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2024-04-24
Bloomberg
South Korean Stocks: CJ, Korea Investment, LG, Samsung Life
Shares of the following companies had unusual moves in South Korea trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of the close in Seoul. The Kospi Index (KOSPI) retreated 0.5 percent to 1,963.42, falling for a fourth day to the lowest level since Feb. 1. It’s the gauge’s longest losing streak since a four-...
2024-04-14
Bloomberg
Progressive Profit Climbs 23% to $362.9 Million on Higher Insurance Sales
Progressive Corp. (PGR) , the fourth- largest U.S. auto insurer, said profit increased 23 percent on investment gains and rising policy sales to individuals through the Internet. First-quarter net income climbed to $362.9 million, or 55 cents a share, from $295.6 million, or 44 cents, a year earlier, the Mayfield Villa...
2024-05-03
Bloomberg
Lucrative Fees Behind Real Estate Management Spur Fights
CommonWealth REIT (CWH) owns office buildings throughout the U.S., yet employs no one. Cole Credit Property Trust III Inc. (0283899D) , which leases about a thousand stores around the country to retailers such as CVS, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart, also had no workers until a recent acquisition. Instead, both real estate investm...
2024-10-14
Bloomberg
California May Pay 15% More to Borrow After Revenue Shortfall: Muni Credit
California , facing mandatory spending cuts with revenue below forecast, may have to pay almost 15 percent more to borrow $2 billion this month than it did in September as municipal yields climb to a 10-week high. Top-rated 10-year tax-exempt yields exceeded 2.57 percent yesterday, the highest since Aug. 3. They’ve jum...
2024-01-25
Bloomberg
Republican Payroll Tax Negotiators Push Pipeline, EPA Limits
Republican lawmakers negotiating a payroll tax cut extension are seeking to attach provisions reviving a blocked Canadian oil pipeline and limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate industrial boilers. Democratic negotiators, who oppose those additions to the tax cut measure, argued at the pan...
2024-02-04
Bloomberg
Former Morgan Stanley Germany Head to Lead Asset Manager
Dirk Notheis, who stepped down as Morgan Stanley (MS) ’s Germany head last year amid a dispute over a utility acquisition managed by the U.S. investment bank, has joined an asset manager set up to boost lending to small- and medium-sized companies. Notheis and Marc Pahlow, formerly of private equity firm Carlyle Group ...
2024-07-17
Bloomberg
Nigeria Plans to Encourage Oil Companies to List on Local Stock Exchange
Nigeria will encourage large companies operating in the country to list their shares on the local stock exchange, said Arunma Oteh , director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The addition of foreign companies in industries such as oil-exploration and production would diversify the Nigerian stock exch...
2024-11-30
Bloomberg
Canada Third-Quarter Gross Domestic Product (Text)
Following is the text of Canada ’s National Economic and Financial Accounts for the third quarter as released by Statistics Canada. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.1% in the third quarter, slowing from the 0.4% growth in the second quarter. The slower pace of growth was the result of declines in exports and bu...
2024-03-03
Bloomberg
Ohio Debate Over Collective-Bargaining Shifts to House of Representatives
Ohio’s speaker of the House of Representatives plans a “thoughtful and deliberative” review of a bill limiting collective-bargaining rights for government employees that passed the Senate and has sparked protests, a spokesman said. Committee hearings may start as early as next week, and there is no timetable for a vote...
2024-10-22
Bloomberg
Obamacare Crashes Months in Coming Not Easily Repaired
In the weeks before the start of Obamacare, officials failed to complete exhaustive testing of the program’s website in a push to begin signups by Oct. 1, according to people involved in the rollout. The federal Healthcare.gov site -- which has been plagued by software bugs -- went live without attempts to replicate a ...
2024-02-24
Bloomberg
Eni Likely to Reduce Libyan Output Further as Tanks Fill
Eni SpA will probably cut Libyan oil production further and may halt it altogether because storage tanks at export terminals are filling up, said two people with knowledge of the situation. While Eni, the largest foreign oil producer in Libya, is still pumping oil and natural gas at 50 percent of usual levels, storage ...
