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Wall Street set to open flat, eyes on Europe
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were set to open little changed on Thursday following a choppy futures session as investors focused on concerns about Spain's economy and banking system and reacted to headlines from Greece. News that some Greek banks face emergency funding needs hurt sentiment and caused a decline in risk assets which have already dropped over the past weeks. Greek politicians who reject conditions for a bailout that is keeping the country's finances afloat are seen likely to win next month's election, adding to worries about Greece leaving the euro zone. ...
05/17/2012 - 09:13 AM
Jobless claims steady, labor worries persist
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New claims for unemployment benefits were unchanged last week, according to government data on Thursday that will do little to ease concerns about a recent slowdown in jobs growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits held steady at a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week's figure was revised up to 370,000 from the previously reported 367,000. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 365,000 last week. ...
05/17/2012 - 09:04 AM
Analysis: Facebook can't take Asian growth for granted
 SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Even as Facebook fever grips investors ahead of the social networking giant's potential $100 billion-plus initial public offering, its breakneck growth in Asia may be slowing as it moves beyond desktop users to those who access the Internet largely or solely from a mobile phone. In March, Facebook revised its own SEC filings to scale back its scope for further growth in India - its third-biggest user base and the largest population it currently has access to - China remains off-limits to Facebook. ...
05/17/2012 - 07:27 AM
Europe's banks on the brink
 LONDON, May 17 (IFR) - The euro zone crisis was in full swing when Jean-Claude Trichet took the podium in Berlin last October 6 for his final press conference as president of the European Central Bank. Having helped create one of the longest periods of price stability in the history of central banking, Trichet was closing out his eight-year reign under siege. Soaring oil prices had made a mockery of the bank's superlative record on inflation, while the worst recession on the continent since World War II had morphed into a full-scale sovereign debt crisis. ...
05/17/2012 - 08:54 AM
Berkshire Hathaway buying Media General newspapers
 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is making another bet on the newspaper industry, with a deal to buy the majority of Media General Inc papers for $142 million in cash. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc also agreed to loan $400 million to the company, which also owns television stations, and provide a $45 million credit line. Media General will also issue warrants for approximately 4.6 million Class A shares, representing 19.9 percent of Media General's existing shares outstanding. The 63 daily and weekly newspapers scattered throughout the U.S. ...
05/17/2012 - 09:07 AM
JPMorgan's future losses at the mercy of an obscure index
 (Reuters) - It's the biggest parlor game on Wall Street: Estimating how large JPMorgan Chase & Co's trading loss will be from a hedging strategy that went wrong. The biggest U.S. bank by assets has already disclosed $2 billion of paper losses, and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said it could lose another $1 billion or more. The losses will grow, some traders say, because it appears JPMorgan has only sold a small portion of its position, leaving it vulnerable to price swings in a thinly traded market. Others are not so sure the bank will suffer much more than it already has. ...
05/17/2012 - 12:17 AM
Wal-Mart posts strong profit as U.S. sales jump
 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as more people shopped its established U.S. discount stores and spent more money. The world's largest retailer, which was recently rocked by allegations of bribery in Mexico, earned $1.09 per share from continuing operations, compared with a profit of 98 cents a year earlier. An earlier Easter and warmer weather contributed to the gains, the company said. Wal-Mart had forecast earnings per share of $1.01 to $1.06. Analysts, on average, expected it to earn $1. ...
05/17/2012 - 09:13 AM
Enbridge plans huge Canada, US pipeline expansion
 CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc kicked off one of the most sweeping expansions in its history on Wednesday, a C$3.2 billion ($3.2 billion)series of projects across its pipeline system aimed at moving western Canadian crude to Eastern refineries and preventing bottlenecks in the U.S. Midwest. Enbridge, already the largest transporter of Canadian oil exports, said C$2. ...
05/17/2012 - 06:45 AM
Sears plans to spin off big piece of Canada stake
 (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp said on Thursday it plans to spin off a large part of its stake in its Canada unit, which Chairman Edward Lampert spent years trying to gain control of, to better focus on its U.S. business. Separately, Sears Holdings reported a first-quarter adjusted operating loss that came in better than analysts' estimates but revenues fell from a year ago. Sears Holdings owns about 95 percent of Sears Canada and would still hold about 51 percent after the spinoff, which it expects to complete this year. Sears said it could further reduce its Sears Canada stake after that. ...
