WARSAW / Bloomberg Poland’s largest mobile phone operator agreed to buy another company controlled by billionaire Zygmunt Solorz-Zak to gain access to high-speed mobile Internet network services and fend off competition from the units of Orange SA and Deutsche Telekom AG. Cyfrowy Polsat SA, Poland’s largest private television broadcaster and owner of mobile company Polkomtel Sp. z o.o. , will ...
Read More »S&P 500 Futures signal 2nd day of stock losses; Valeant Slides
NEW YORK / Bloomberg U.S. stock-index futures fell, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index trimmed its second weekly rally, amid concern policy makers around the world aren’t doing enough to bolster the global economy. Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell at least 1.1 percent in premarket trading, signaling lenders will snap a two-day advance. Valeant ...
Read More »Brazil Real rises as China support offsets political tensions
Rio De Janeiro /Bloomberg Brazil’s real advanced as China’s efforts to boost its economy offset increasing tension between President Dilma Rousseff and her party as a corruption investigation gets closer to her administration. The currency gained 0.2 percent to 3.9907 per U.S. dollar in Sao Paulo. It was headed to its first monthly advance since November. One-week implied volatility for ...
Read More »Hedge funds bet amid 2-month rally
NEW YORK / Bloomberg Hedge funds are the most bullish on Treasury benchmark 10-year notes in two years, as U.S. government securities head for a second straight monthly gain. Large speculators including hedge funds boosted their positions in Treasury 10-year futures to a net 84,659 contracts as of Feb. 23, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading ...
Read More »Brazil economists lower 2016 inflation forecast
Bloomberg Brazil analysts reduced their 2016 inflation forecast by the most in nearly eight months as the economy sinks into a deeper recession. Economists lowered their 2016 inflation forecast 5 basis points to 7.57 percent, the first cut in nine weeks, according to the weekly Focus survey conducted on Feb. 26. They also forecast the monetary authority will lower its ...
Read More »LatAm’s intervention flop shows markets always win out
BLOOMBERG Latin America’s policy makers are finding out they can’t fight the market. Colombia saw its peso rise last Monday after announcing a mix of currency, fiscal, and monetary measures, only for it to succumb to an emerging-market selloff later in the week. Argentina’s dollar sales failed to stop the peso falling every other day last week, and investors say ...
Read More »Clinton allies gather ammo to blunt Trump nomination
Columbia / AP Hillary Clinton, fresh off her South Carolina primary landslide, is shifting her focus to Republican front-runner Donald Trump as her party seeks consensus on the best ways to challenge the billionaire’s unpredictable nature in a general election campaign. As Clinton nears the 11 state contests to be decided on Super Tuesday this week, allies of the former ...
Read More »Trump in hot water over ‘white supremacist call’
Leesburg / AP Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is drawing criticism for refusing to denounce an implicit endorsement from a white supremacist leader, with his main rivals, Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, using the matter to hammer the billionaire businessman just two days before multiple state primaries could put him on an irreversible path to the party’s nomination. Trump ...
Read More »Ireland’s divided lawmakers mull awkward pacts, 2nd vote
Dublin / AFP Ireland’s election has produced a parliament full of feuding factions and no obvious road to a majority government, spurring lawmakers to warn that the country could face a protracted political deadlock followed by a second election. For the first time in Irish electoral history, the combined popular vote on Friday for Ireland’s two political heavyweights — the ...
Read More »Desperate migrants protest at Greece-Macedonia border
Idomeni / AFP Stranded migrants lay with their children on rail tracks at Greece’s northern border, demanding to be allowed to continue their journey, as Germany warned that Europe cannot let the country “plunge into chaosâ€. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was speaking as Athens said that the number of migrants trapped in Greece could triple after Balkan countries announced a ...
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