2024-03-08
Bloomberg
MBIA Loses Bid to Get FDIC Funds to Cover IndyMac Liability
March 8 (Bloomberg) -- MBIA Inc. (MBI) lost an appeals court bid to recover from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at least $244 million of claims and expenses stemming from mortgage- backed securities issued by IndyMac Bancorp Inc. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, upholding a lower court ruling, rejected the...
2024-01-09
Bloomberg
U.K. Fraud Increases 50% to $3.25 Billion, Accounting Firm Says
Publicly reported fraud in the U.K. last year rose to 2.1 billion pounds ($3.25 billion), a 50 percent increase from 2010, accounting firm BDO LLP said. Tax crimes accounted for the highest percentage of the total value of fraud, with an average of 13 million pounds a case, BDO said in a statement. The firm also saw “a...
2024-09-01
Bloomberg
Manufacturing in U.S. Probably Contracted for First Time Since July 2009
U.S. manufacturing probably shrank in August for the first time in two years, raising the risk the slowing recovery may lose one of its biggest sources of strength, economists said before a report today. The Institute for Supply Management ’s manufacturing index fell to 48.5 last month from 50.9 in July, according to t...
2024-09-09
Bloomberg
Securitization Shouldn’t Be the Government’s Business
As we should have learned from the 2008 financial crisis, the mass production of securitized credit enables reckless borrowing, shortchanges productive businesses and destabilizes banks. It has been nourished by regulation, not its inherent economic advantages. Yet officials in Washington continue to favor this top-dow...
2024-12-09
Bloomberg
Bond Vigilantes Are Awoken by Obama Tax Compromise, Deficit, Yardeni Says
President Barack Obama is inciting the wrath of bond investors concerned that his agreement to extend and expand tax cuts will keep the federal deficit at record levels, according to economist Edward Yardeni. “You are kind of seeing the bond vigilantes waking up in the United States,” Yardeni, president and chief inves...
2024-03-17
Bloomberg
U.S. February Leading Economic Indicators (Text)
Following is the text of the U.S. leading economic indicators from the Conference Board. The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.8 percent in February to 113.4 (2004 = 100), following a 0.1 percent increase in January, and a 1.0 percent increase in December. Says Ataman Ozyildirim, ec...
2024-08-03
Bloomberg
British-American Jumps to Highest in Two Months: Nairobi Mover
British-American Investments Co. (BRIT) , a Kenyan company that owns money managers and insurance businesses, jumped to the highest in more than two months after returning to profit in the first half. Shares of British-American surged as much as 7.8 percent to 6.20 shillings and closed 4.4 percent higher at 6 shillings...
2024-06-09
Bloomberg
Gupta Likely to Testify at Insider Trial, His Lawyer Says
Rajat Gupta , the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) director, will probably testify next week at his insider-trading trial, his lawyer told the judge after the prosecution rested and the defense began presenting its case. “It was represented to me at the sidebar that Mr. Gupta would likely take the stand, given the ...
2024-05-17
Bloomberg
Oregon's Radical Health Overhaul Blazes New Trail
Talk to people in Oregon about health care for long and eventually you will be asked something like this: “You’ve heard the air conditioner story, right?” In this case, it’s John McConnell, a health economist at Oregon Health and Science University, doing the asking. As it turns out, I have heard the story; it’s one th...
2024-01-03
Bloomberg
Loews Names Virgin’s Paul Whetsell Chief Executive of Its Hotel Division
Loews Corp. (L) , a New York-based insurance and energy holding company, named Paul W. Whetsell chief executive officer of its hotel unit today as the luxury chain prepares to acquire properties. Whetsell, 61, has worked in the hospitality industry since college and was most recently executive director of Virgin Hotels...
2024-02-24
Bloomberg
Wall Street Bonuses Decline 8% in 2010, New York Comptroller DiNapoli Says
Cash bonuses on Wall Street declined 8 percent last year as financial firms raised base salaries and deferred some earnings, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Financial companies disbursed $20.8 billion in 2010, compared with $22.5 billion a year earlier, DiNapoli’s office calculated in a report ...