05/17/2012 - 08:04 AM
GM chooses UK plant over Germany for new Astra
LONDON (Reuters) - General Motors Co will build the next generation of its Astra compact in Britain after workers at its factory in Ellesmere Port, northwest England, overwhelmingly agreed to a new labor deal, leaving its plant in Bochum, Germany in danger of closure. The U.S. carmaker said on Thursday it would invest 125 million pounds ($199 million) in the Ellesmere Port plant, where assembly of the new vehicle will start in 2015. ...
05/17/2012 - 05:55 AM
Analysis: Greeks not alone in bank savings exodus
LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek savers may be gripped by a "great fear that could develop into panic" in the words of President Karolos Papoulias, but many Greeks shifted their money to safer havens in Britain, Switzerland, Germany and Nordic countries long ago. Worries about a run on Greek banks has rattled Athens this week, after savers withdrew at least 700 million euros on Monday alone, according to minutes of Papoulias's comments to political leaders posted on the presidency's website. It is not only Greeks who are worried about their savings. ...
05/17/2012 - 08:14 AM
Spain beset by bank crisis, recession, bond pressure
 MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's borrowing costs shot up at a bond auction on Thursday, after economic data confirmed the country is back in recession and reports of an outflow of deposits from nationalized Bankia hammered its share price. The Spanish Treasury had to pay around 5 percent to attract buyers of three- and four-year bonds. The longer-dated paper sold with a yield of 5.106 percent, way above the 3.374 percent the last time it was auctioned. "This ... ...
05/17/2012 - 09:00 AM
Obama wants tough rules after JPMorgan loss: report
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House, following a trading loss of more than $2 billion by JPMorgan, wants to ensure a tough interpretation of a regulation aimed at preventing banks from making bets with their own money, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said White House officials have stepped up talks with the Treasury Department in the several days since the staggering loss was disclosed by the bank. The discussions, according to the report, represent the first tangible political impact from the trading debacle. ...
05/17/2012 - 05:58 AM
RBC, Credit Suisse among bidders for BofA wealth units: sources
 SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Canada and Credit Suisse are among suitors who have put in initial bids to buy the non-U.S. wealth management business of Bank of America in a deal that could be worth about $2 billion, sources said. Swiss bank Julius Baer was also keen to bid for some of BofA's units in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia excluding Japan, the sources, who had knowledge of the matter, told Reuters. It was not clear whether Switzerland's third-biggest bank had submitted an initial bid. ...
05/17/2012 - 06:47 AM
Bankia customers pull out over 1 billion euros: report
MADRID (Reuters) - Customers at nationalized Spanish bank Bankia SA have taken out more than 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) over the past week in a sign of fast-fading confidence in the lender, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Newly appointed Chairman Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri informed a board meeting on Wednesday about the exit of funds from the bank, El Mundo said, citing information from the board meeting it had seen. Bankia, the Bank of Spain and the economy ministry declined to comment on the report. ...
05/17/2012 - 07:16 AM
HSBC doubles turnaround target to $2 billion
 HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC doubled the annual revenue boost expected from its turnaround plan to $2 billion, as Europe's biggest bank picks 22 markets to drive its growth and eyes more cost cutting to cope with new regulations in the wake of the financial crisis. Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said on Thursday that, one year into a three-year recovery plan, HSBC was on target to meet profitability and cost savings targets. ...
05/17/2012 - 08:32 AM
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi freezes Iran transactions
TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, which handles most of Japan's payments for oil imports from Iran, said on Thursday it had frozen transactions with Iranian banks after being ordered to do so by the New York District Court earlier this month. The head of the Japan's banking lobby group said the action could affect crude imports, although the country's biggest refiner said it was not facing a problem paying for Iranian oil. The move stems from a U.S. court decision in 2007 that ordered Iran to pay more than $2. ...
05/17/2012 - 06:11 AM
Analysis: U.S. bond bulls not ready to call off the charge
NEW YORK (Reuters) - They are the few, the brave, the unloved, and among big investors, their number shrinks by the month. They are the last of the bond bulls, the investors who believe long-term U.S. government bonds will extend a historic run that has already pushed interest rates to multi-decade lows. Recent surveys show broad disdain for Treasuries among market cognoscenti. ...
