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Beware of data mining to help your investments

Barry Ritholtz I keep promising to stop writing about lessons from the election that are applicable to markets, and then I keep finding more examples. So rather than make any promises I cannot keep, let’s just jump right into this. Since Donald Trump’s surprise victory — though it wasn’t a surprise to those of you with the power of hindsight ...

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Lufthansa offers pilots new deal to end strike

  Berlin / AFP Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa offered pilots a new wage deal to end a crippling three-day strike that has led to mass flight cancellations affecting over 300,000 passengers. However the pilots’ union Cockpit swiftly rejected the new offer. The airline said it had been forced to cancel more than 2,700 flights since the start of the walkout, ...

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Holiday price war heats up as Walmart, Target chase Amazon

  Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and other brick-and-mortar chains are counting on heavier discounts and a bigger online selection to help keep up with Amazon.com Inc. this holiday season. As Black Friday ushers in the year-end shopping rush, chains are touting larger price cuts than in 2015 — a gamble that maintaining market share is worth squeezing margins. ...

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Missing vintage rally pilot turns up in South Sudan

  Nairobi / AFP A maverick 72-year-old British pilot taking part in a vintage air rally turned up in South Sudan on Saturday after going missing for a second time when the event arrived in Kenya. Maurice Kirk is one of about a dozen pilots flying vintage biplanes across Africa, but has repeatedly run foul of organisers for failing to ...

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Airline workers enjoy good times amid doubt resurgence will last

  Bloomberg US airlines are posting record profits, awarding hefty pay raises and winning over longtime skeptics like Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The missing ingredient: proof that the industry can weather a downturn. Previous airline booms were followed by busts that eventually forced all the biggest full-service airlines into bankruptcy. The difference this time is an eight-year era of ...

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National Bank of Greece seeks better bids before selling loans

  Bloomberg National Bank of Greece SA, the country’s oldest lender, will only consider selling batches of bad loans to distressed debt managers once country risk recedes and bids improve, Chief Executive Officer Leonidas Fragkiadakis said. “We are actively talking to people. As of now there is no closing-in of agreements I can report,” Fragkiadakis said in the interview from ...

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Australian banks admit to ringgit cartel

  Sydney / AFP Australian banks ANZ and Macquarie agreed to pay Aus$15 million (US$11 million) in fines for trying to manipulate the benchmark rate of the Malaysian ringgit. ANZ admitted to 10 instances of attempted cartel conduct and Macquarie to eight relating to setting the daily rates for derivative instruments linked to Malaysia’s currency in 2011. The Australian Competition ...

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Saudi Hollandi Bank is now ‘Alawwal Bank’

  DUBAI /Reuters Saudi Hollandi Bank said it would change its name to Alawwal Bank as part of a new corporate identity that will be rolled out over the next three months. Alawwal, meaning “The First” in Arabic, references the bank’s status as the first bank to launch in the country in 1926. The name change coincides with Royal Bank ...

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China bad-loan disposal no easy task with slowdown

  Bloomberg Tougher economic conditions and overcapacity in the steel, coal and cement sectors are making it harder and less profitable for China’s bad-loan managers to dispose of soured credits, according to a survey. Only 4 percent of 101 respondents at the nation’s distressed asset-management firms said they found it “easy” or “relatively easy” to dispose of bad loans, China ...

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