2024-03-21
Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Still Planning Principal Investments, BofA’s Moszkowski Says
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) , the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, will continue making principal investments with the firm’s own money because executives don’t think the so-called Volcker rule prevents the practice, a Bank of America Corp. analyst said. The analyst, Guy Moszkowski , published a note to investors t...
2024-09-10
Bloomberg
PG&E to Settle San Bruno Pipeline Explosion Claims
PG&E Corp. (PCG) , owner of California’s largest utility, said it will settle “substantially all” remaining personal injury and property damage claims from a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people. The utility announced the agreement yesterday in a regulatory filing, saying that in the quarter end...
2024-09-01
Bloomberg
Lagardere, Eiffage, Maurel & Prom: French Equity Preview
The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in Paris. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close. France ’s benchmark CAC 40 Index rose 3.1 percent to 3,256.76. The SBF120 Index increased 3.1 percent to 2,493.66. April Group (APR) : The L...
2024-01-08
Bloomberg
Health Care Recedes as Grads’ Top Job Demand: BGOV Barometer
Recent college graduates no longer rank health coverage above all other benefits when looking for employment, according to a new survey that shows how the 2010 Affordable Care Act is changing priorities for first-time job seekers. The BGOV Barometer shows that annual wage increases were the most sought-after benefit am...
2024-07-27
Bloomberg
Shanghai Stocks Drop for First Time in 7 Days, Led by Banks, Coal Shares
China’s stocks dropped for the first time in seven days on concern about rising credit risks at banks and speculation recent gains for commodity producers were excessive given prospects for slowing economic growth. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. , the nation’s biggest listed lender, retreated 1.2 percent o...
2024-08-06
Bloomberg
European Stocks Post Weekly Advance as HSBC, BNP Profits Offset U.S. Data
European stocks climbed this week as earnings from HSBC Holdings Plc to BNP Paribas offset weaker- than-forecast U.S. data that reignited concerns about the strength of the recovery in the world’s biggest economy. HSBC , the region’s largest bank, BNP Paribas and Lloyds Banking Group Plc all climbed after posting pr...
2024-08-11
Bloomberg
Investors in U.S. `Keep Their Heads’ After S&P Downgrades Municipal Bonds
Individual municipal-bond investors aren’t fleeing the market after Standard & Poor’s lowered the credit rating of thousands of bonds. The ratio of buy orders to sell orders, a measure of investor demand, was 2.5 for municipal-bond trades on the BondDesk Group LLC platform yesterday, meaning there were more buyers than...
2024-06-17
Bloomberg
Stripping Treasuries Up Most Since 2011 as Real Yields Gain
Demand for the Treasury securities most vulnerable to inflation is climbing to an almost two-year high as pension funds and insurance companies snap up discounted debt with consumer prices rising at the slowest since 2010. Investment banks have increased Treasury Strips -- zero-coupon securities created by separating t...
2024-11-18
Bloomberg
Camp Aide Said to Suggest Tax Plan Possible by January
A House Ways and Means Committee aide said Republicans may release a draft tax-revision measure in December or January, signaling that Chairman Dave Camp ’s delay in producing a bill could be temporary. The staff member made the comment on a conference call today with the Coalition for Fair Effective Tax Rates and the ...
2024-12-16
Bloomberg
French Care for Everyone Means Unwanted Generic Medicine
Anita Manfredi got 18 mud baths, nine massages and 12 spray showers at a spring water spa last month. The French state footed two-thirds of the $1,022 bill. “The treatment has done me a lot of good,” says Manfredi, a retiree who suffers from arthritis and has taken a three-week retreat at the southern French spa town o...
2024-08-26
Bloomberg
Japanese, Australian Stock Futures Advance on Stimulus
Japanese and Australian stock futures rose as China’s Premier Wen Jiabao and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke reassured investors that central banks will move to boost growth in the world’s two largest economies. Toll Holdings Ltd. (TOL) may be active as Australia’s largest trucking company reported full-year p...