05/17/2012 - 12:14 AM
Japanese consumers lead economic rebound in first quarter
 TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's economy bounced back in the first quarter from a year-end lull, powering ahead of other major industrial nations thanks to rebuilding of the tsunami-battered northeast, solid private spending and some improvement in exports. The world's third-largest economy grew 1.0 percent in the January-March quarter, just above a median forecast of 0.9 percent. A 0.2 percent contraction in the economy reported for the final three months of 2011 was revised up to flat in the government data released on Thursday. ...
05/17/2012 - 03:29 AM
Spreading euro zone fears send shares lower
 LONDON (Reuters) - The euro slipped to near four-month lows and European shares extended their losing streak on Thursday, as investors avoided riskier assets due to the deepening turmoil in Greece and fears of contagion spreading to other stressed euro zone economies. Worries about the health of Spain's banks also resurfaced after a report that customers at Bankia had withdrawn more than 1 billion euros from their accounts in the past week, though the Spanish government said there had been no exit of deposits from the lender. ...
05/17/2012 - 08:21 AM
Fears over Greece's political and financial crisis
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks closed lower in a choppy session on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 logging its fourth straight decline as investors worried about Greece's future as a member of the euro zone. Early U.S. gains were erased after the European Central Bank said it had stopped providing liquidity to some Greek banks that had not been recapitalized. The ECB's move caused some market confusion, adding to volatility as traders have a quick trigger finger when it comes to news about Greece. ...
05/16/2012 - 04:42 PM
Insight: Peak, pause or plummet? Shale oil costs at crossroads
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum was among the first major U.S. oil drillers to make a big bet on the resurgence of domestic production, spending billions to grab oil patches from Texas to North Dakota. Now, as it bemoans steep costs and moves its rigs out of the Bakken shale oil fields, some analysts wonder if the company has lost its clairvoyance. After two years of unyielding gains, costs are bound to fall, they say. The California-based energy giant is beset by escalating labor costs in North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. ...
05/17/2012 - 12:26 AM
J.C. Penney stock has worst fall ever
 (Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc shares plunged nearly 20 percent on Wednesday, their worst decline ever, wiping away $1.43 billion in market value a day after the retailer shocked Wall Street with a much worse-than-expected drop in sales and by scrapping its dividend. A number of leading Wall Street firms also lowered their price targets on the company. Penney shares closed down $6.57 at $26.75 on the New York Stock Exchange. ...
05/16/2012 - 08:02 PM
China consumers less willing to spend in first quarter: Nielsen
 BEIJING (Reuters) - China's consumers are cooling towards discretionary spending, preferring to salt money into savings or education for their children, according to a Nielsen survey of Chinese consumer confidence published on Thursday. Although Nielsen found that Chinese consumer confidence rose in the first three months of 2012 to its highest since 2005, making China the world's fourth most optimistic nation, willingness to spend remained flat. Savings and education were the only areas in which survey respondents were more willing to allocate additional cash. ...
05/16/2012 - 11:03 PM
Pinterest funding could value startup at $1.5 billion
 (Reuters) - Social networking site Pinterest has raised $100 million from a group of investors led by Japanese online retailing giant Rakuten Inc in a deal that reportedly values the three-year-old U.S. company at $1.5 billion. Rakuten said it was joined in the capital-raising by existing shareholders Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital and a number of angel investors. The new round of financing values Pinterest — one of Silicon Valley's fastest growing startups — at $1.5 billion, up sharply from $200 million late last year, Wall Street Journal said. ...
05/17/2012 - 08:36 AM
Ad execs say jury still out on Facebook as medium
 NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - General Motors Inc's decision to stop advertising on Facebook may be a wake-up call for the No. 1 social network, but Top advertising executives say it's far too early to know if the site will take off as an advertising platform. "There's a lot of potential but it's not a slam-dunk," said Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Plc, the world's largest advertising agency. "Showing the impact of branding on Facebook is going to take a long time," he added. Facebook is due to begin trading on Nasdaq on Friday in an initial public offering that will raise about $15. ...
