By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices surged to fresh seven-year highs on Friday, headed for a seventh straight weekly increase, built on ongoing worries about supply disruptions fueled by frigid U.S. weather and ongoing political turmoil among major world producers. Brent crude rose $2.25, or 2.5%, to $93.36 a barrel by 10:32…
By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy created far more jobs than expected in January despite the disruption to consumer-facing businesses from a surge in COVID-19 cases, pointing to underlying strength that should sustain the expansion as the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates. The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on…
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar rose from two-week lows on Friday, after data showed the world’s largest economy created far more jobs than expected, raising the chances of a larger Federal Reserve interest rate hike in March. The dollar index, a gauge of its value against six major currencies, rose…
By Iain Withers LONDON (Reuters) -The euro was on track on Friday for its best week versus the dollar since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, after a hawkish turn by the European Central Bank (ECB) rippled through markets. Rampant inflation across many global economies has forced central banks to tighten monetary policies that had been dramatically…
By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) – European stock indexes faltered on Friday, despite strong Amazon earnings, while a sell-off in bonds briefly pushed Germany’s 5-year yield positive for the first time in four years after the European Central Bank was more hawkish than expected. Asian equities held firm overnight after better-than-expected earnings from Amazon <AMZN.O>,…
By Julien Ponthus (Reuters) – Tech stocks staged a tentative rebound across financial markets on Friday as stellar results from Amazon convinced traders not to give up on a sector weakened by a global monetary tightening cycle and the historic crash of Facebook owner Meta. The company led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg saw over…
By Gwladys Fouche PARIS (Reuters) – French drugmaker Sanofi said it still expected its COVID-19 vaccine to complete phase 3 trial in the first quarter and reported a rise in fourth-quarter sales and earnings on Friday. The group, which is hoping for a comeback after losing ground in the COVID-19 jab race, also said it…
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s competition regulator said on Friday it had fined Facebook-owner Meta 1.5 million pounds ($2 million) over fresh issues regarding its purchase of Giphy, a sanction that the U.S. firm said it would accept. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has taken a tough line with major tech groups in recent years,…
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China Evergrande Group will continue with efforts to sell a plot of undeveloped land in Hong Kong even after the appointment of a receiver by a creditor, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The appointment of a receiver will also not have any bearing on the group’s restructuring…
(Corrects 13th paragraph of Feb 3 article to say Elie Girard departed, not that he was ousted) By Mathieu Rosemain and Julien Ponthus PARIS (Reuters) – The French government holds the final keys to any move to buy the BDS cybersecurity division of France’s Atos, industry sources and analysts said, after French defence company Thales…