2024-03-28
Bloomberg
Genworth Bets on Long-Term Care as Insurers Flee Market
Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) , the biggest U.S. seller of long-term care coverage, is betting on a rise in interest rates to boost profits as other insurers flee the business. Genworth, ranked by trade group Limra among the top five long-term care insurance providers since at least 2007, stayed focused on the market a...
2024-07-22
Bloomberg
ABB, Credit Suisse, Julius Baer, Roche, Syngenta: Swiss Equity Preview
The following companies’ shares may be active in Zurich. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names. Prices are from the last close. The Swiss Market Index of the biggest and most actively traded companies gained 9.24, or 0.2 percent, to 6,132.66. The broader Swiss Performance Index gained 0.2 percent to 5,4...
2024-09-22
Bloomberg
U.S. May Further Delay Health Program Targeted by Republicans
U.S. health officials said they will trim staff from a long-term care insurance program that was part of the 2010 health-care law, adding that the initiative may never proceed. Known as the “Class Act,” the program was designed to keep those with disabilities or impairments in performing daily tasks out of nursing home...
2024-01-04
Bloomberg
Boehner Slow to Aid New York Party Backers: BGOV Barometer
The House Republicans’ fundraising committee collected $1 of every $8 in large individual contributions for the 2012 elections from residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut , before their party’s leader stalled disaster aid for the region. The BGOV Barometer shows about 13 percent of the National Republican Co...
2024-07-28
Bloomberg
Credito Fiorentino's Verdini Says Bank Is Healthy, Denies Any Wrongdoing
Credito Cooperativo Fiorentino SC’s former Chairman Denis Verdini , one of three coordinators of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ’s People of Liberty party, denied any wrongdoing after the bank was put under state administration yesterday. “I did nothing wrong,” Verdini said today in Rome during a two-hour pr...
2024-05-30
Bloomberg
Zoo Shows Local Bond Sales Expand as Economy Grows: Muni Credit
Municipal debt is poised to trail Treasuries for two consecutive months for the first time since September as a growing U.S. economy spurs local governments to increase borrowing. Localities from Massachusetts to Oregon are taking on bonds for uses such as roads and public buildings, helping boost issuance to a combine...
2024-06-28
Bloomberg
Geithner Says U.S.-India Relationship Has ‘Vast’ Potential
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S.- India relationship has “vast untapped potential” even as American banks and insurers confront obstacles in Asia ’s third-largest economy. U.S. companies “still face barriers in sectors such as banking, insurance, manufacturing, multi-brand retail and infrastructure,...
2024-02-06
Bloomberg
Genworth MI Canada Jumps as Volumes Surge
Genworth MI Canada Inc. , a residential mortgage insurance provider, jumped the most in four months after reporting a surge in new business and a drop in its loan loss ratio that led to better-than-expected earnings. Genworth rose 4 percent to C$24.63 in Toronto, the most since Sept. 14. The shares have risen 9.5 perce...
2024-11-07
Bloomberg
Radian Leads Insurer Slump as Rivals Pressure Rates
Radian Group Inc. (RDN) led a slump of mortgage insurers after Chief Executive Officer S.A. Ibrahim said increased competition pressured rates. Radian dropped $1.02, or 7 percent, to $13.50 at 10:37 a.m. in New York. MGIC Investment Corp. (MTG) slipped 6.5 percent. MGIC and Philadelphia-based Radian more than doubled t...
2024-03-30
Bloomberg
Lloyd’s of London Full-Year Profit Declines 44% on Earthquakes, Oil Spill
Lloyd’s of London , the world’s oldest insurance market, said full-year profit fell 44 percent on claims related to catastrophes such as the earthquake in Chile and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Pretax profit declined to 2.2 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) from 3.9 billion pounds a year earlier, ...
2024-02-02
Bloomberg
German Stocks Rise for Third Day; Deutsche Boerse, K+S Climb in Frankfurt
German stocks gained for a third day, extending a six-month high, as a decline in claims for U.S. jobless benefits indicated the recovery in the world’s largest economy is on track. K+S AG (SDF) , Europe ’s largest potash maker, paced gains. Linde AG (LIN) advanced after Credit Suisse Group AG advised buying shares in ...
