Apple (AAPL.O) built a services "ecosystem" supporting its products. But now, as the two develop the market for mobile payments, the Korean tech giant is taking the fight to its U.S. archrival.For Apple,...

>TOKYO Asian stocks were steady on Wednesday as nervous investors counted down to Britain's make-or-break EU referendum, while Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's cautious tone on future rate hikes added to a subdued mood in markets.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent though...

>The talks have stalled but could be revived, the source said on Tuesday.A potential deal between ConAgra and Post Holdings could value Lamb Weston at around $6 billion, said another source with knowledge of the matter. ConAgra, the maker of Chef Boyardee pasta and Slim Jim beef jerky, said...

>NEW YORK Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lead over Republican rival Donald Trump has slipped by about five percentage points since mid-June, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, bringing the race for the White House to within nine points. The poll showed that 44.5 percent of likely voters supported...

>NEW YORK The Federal Reserve on Tuesday delivered its starkest warning yet under Chair Janet Yellen that by its assessment U.S. stocks are pricey."Forward price-to-earnings ratios for equities have increased to a level well above their median of the past three decades," the Fed's twice-annual Monetary Policy Report,...

>The fundraising, which will be the private equity firm's seventh, will be capped at 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion), Bloomberg said. (bloom.bg/28LLAgK)In its sixth pool in 2013, CVC raised 10.5 billion euros for investments in Europe and North America. (reut.rs/28MADQ5) The new fund is now 50...

>Adobe, which is generally conservative with its forecast, forecast revenue of $1.42-$1.47 billion, largely below analysts average estimate of $1.47 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Adobe also reported a 20.4 percent rise in second-quarter revenue, as more customers subscribed for its Creative Cloud package of...

>Facebook has signed nearly 140 deals, including with CNN, the New York Times, Vox Media, Tastemade, Mashable and the Huffington Post, the Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a document. (on.wsj.com/28LLER1)Comedian Kevin Hart, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, wellness guru Deepak Chopra and NFL quarterback Russell Wilson are among the...

>BRUSSELS The European Union's Brussels envoys agreed on Tuesday to extend until the end of January the energy, financial and defense sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, but formal approval is still pending, diplomatic sources said. After more than two years of sanctions imposed over Moscow's annexation of...

>WASHINGTON Democrat Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that if Republican rival Donald Trump wins the White House, it will be a disaster for the U.S. economy, warning that the "the king of debt" would cause a "Trump recession.""Now I don't say this because of typical political disagreements -...

>WASHINGTON President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the U.S. military in Africa on Tuesday backed the idea of gaining greater power to strike Islamic State, including in Libya, which he described as the group's Plan B as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria.Marine Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser...

>"Market participants are not used to thinking about this possibility, but benchmarks sometimes come to a halt," Powell said in prepared remarks in New York for a roundtable discussion on a report on alternative reference rates.Libor is one of the world's most important benchmarks and about $300 trillion in...

>TORONTO/CALGARY Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) plans to make acquisitions in the North Sea and Eastern Canada to bolster its offshore upstream oil business as assets become available due to the slump in global oil prices, three sources familiar with the process said.The size of deals could range from...

>U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who waged a populist challenge to Clinton during an unexpectedly long primary campaign, was not on the list, the AP reported, citing one of several unidentified Democrats. (Reporting by Washington newsroom; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)...

>"The purpose of the visit will be to foster dialogue to deal with social, political and economic issues," the official told Reuters.Kerry announced plans to send Shannon, a veteran of U.S. diplomacy in the region, to Caracas after the secretary of state met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy...

>The U.S. Navy extended the Truman's deployment by one month to "keep the pressure" on Islamic State until the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier arrived to take over, Vice Admiral James Foggo, commander of the Navy's Sixth Fleet, told Reuters.The 1,096-feet (334-metre) Truman, as long as the Empire...

>U.S. banks including Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) are warning clients about the potential for extreme price moves as Britain prepares to vote on its membership of the European Union (EU).A vote to leave the EU in Thursday's referendum could unleash turmoil...

>Altice (ATCA.AS) could target more U.S. growth through acquisitions, a top executive said, after the European telecoms group completed a $17.7 billion deal to buy Cablevision Systems (CVC.N), its second U.S. multi-billion cable purchase in under a year. The Cablevision acquisition, which Altice announced on...

>WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dismissed a huge fundraising gap with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, saying he could always tap into his personal wealth if he needed more cash for the campaign.The New York real estate magnate lagged far behind Clinton in May, raising $3.1...

>"What we saw last night on the floor of the United States Senate was a shameful display of cowardice," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on MSNBC. Earnest said the bills put forth for votes on Monday evening should have drawn strong bipartisan support aimed at shoring up the country's...

>The microblogging site also said that some publishers would also be able to create videos that were as long as 10 minutes.Twitter also launched 'Twitter Engage', a new mobile app that allows publishers to analyze interactions with followers.Twitter previously restricted videos to 30 seconds. The new 140-second limit...

>Speaking at a think tank, Olson also said the United States planned to ask Congress for about $1 billion a year in development and economic assistance for Afghanistan from 2018 through 2020. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)...

