Bloomberg Bank stocks continued a rally sparked by the Trump administration’s plan to roll back financial regulations, while the dollar fluctuated as investors weighed the prospects for a Federal Reserve rate increase in March. Equities from India to Japan climbed after the S&P 500 Index closed within a point of its all-time high. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. jumped ...
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BNP Paribas outpaces its European peers
Bloomberg With some of Europe’s largest banks still struggling to boost profitability and raise dividends, BNP Paribas SA is doing both. That helps explain why investors have driven the shares to the highest in almost a decade. The Paris-based lender will probably report on Tuesday that fourth-quarter net income more than doubled to 1.63 billion euros ($1.75 billion), according ...
Read More »Lloyds bonuses to beat RBS’s for first time since bailouts
Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is poised to pay more in bonuses than Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc for the first time since the financial crisis, underscoring the contrasting performances of two of Britain’s bailed out banks. Lloyds has earmarked about 390 million pounds ($486.8 million) for its employee bonus pot, overtaking RBS, which is considering a pool ...
Read More »Resurrecting ‘therapy beach’
Broome / DPA The Dead Sea shimmers blue-green under a mild winter sun, waves rippling gently to the beach as a tourist couple enters the water. The high salt content – at 34 percent almost 10 times the level in the world’s seas – means that a human floats on the water like a cork with no danger of ...
Read More »For these students, free tuition doesn’t mean free college
BUFFALO, NY / DPA They don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but … New York public college students who would stand to gain from the nation’s most ambitious free-tuition proposal are quick to point out a sobering reality from their own meager finances: Free tuition doesn’t mean free college. Take Brooklyn College senior Florencia Salinas, who despite having her tuition ...
Read More »Vitol sees crude rattled as Trump makes market fret
Bloomberg Donald Trump and global crude producers are set to take prices on a bumpy ride this year, according to the world’s biggest independent oil trader. As investors are kept on tenterhooks over US policies and whether OPEC and other nations will curb output as pledged, global benchmark Brent crude may vacillate between $52 and $62 a barrel, according ...
Read More »Oil’s gain on Iran-US tensions tempered by shale drilling boom
Bloomberg Oil’s advance to near $54 a barrel amid increased tensions between Iran and the US eased after American drillers expanded the rig count to the highest level since October 2015. Futures rose 0.4 percent in New York after last week capping a third weekly gain. Prices climbed as much as 1.3 percent on Friday after Donald Trump’s administration ...
Read More »Glencore extends major Libyan oil deal
LONDON / Reuters Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore has extended a deal with Libya’s state oil firm to be the sole marketer of one third of the country’s current crude oil production, sources familiar with the matter said. It was not clear for how long Glencore would continue to have exclusivity over the output and whether some parts of the ...
Read More »Turkey transfers billions to sovereign fund
Reuters Turkey has transferred government stakes worth billions of dollars in Turkish Airlines, major banks and fixed-line operator Turk Telekom to a sovereign wealth fund set up last year to help finance big-ticket infrastructure projects. Ankara has ambitious plans for the fund, established last August with initial capital of 50 million lira ($13.6 million). It wants the fund to ...
Read More »Iran says shipment will boost its uranium supply
TEHRAN/ AP Iran’s nuclear chief says it will have 60 percent more stockpiled uranium than it did prior to the landmark 2015 agreement with world powers after a shipment expected later this week. Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday as saying that Iran will receive a final batch of 149 tons of ...
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