2024-07-03
Bloomberg
Christie, New Jersey Senate Democrats Reach Agreement on Property-Tax Cap
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the Democrats who control the Senate said they have reached agreement on a plan to curb increases in property taxes used to fund local government and schools. Under the legislative proposal, the tax increases would be capped at 2 percent with exemptions for rising health-insuranc...
2024-12-27
Bloomberg
House Plans Dec. 30 Session as U.S. Budget Deadline Nears
The U.S. House will hold its first Sunday session in more than two years as lawmakers seek to resolve a budget impasse before at least $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases begin Jan. 1. In a conference call today with the Republican leadership, House members agreed to return Dec. 30 amid a budget stalemate t...
2024-09-12
Bloomberg
Texas Instruments Trimss Quarterly Sales, Profit Forecast
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) , the largest maker of analog chips, forecast third-quarter sales and profit that may beat the low end of analysts’ estimates, defying predictions that a weaker economy would crimp orders. Profit will be 38 cents to 42 cents a share on revenue of $3.27 billion to $3.41 billion, the Dallas-b...
2024-10-02
Bloomberg
New York Life Rehires ING U.S.’s Bedard as Unit CFO
New York Life Insurance Co., the largest policyholder-owned U.S. life insurer, named David Bedard chief financial officer of the unit created last year to include institutional asset management, mutual funds and annuities. Bedard, 49, was rehired from ING U.S. Inc. as CFO of the investments group and will report to Joh...
2024-02-08
Bloomberg
Avid, Caesars Entertainment, Kodiak, LPL: U.S. Equity Movers
Shares of the following companies had unusual moves in U.S. trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4 p.m. in New York. Alere Inc. (ALR) rose 8.7 percent to $26.64, the highest price since Aug. 3. The maker of medical diagnostics equipment reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that beat ana...
2024-11-14
Bloomberg
Ranks of Poor Americans at Record High Even With Aid
The ranks of poor Americans remained at a record high number last year, even after government-aid programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers and heating subsidies were included, the U.S. Census Bureau said today. The bureau said 49.7 million Americans, or 16.1 percent, are in poverty, up from 49.1 million, or 16 pe...
2024-12-01
Bloomberg
Options Trading in U.S. Increased 33% in November, Biggest Jump This Year
U.S. options trading rose 33 percent in November from a year earlier, the biggest gain since December, as investors turning to the market amid wider stock swings drove volume toward an eighth straight annual record. “Funds are increasingly using options as investment committees have become better informed and more comf...
2024-10-19
Bloomberg
John Mack, Patton Boggs, Mayer Brown: Business of Law
John Mack, the former head of Morgan Stanley (MS) , is going into business with a 77-year-old tax lawyer who oversees more than $15 billion in investment assets for clients such as ex-basketball star Magic Johnson and the founding family of Estee Lauder Cos., Bloomberg News’s Miles Weiss reports. Joel Ehrenkranz, who c...
2024-03-10
Bloomberg
MetLife Will Cut Holdings of Financial-Firm Debt, CEO Says
MetLife Inc. (MET) , the U.S. insurer that owned $160.7 billion of corporate bonds at year-end, plans to reduce its holdings of debt issued by financial firms, Chief Executive Officer Robert Henrikson said. The insurer will “pare it down over time,” Henrikson said today in an investor presentation. “We see opportunitie...
2024-05-23
Bloomberg
Rally Ends at U.S. Border as Mexico, Canada Trail
Mexican and Canadian stocks are returning the least in 14 years versus the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, a break from a history of matching or beating the benchmark gauge since the countries formed a free-trade agreement in 1994. Mexico ’s IPC Index has dropped 8.2 percent in 2013 and Canada ’s S&P/TSX Composite (SPTSX)...
2024-10-09
Bloomberg
Carlyle-to-Bass Backed Mortgage Insurer NMI Files for IPO
NMI Holdings Inc. (NMIHZ) , a mortgage insurer backed by funds tied to Carlyle Group LP (CG) and Kyle Bass, filed to sell shares in an initial public offering as investors bet on a housing-market rebound. FBR & Co. (FBRC) is leading the sale, according to a regulatory filing today from Emeryville, California-based NMI....