>If the memory units are sent abroad, it will be for a 24-hour period and under Egyptian supervision, the minister told reporters. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Lin Noueihed)...

>The ECB has provided unprecedented stimulus over the past few years, cutting its rates deep into negative territory and buying 1.7 trillion euros ($1.92 trillion) worth of sovereign and corporate debt to revive growth and inflation."Uncertainty remains high and downside risks are still significant due to the...

>Sanjay Valvani, a hedge fund manager at Visium Asset Management LP who was arrested last week on insider trading charges, has been found dead in an apparent suicide, the police said on Tuesday.Valvani, 44, was discovered by his wife on Monday evening at his Brooklyn home with a wound...

>WASHINGTON Global risks and a U.S. hiring slowdown warrant a cautious approach to raising interest rates as the Federal Reserve looks for confirmation that the country's economic recovery remains on track, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday.In prepared testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen outlined how...

>It did not offer any details. Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors (000270.KS) in December agreed to buy a 23.3 percent stake in Hyundai Capital from GE for 703 billion won ($610.15 million). Hyundai said at the time it could buy the remaining 20 percent GE has...

>Intent Media, whose investors include New York-based private and growth equity firm Insight Ventures, is paying an undisclosed sum for Voyat. Founded by chief executive Benjamin Habbel, a former chief of staff for Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer when she worked at Google, New York-based Voyat has raised $3 million to...

>SAN FRANCISCO/ TORONTO At least a dozen countries are considering or have enacted laws restricting online speech, a trend that is alarming policymakers and others who see the internet as a valuable medium for debate and expression. Such curbs are called out as a threat to the open internet in...

>BRUSSELS A man who said he was wearing a bomb belt rigged to explode by remote control caused a major scare in a Brussels commercial district on Tuesday before police found the device contained only salt and biscuits, officials said.The Belgian capital remains on edge under a high security...

>Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the U.N. independent commission of inquiry on Syria, said that the Syrian government was conducting daily air strikes, while militant groups including Islamic State also carried out indiscriminate attacks."We need all states to insist time and time again that influential states and the (U.

>NEW YORK Hillary Clinton has no shortage of economic advisors. Scores of world-class experts pour ideas into her campaign on the policies she should champion in her bid for the White House.But before much of the input reaches the Democratic candidate, it is filtered through a pair of staffers...

>U.S. companies which depend on the United Kingdom for sales are downplaying the risk that a vote by Britain to leave the European Union could seriously harm their businesses, even as economists and Wall Street have expressed concerns about the trans-Atlantic economic impact.Britain, the fifth-largest buyer of U.

>U.S. stock index futures were higher on Tuesday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments on the economy and Britain's vote on its European Union membership on Thursday.* Yellen is expected to speak on the central bank's monetary policy before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 a.

>McKesson Corp (MCK.N), one of the largest U.S. drug distributors, has held talks about merging its information technology unit with healthcare technology company Change Healthcare Inc, three people familiar with the matter said. A combination of McKesson's IT unit with Change Healthcare would create one of the biggest...

>JAKARTA The central banks of Indonesia and South Korea have been hit by cyber attacks on their public websites since activist hacking group Anonymous pledged last month to target banks across the world, senior officials in the two countries told Reuters.In response to the attempted hacks, Bank Indonesia (BI)...

>In a statement, Samsung said it will make the investments through its Silicon Valley arms such as the Samsung Global Innovation Center in order to develop relevant technologies and strengthen cooperation with startup companies. The firm did not elaborate on its plans. Tech companies around the world are looking to...

>DHAKA Bangladesh central bank officials will hold a meeting with the New York Federal Reserve next month to try and speed up efforts to recover $81 million stolen by hackers from its account at the Fed, officials in Dhaka said.More than four months after the hackers broke into the...

>The car laden with explosives exploded near a camp for Syrian refugees in a remote area near the boundary between the two countries, the Jordanian army said earlier. (Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Writing by Tom Perry)...

>North Korea appeared to have moved an intermediate-range missile to its east coast, but there were no signs of an imminent launch, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, citing an unnamed government source.A South Korean defense ministry official said it could not confirm the Yonhap report and said the...

>LONDON Opinion polls on Tuesday suggested growing support amongst Britons for staying in the European Union but the vote in two days time which will have far-reaching consequences for Britain and Europe remains on a knife edge.Britons will vote on Thursday on whether to quit the 28-nation bloc amid...

>LONDON George Soros, the billionaire who earned fame by betting against the pound in 1992, said that a British vote on Thursday to leave the European Union would trigger a bigger and more disruptive sterling devaluation than the fall on Black Wednesday.Soros used Quantum Fund in 1992 to bet...

>China has gradually loosened its capital controls in efforts to promote international use of its currency, but domestic banks can only participate in the offshore market through overseas subsidiaries, with trading kept separate from the tightly-controlled domestic yuan market.The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a post on...

>WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO The U.S. Federal Reserve's dwindling confidence in its own outlook and resulting confusion among investors are creating a policy problem that may require chief Janet Yellen to lay out her own views more forcefully.The Fed chair's next communications test comes on Tuesday and Wednesday during her...