News Archive - 6 January 2017

(Picture: Foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey in the trilateral meeting held in Moscow on December 20.)   Since the early days of the formation of an Iran-Russia-Turkey axis, aimed to put an end to the Syrian crisis, Iranian commentators have been concerned with consequences of Turkey’s...

>BEIJING China's foreign exchange reserves fell to near six-year lows in December, but held just above the critical $3 trillion level (2.44 trillion pounds), as authorities stepped in to support the weakening yuan ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.China's reserves shrank by $41 billion in December,...

>WASHINGTON First lady Michelle Obama made an impassioned case for embracing diversity and welcoming all religious groups on Friday in a not-so-veiled message to her husband's successor two weeks ahead of Inauguration Day.In what was billed as her last formal speech before President Barack Obama leaves office, the first...

>Amazon.com Inc’s digital assistant appeared almost everywhere at the CES technology show this week in Las Vegas, even making an unexpected appearance on rival Google’s Android system. Companies ranging from appliance maker Whirlpool Corp to Ford Motor Co unveiled products featuring Alexa, the digital assistant from Amazon that responds...

>WASHINGTON Haley Barbour, former Republican Party leader and Mississippi governor, has been hired by the Ukrainian government to lobby U.S. politicians, according to documents filed this week.The hiring of Barbour and his lobbying firm BGR Group comes at a time when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's public embrace...

>NEW YORK Investors puzzled over whether U.S. interest rates are rising due to a stronger economy or because of fears about inflation might want to look at the recent gains in REITs for some useful guidance.Real estate investment trusts typically perform poorly in an environment of rising interest...

>"While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Congress on Friday certified the Electoral College vote that gave Republican Donald Trump his victory in the contentious 2016 presidential election after a raucous half-hour joint session punctuated by Democratic challenges.The Republican businessman, whose presidential campaign was his first bid for public office, garnered 304...

>WASHINGTON Anarchist groups have threatened to shut down Republican Donald Trump's swearing-in as U.S. president, but police in Washington said on Friday they believe the thousands of security officers assigned to the event will be able to head off any disruption.Dozens of activist groups plan to protest the...

>The government and allied fighters from the Lebanese group Hezbollah launched an attack two weeks ago to take back Wadi Barada where a spring provides supplies to four million people in the capital.A military news outlet run by Hezbollah reported that a ceasefire had been reached for "a number...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed charges on Friday against Bank of America (BAC.N) and two of its employees, saying they wrongfully discriminated against prospective Hispanic mortgage borrowers in South Carolina. HUD said it expects its case against the bank will be heard...

>CHICAGO Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Friday the central bank could raise interest rates three times this year, faster than he had expected just a few months ago and in line with the majority of his colleagues.The comments from Evans, a voting member of the Fed's...

>WASHINGTON Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and the U.S. Justice Department are nearing an agreement to resolve the government's civil and criminal investigations that would require the German automaker to pay a penalty of more than $3 billion, sources briefed on the talks said on Friday.The agreement is not...

>WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday that the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election was not affected by cyber attacks after intelligence agencies briefed him on their conclusion that Russia had staged cyber attacks during the campaign.Having hours earlier dismissed the controversy as a "political witch hunt,"...

>The watchdog launched a probe into Apple's business practices in December 2014 to investigate allegations the company's Canadian unit had used anti-competitive clauses to force domestic operators to sell rival devices at higher prices than they otherwise would have and restricting how they could market and sell iPhones. "The Bureau...

>"I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it," Trump said in a post on Twitter.Several news outlets carried stories on Thursday evening on a U.S. intelligence report on Russian efforts to influence...

>The latest fourth-quarter GDP estimate was unchanged from the growth rate on Tuesday, the Atlanta Fed said on its website. (Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)...

>WASHINGTON AT&T Inc expects to be able to bypass a powerful telecommunications regulator in its planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), the companies said in regulatory filings on Friday.Time Warner said that since it does not plan to transfer any Federal Communications Commission licenses...

>NEW DELHI A subsidiary of China's top carmaker SAIC Motor Corp (600104.SS) plans to acquire certain General Motors (GM.N) manufacturing assets in India, a filing with the country's competition watchdog showed on Friday.The assets, which could give the Chinese automaker a toehold in the Indian car market,...

>Investigators recommended last month that the search be extended by 25,000 sq km to an area further north in the Indian Ocean, after conceding for the first time they were probably looking in the wrong place. [nL4N1EF02J]But Malaysia's transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, told reporters the search of the 120,000...

