PARIS (Reuters) - Striking French rail staff halted train services for the seventh day this month on Wednesday in protest over a major shake-up of the state-owned railway company, but President Emmanuel Macron said he would not be cowed into retreat.The rolling strikes, due to continue until the end of June, entered a more testing phase for unions at the SNCF rail company a day after the lower hou...Read More
The big box retailer will sell smart TVs that feature Fire TVShares of Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) are trading higher after the big box retailer said it will begin selling TVs featuring Amazon's (AMZN) Fire TV. In reaction to the multi-year partnership, BBY stock is up 3.3% at $75.18, at last check. BBY has gained almost 50% over the past 12 months, and most recently touched a record high of $78.5...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday he would oppose President Donald Trump’s nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state, in a blow to the nomination.In a speech to a Washington think tank, Menendez criticized the Trump administration, and Pompeo in particular, for lacking a strategic...Read More
Makini Brice, Josh SmithWASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - CIA director Mike Pompeo, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the top U.S. diplomat, visited North Korea last week and met leader Kim Jong Un with whom he formed a “good relationship”, Trump said on Wednesday.Pompeo became the most senior U.S. official known to have met Kim when he visited Pyongyang to discuss a pla...Read More
DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia would be happy to see crude rise to $80 or even $100 a barrel, three industry sources said, a sign Riyadh will seek no changes to an OPEC supply-cutting deal even though the agreement’s original target is within sight.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other producers began to reduce supply in Janua...Read More
Blue-chip bank stocks are getting a lift after Morgan Stanley earningsDow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are trading well above fair value, brushing off a negative earnings reaction for IBM as bank stocks Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan (JPM) trade higher in the wake of a Morgan Stanley (MS) earnings beat. Investor sentiment is also getting a boost from easing geopolitical risk, amid news...Read More
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar clung to gains on Wednesday after rising from a three-week low as fading concerns about a trade war fed broader appetite for risk-taking among investors.U.S. markets were buoyed by strong corporate earnings and that helped European equities on Wednesday as investors focused on economic data and put to one side worries about a global trade war.Markets in Asia pick...Read More
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The European Central Bank would have to alter its march toward a more normal policy stance if growing risks from protectionism, exchange rates or market swings end up depressing inflation, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Wednesday.“We should pay close attention to a possible cumulative risks scenario, the likelihood of which has increased recently: an...Read More
(Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and sales, helped by growth across its businesses and device launches.The diversified healthcare company reported net earnings of $418 million, or 23 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared to $419 million, or 24 cents per share, a year earlier.Net sales rose to $7.39 billion from $6.34 billion....Read More
BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German unions have reached an inflation-busting pay hike deal for more than 2 million public sector workers that could push up prices and boost a consumer-led upswing in Europe’s biggest economy.The deal sealed late on Tuesday night is part of a broader, gradual shift in Germany’s economy in which private consumption has overtaken exports as the main growth...Read More
(Reuters) - U.S. stock futures rose on Wednesday after the latest batch of results including Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N) added to optimism about the U.S. corporate reporting season.Morgan Stanley jumped 2.6 percent after the company reported a 40 percent jump in quarterly profit, helped by higher trading revenue, wrapping up earnings for the big U.S. banks.The S&P 500 companies are...Read More
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some community banks have ramped up investments that could pose risks as interest rates rise, so they should evaluate their portfolios now that U.S. policy is tightening, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said on Wednesday.“We have observed that some community banks have taken on more interest-rate risk by increasing the maturity of their assets a...Read More
Kevin Yao, Shu ZhangBEIJING (Reuters) - The unexpected decision by China’s central bank to cut the amount of cash that lenders must keep in reserves is unlikely to be its last such move given the growing concerns about a possible trade war with the United States, economists said.The reduction in reserve requirement ratios (RRR), announced by the People’s Bank of China late on Tuesday,...Read More
(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N) posted a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Wednesday, as its trading business drew strength from increased market volatility in line with other major banks.Sales and trading revenue at the United States’ sixth biggest bank rose 26 percent in the quarter, driven by strong gains in equities trading.Strength in wealth management also helped overall p...Read More
(Reuters) - Regional lender U.S. Bancorp (USB.N) reported a 13.7 percent rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, driven by higher interest income and lower taxes.Net income attributable to the bank rose to $1.68 billion, or 96 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.47 billion, or 82 cents per share, a year earlier.“We delivered solid growth in net interest income and hi...Read More
PARIS (Reuters) - European car registrations fell 5.2 percent in March, led by Nissan (7201.T), Ford (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler (FCHA.MI), according to data published on Wednesday by auto industry association ACEA.Sales fell to 1.84 million cars last month across the European Union and European Free Trade Area, paring first-quarter growth to 0.6 percent, the Brussels-based group said.“Momentum...Read More
* US/German 2-yr yield gap at 298 bps* Fed rate-hike bets, softer euro zone data push out spread* Peripheral bond yields fall again* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Updates throughout)By Dhara RanasingheLONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - The gap between short-dated U.S. and German borrowing costs stood at its widest for almost three decades on Wednesday, reflecting a growing di...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold andsilver prices are higher in early U.S. trading Wednesday. Silver prices havehit a 2.5-month high and are trading above $17.00. The chart postures for bothmetals are tilted in favor of the bulls, which is inspiring technically basedbuying interest at mid-week. June Comex gold futures were last up $6.10 anounce at $1,355.50. May Comex silver was last up $0.283 at $17.08 an o...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
LONDON (Reuters) - Financial markets should start accelerating efforts to ditch Libor in favor of the Bank of England’s revamped interest rate benchmark being launched next week, a senior BoE official said.Banks have been fined around $9 billion for trying to rig Libor, or London Interbank Offered Rate, prompting the BoE and other central banks to come up with their own “risk free&rdqu...Read More