TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will invite some emerging nations to an outreach meeting at the Group of Seven advanced countries Japan chairs next month in the city of Niigata, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday. The countries whose finance leaders will be invited to attend the outreach meeting include India, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan met with the heads of other antitrust enforcers, including Britain’s, last week but no mergers were discussed, according to an FTC official who spoke amid allegations the FTC and UK are working together to block Microsoft’s bid for Activision. On Wednesday, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority…
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s factory output jumped in March by the fastest rate in nearly three years and beat economists’ expectations, official data showed on Friday. The country’s industrial output grew 5.1% in March from a month before, on a seasonally adjusted basis, after a 2.7% fall in February. It was the fastest monthly…
By Takaya Yamaguchi and Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) -Core consumer inflation in Japan’s capital beat expectations in April and an index stripping away fuel costs rose at the fastest pace in four decades, highlighting the challenge the new central bank chief faces in keeping ultra-low interest rates. The data comes hours before the Bank of…
By Chavi Mehta, Stephen Nellis and Jane Lanhee Lee (Reuters) -Chipmaker Intel Corp on Thursday said slumping gross margins will improve in the second half of the year, a welcome sign in a difficult economy that sent shares up 4% in after-hours trading. Intel also said it was shipping a long-delayed chip in volume, and…
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – United Auto Workers (UAW) union President Shawn Fain and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday criticized a General Motors joint venture battery plant for paying workers much less than assembly plant employees even though it benefits from hefty U.S. government tax credits. Workers at the Warren, Ohio, joint venture…
By Manas Mishra and Patrick Wingrove (Reuters) – Drugmakers including Merck & Co, AstraZeneca Plc and AbbVie Inc said on Thursday they are open to acquisitions and reported a ramp up in research and development spending as the industry’s larger players look for new sources of future revenue. Several top drugs such as AbbVie flagship…
LONDON (Reuters) – British businesses were their most optimistic in nearly a year in April, boosted by growing hopes about the economy, according to a Lloyds Bank survey on Friday that could add to pressure on the Bank of England to keep on raising interest rates. Lloyds said its Business Barometer gauge of confidence –…
By Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Trade consultations requested by the United States on Mexico’s plan to limit the use of genetically modified corn are an “unacceptable violation” of Mexican law and feed the interests of seed “oligopolies,” a top Mexican official said on Thursday. The United States, Mexico’s main trading partner, requested the…
By Dietrich Knauth (Reuters) – Defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing on Thursday a “deluge” of lawsuits alleging that its talc products caused asbestos exposure and cancer. Whittaker operated one of the largest talc and industrial compound supply and distribution businesses in the U.S. in the 1970s…