>LONDON Bitcoin plunged by as much as 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational and cautious approach to investing in the digital currency, which is on track for its heaviest two-day drop in two years. Bitcoin had been on a tear until Wednesday,...

>LONDON Iran has sold more than 13 million barrels of oil that it had long held on tankers at sea, capitalizing on an OPEC output cut deal from which it is exempted to regain market share and court new buyers, according to industry sources and data.In the past three...

>The Commerce Department said on Friday the trade gap increased 6.8 percent to $45.2 billion. October's trade deficit was revised down slightly to $42.4 billion from the previously reported $42.6 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade gap little changed at $42.5 billion...

>"The dishonest media does not report than any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!" Trump said on Twitter.The Mexico peso briefly weakened by about 0.22 percent following his comment. The Mexican currency has fallen to...

>WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump, who insulted rivals during his 2016 campaign with nicknames such as "Crooked Hillary" and "Little Marco," has a new nemesis: U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, a man he derides as a "clown."The rhetorical banter that erupted between the two New Yorkers this week...

>The ECB has been facing fresh calls from some German economists this week to dial back its unprecedented monetary stimulus, which includes a 2.3 trillion euros ($2.44 trillion) bond-buying program.Mersch's pushback was particularly significant as he is considered a 'hawk', meaning he has often sided with Germany...

>HONG KONG Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE (000063.SZ), which is facing U.S. trade sanctions that could severely disrupt its supply chain, is slashing about 3,000 jobs, including a fifth of positions in its struggling handset business in China, company sources said.The sources said the Shenzhen-based company, one...

>The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 5.99 points, or 0.03 percent, at 19,905.28, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 1.94 points, or 0.08 percent, at 2,270.94 and the Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC was up 10.78 points, or 0.2 percent, at...

>Carlyle has held talks with potential advisers about selling the Ronkonkoma, New York-based Nature's Bounty, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (bloom.bg/2jibKjG)Nature's Bounty, formerly known as NBTY Inc, could fetch as much as $6 billion in a sale, Bloomberg reported. Carlyle bought NBTY in 2010. While finding...

>Duterte's remarks came a day after Russia's ambassador said his country was ready to supply the Philippines with sophisticated weapons and aims to become its close friend."We welcome our Russian friends. Anytime you want to dock here for anything, for play, for replenish supplies or maybe our ally to...

>Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the ceasefire in late December and said Russia would pull back some of its forces in Syria, where its military intervention has turned the tide in favour of President Bashar al-Assad.The head of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said that had begun on...

>NORTH OF MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD Iraqi troops entered Mosul from the north for the first time on Friday, part of a new phase in the battle for the city that also saw elite forces bridge a river under cover of darkness in an unprecedented night raid.The operations were part of...

>TOKYO U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) over its Mexican-built cars, but the biggest risk from a punitive tariff would be for its compatriot Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), the largest automaker operating in the country.Trump has criticized U.S. companies like General...

>The two companies asked about the proposal under which Johnson & Johnson would acquire Actelion while separating its commercialized portfolio from its research and development assets, a deal structure first reported by Reuters last week.The panel's preliminary review was still going on, the paper said. The Tages-Anzeiger quotes a...

>SEOUL South Korea's LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS) estimated on Friday it fell to its first quarterly operating loss in six years in October-December, a drop that analysts pinned on continued mobile losses and seasonally weaker appliances sales.The world's second-biggest television maker behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS)...

>SHANGHAI China's offshore yuan pared some of its sharp gains racked up this week, but is still on course for its biggest weekly rise after Beijing was suspected of pushing up overnight borrowing costs to discourage bearish bets on the currency.Both onshore CNY=CFXS and offshore yuan CNH=D3 have been...

>"I will be departing on January 20th," Ambassador Mark Gilbert said in a Twitter message to Reuters.The mandate was issued "without exceptions" through an order sent in a State Department cable on Dec. 23, Gilbert said.He was confirming a report in the New York Times, which quoted diplomatic...

>TOKYO Japan said on Friday it was temporarily recalling its ambassador to South Korea over a statue commemorating Korean women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War Two which it said violated an agreement to resolve the issue.The two nations agreed in 2015 that the issue...

>WASHINGTON U.S. employers likely maintained a solid pace of hiring in December while raising wages, putting the economy on a path to stronger growth and further interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve this year.Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 178,000 jobs last month after a similar rise in...

>TOKYO The Japanese government defended Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Friday as an "important corporate citizen" of the United States, after President-elect Donald Trump singled out the automaker and threatened to slap punitive tariffs on its Mexico-built cars.Trump has repeatedly hit out at U.S. companies for using...