(Reuters) -Mastercard Inc beat quarterly profit expectations on Thursday as domestic spending through its cards rose and cross-border volumes grew following an uptick in international travel. While increased vaccination and easing of pandemic-related curbs powered the recovery in spending, it was slightly dented by a surge in infections from the Omicron variant toward the end…
Markets were having their best day of 2022. Then Jerome Powell happened. What did the Fed Chair say that had investors concerned? The first thing we need to understand is that we have been operating in a bearish environment this year. That sets up for bear market-type moves. For instance, we saw the markets on…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week following three straight increases amid a surge in cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19. Jobless claims fell by 30,000 to 260,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, fewer than the 265,000 analysts were expecting. The four-week average of claims, which compensates for…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020’s brief but devastating coronavirus recession. The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year growth since a 7.2%…
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Singapore’s DBS Group will announce on Friday it is to buy Citigroup’s consumer finance business in Taiwan, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. DBS and Citi declined to comment. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, did not…
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of Ethiopia’s blockaded Tigray region over a four-month period last year, including more than 350 young children, a new report by the region’s health bureau says. It cites more than 5,000 blockade-related deaths in all from hunger and disease in the largest…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has asked the Treasury Department for “clarity to the digital asset ecosystem” after new related reporting requirements were included in last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure law, Punchbowl News said on Thursday. In a letter dated Wednesday, the group told Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that part of…
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines posted a narrow $68 million profit for the fourth quarter, aided by full flights during the holidays, but the airline warned Thursday that it expects to lose money in the first three months of 2022. The rise of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and continuing weak business travel will cut…
McDonald’s ended 2021 on a high note with U.S. customers spending more and fewer restaurant closures in Europe from coronavirus restrictions. But higher costs for food and labor weighed on profits, and the company said it expects that pressure to continue this year. McDonald’s reported adjusted earnings of $2.23 per share, 11 cents short of…
By Chibuike Oguh (Reuters) – Blackstone Inc said on Thursday its fourth-quarter distributable earnings rose by 55% to a record high, as the world’s largest manager of alternative assets took advantage of rising markets to sell assets for top dollar. Private equity dealmaking pushed global mergers and acquisition activity (M&A) to an all-time high in…
