By Matt Tracy WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service Inc said on Wednesday it has pushed more highly indebted companies to the bottom of its junk ratings barrel and that debt defaults are also on the rise as financing conditions tighten. The number of companies rated B3 negative or lower by Moody’s…
By Nell Mackenzie PARIS (Reuters) – The biggest threat to the economic outlook is a credit squeeze that has not finished filtering through the financial system, two senior asset managers told a European equities conference on Wednesday. For asset managers, hedge funds and traders gathered in Paris for the Tradetech equity trading conference, recession risks…
By Junko Fujita TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) sold $1 billion of additional tier-1 (AT1) debt on Wednesday, becoming the first major global bank to sell the risky securities since similar bonds issued by Credit Suisse were wiped out last month. The deal reflects rebounding confidence in the banking sector of Asia’s…
MADRID (Reuters) – Aircraft maker Airbus agreed with Spanish labour unions to raise its workers’ salaries by between 5% and 7.4% this year on top of a 1,000 euro ($1,094) bonus that was paid in March, the CCOO union said on Wednesday. The agreement still has to be ratified by unionised workers. ($1 = 0.9143…
By Orhan Coskun and Birsen Altayli ANKARA (Reuters) – International investors are looking to increase investments in Turkey, notably in mergers and acquisitions, as they anticipate a shift to a more orthodox economic policy after May 14 elections, four government officials and analysts said. Opinion polls show President Tayyip Erdogan facing the greatest electoral challenge…
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Industrial production in Brazil fell for the third consecutive month in February, government statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, with the sector still below pre-pandemic levels as it struggles to gather steam. Output dropped 0.2% in February from January, below the median estimate of a 0.1% decline in a Reuters poll…
ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss government said commitments to the Swiss National Bank and UBS to ease the takeover of Credit Suisse will not be affected by parliament’s rejection of 109 billion Swiss francs ($121 billion) in emergency credits and guarantees. In a largely symbolic vote, these commitments were last week rejected twice by Switzerland’s lower…
(Reuters) – Spotify was facing issues on Wednesday, the audio streaming platform said, with outage tracking website Downdetector reporting that the service was down for over 18,000 users in the United States. “Something’s not quite right, and we’re looking into it,” Spotify said in a tweet. (Reporting by Rahat Sandhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh…
By Liz Hampton and Arunima Kumar (Reuters) -Oilfield firm Baker Hughes Co beat first-quarter profit estimates on Wednesday, as stronger oil prices supported demand for its equipment and services. Global oil futures are currently trading around $83.12 a barrel, down about 22% from a year ago but still well above a level where firms can…
By Krisztina Than and Alan Charlish BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s central bank could cut its 25% top collateralised loan rate next week as part of a “multi-step process” towards policy normalisation, its deputy governor said on Wednesday, jolting markets as the forint lost almost 2%. With many economists saying inflation in central Europe has peaked,…