05/16/2012 - 09:04 PM
Shareholders sue JPMorgan Chase over trading loss
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co was the target of two separate lawsuits by shareholders on Wednesday, accusing the bank and its management of excessive risk that led to trading losses of at least $2 billion. A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase declined to comment on the lawsuits, which were filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, days after Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's May 10 statement that a "failed hedging strategy" caused the massive loss over the last month. ...
05/16/2012 - 10:28 AM
Gupta insider trading jury to hear Rajaratnam tapes
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Convicted hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam is in prison, but the jurors of a separate insider trading trial of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble Co board member Rajat Gupta will hear his voice in court on FBI wiretaps. A federal judge in New York made a preliminary ruling on Wednesday to allow prosecutors to play a recorded telephone conversation from July 29, 2008, between Rajaratnam and Gupta, whose trial starts next Monday. Over defense objections, U.S. ...
05/16/2012 - 05:17 PM
Oxfam sues over oil, mining payments to governments
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oxfam America sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday to try to get the SEC to force oil, gas and mining companies to disclose how much they pay to foreign governments. The SEC is more than a year late in issuing a regulation requiring U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies to disclose the payments, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Massachusetts. The regulation is mandated by a section of the Dodd-Frank Act that seeks to increase transparency in the drilling and mining industries. ...
05/16/2012 - 09:06 PM
Automakers rev up new model rollout in U.S.: study
 DETROIT (Reuters) - Major automakers will launch new models through 2016 in the United States at a faster pace than in the last two decades, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch report. New models draw more traffic to showrooms, which can boost a company's market share, profit and stock price. Automakers are expanding their lineups to better compete in the growing U.S. auto market after a "lull" during the economic downturn, the annual report said. ...
05/16/2012 - 08:12 PM
Human Genome board adopts 'poison pill' measure
Biotech drugmaker Human Genome Sciences Inc.'s board has adopted a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan to ward off unsolicited takeover bids, and it also has rejected a buyout offer worth nearly $2.6 billion from British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline plc.
05/17/2012 - 09:14 AM
Caretaker Greek Cabinet, legislators sworn in
 The 300 legislators elected in Greece's inconclusive May 6 ballot were sworn in Thursday, including 21 from the right-wing Golden Dawn party — one of the most extreme nationalist parties to have taken seats in a European parliament since World War II.
05/17/2012 - 09:04 AM
Futures mixed on jobs data as Europe churns
 Stock futures wavered Thursday, with unease about Europe overshadowing another positive U.S. employment report and also some big numbers from retailers, including the world's largest.
05/17/2012 - 09:04 AM
Russian markets hit 8-month low on oil price drop
Russia's MICEX benchmark has shed nearly 3 percent to hit its lowest point since Oct. 5, as oil prices keep falling, lowering revenue from its lucrative sector and as fears grow that Greece's political crisis will hurt the European economy.
05/17/2012 - 09:04 AM
Sears Holdings returns to a profit in 1st quarter
Sears Holdings Corp. returned to a first-quarter profit, benefiting from a gain on the sale of some stores.
05/17/2012 - 08:59 AM
Buffett's Berkshire to buy Media General papers
Billionaire Warren Buffett's company is making its largest foray into newspapers yet, agreeing to buy 63 papers from Media General Inc.
05/17/2012 - 08:56 AM
Spain borrowing rates rise, bank shares slide
 Spain paid sharply higher interest rates in a debt auction on Thursday, reflecting concerns the country will be caught up in the fallout of the Greek crisis, as a recently nationalized Spanish bank's shares plummeted after a newspaper said depositors were rushing to withdraw money.
05/17/2012 - 08:55 AM
Wal-Mart's 1Q profit up 10.1 percent
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported a 10.1 percent increase in first-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates as its re-emphasis on low prices drove bargain-hungry U.S. shoppers into its stores. The world's largest retailer also offered an upbeat profit outlook for the current quarter.
05/17/2012 - 08:48 AM
US unemployment aid applications stay at 370,000
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, suggesting steady gains in the job market.
05/17/2012 - 08:37 AM
France's new Socialist govt gets down to work
 Members of France's new Socialist-led government will promise Thursday to take a pay cut, a gesture of shared sacrifice by leaders who must now both reduce the country's massive debts and tackle spiraling unemployment.
05/17/2012 - 08:36 AM
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