By Tom Westbrook SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Stocks struggled to make headway on Wednesday, the dollar nursed losses and bonds clung to gains, as signs of a slowing U.S. labour market made investors nervous about the economic outlook, while a bigger-than-expected rate hike lifted the kiwi dollar. Asia trade was thinned by holidays in Hong Kong…
By Noele Illien ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS will seek to reassure shareholders on Wednesday that its unexpected takeover of rival Credit Suisse in the biggest bank rescue since the great financial crash can work. Last month, Swiss authorities announced that UBS would buy Credit Suisse in a shotgun merger to stem further banking turmoil after…
By Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine annual inflation eased for a second consecutive month in March on slower rises in food and transport costs, data showed on Wednesday, supporting the case for the central bank to consider a pause in its monetary tightening cycle. The consumer price index rose…
By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s central bank unexpectedly raised its cash rate by 50 basis points to a more than 14-year high of 5.25% on Wednesday, reiterating that inflation was still too high and persistent. Twenty-two of 24 economists in a Reuters poll had forecast the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ)…
By Jamie McGeever (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. A smattering of inflation data, PMIs and an interest rate decision will grab investors’ attention in the Asian session on Wednesday, against an increasingly gloomy backdrop following the latest warning that the U.S. economy is losing steam. Annual…
(Reuters) – Japan’s services sector activity at the fastest pace in over nine years in March, a private sector survey showed on Wednesday, suggesting that the post-COVID bounce was gathering steam and providing some offset to a still-weak factory sector. The final au Jibun Bank Japan Services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to a seasonally…
(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said Tuesday that while the economy appears on a path toward slowing down, the central bank likely has more rate rises ahead of it. “In my modal projection, to put inflation on a sustained downward trajectory to 2% and to keep inflation expectations anchored, monetary…
By Dietrich Knauth and Mike Spector (Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $8.9 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging that talc in its iconic Baby Powder and other products caused cancer, the company said. The amount dwarfs J&J’s original offer of $2 billion. The agreement follows a January appeals court…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday called for quicker action to resolve several outstanding sovereign debt restructuring cases and urged the International Monetary Fund to press all bilateral creditors to finalize such deals. The Treasury said Yellen raised the issue during meetings with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Spanish Economy Minister…
By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) – World stock indexes declined on Tuesday, with Wall Street well into negative territory in afternoon trading, while the U.S. dollar fell to a two-month low and Treasury yields eased after data suggesting a cooling in the U.S. labor market. The U.S. Labor Department report showed U.S. job openings…