2024-10-09
Bloomberg
Principal to Acquire Chile’s AFP Cuprum for $1.5 Billion
Principal Financial Group Inc. (PFG) agreed to buy Chile ’s AFP Cuprum SA (CUPRUM) in a $1.5 billion deal, the largest acquisition for the U.S.-based seller of life insurance and retirement products. Principal is adding more than 600,000 mandatory-pension clients with $32.1 billion in assets under management to the ann...
2024-08-10
Bloomberg
Obama Urges Military Veterans to Defend Health-Care Law
President Barack Obama urged military veterans to defend his signature health-care law and press Republican lawmakers to end budget cuts that threaten future spending on benefits. In remarks to the Disabled American Veterans National Convention in Orlando , Florida , Democrat Obama said critics of the health insurance ...
2024-09-16
Bloomberg
Lehman Haunts Banks Even After Shares Triple
For all the efforts to regulate banks since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed, stock investors have no more faith in U.S. financial institutions now than they did in early 2008, relative to the rest of the market. While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index trades at a level that’s 16.2 times reported operating earning...
2024-08-01
Bloomberg
Hiscox Swings Into First-Half Loss on Disasters
Hiscox Ltd. (HSX) , the second-biggest Lloyd’s of London insurer by market value, swung into a loss in the first half after record claims from natural disasters in Japan and U.S. The firm had a net loss of 87 million pounds ($143 million) in the first six months of the year, compared with a profit of 78.6 million pound...
2024-12-22
Bloomberg
CFC Insurance Posts Nine-Month Profit of $3.8 Million From Loss Last Time
CFC Insurance Holdings, a unit of Kenyan lender CFC Stanbic Holdings Ltd. , posted net income of 305.2 million shillings ($3.8 million) in the nine months through Sept. 30, compared with a loss of 337.3 million shillings a year earlier. Revenue rose to 3.75 billion shillings from 2.55 billion shillings, the company sai...
2024-05-17
Bloomberg
China Expands Scope for Short Selling, Securities Journal Says
China will start a trial next week that will allow brokerages to borrow stocks for clients wishing to conduct short selling, the China Securities Journal reported. Brokerages can also borrow money on behalf of clients for margin financing, the newspaper reported today, without saying where it got the information. Twent...
2024-10-17
Bloomberg
Workers’ Comp Sales Fall 11% in ‘Grim’ Market
U.S. workers’ compensation policy sales plunged 11 percent in 2010 as continued unemployment depressed demand, A.M. Best Co. said today in a statement. Policy sales fell to $11 billion from $12.4 billion in 2009 for companies in A.M. Best’s workers’ compensation composite index. Revenue has decreased for six straight y...
2024-03-12
Bloomberg
Iran Fleet Seen Too Small to Sustain Oil Exports as Tankers Avoid Country
Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, may drop because the nation’s tanker fleet is too small to carry all its cargoes as European Union sanctions cause international ship owners to avoid the country. NITC owns 39 vessels able to carry about 70 million barrels of crude, according to its website. The fl...
2024-11-19
Bloomberg
Wells Fargo Pays Citigroup $100 Million Over Wachovia
Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to pay $100 million for scuttling Citigroup Inc. ’s takeover of Wachovia Corp. with a higher bid during the depths of the financial crisis. The payment to New York-based Citigroup resolves “all claims related to this dispute,” Citigroup and San Francisco- based Wells Fargo said today in a joint...
2024-04-18
Bloomberg
QBE Fined $10 Million After New York Kickback Probe
QBE Insurance Group Ltd. (QBE) was fined $10 million, agreed to cut rates for some residential coverage and will provide customer refunds after a New York probe into kickbacks paid to banks. The fine follows a $14 million penalty last month against Assurant Inc. (AIZ) , the largest provider of so-called force-placed po...
2024-04-17
Bloomberg
Wells Fargo Asks Judge to Dismiss U.S. Mortgage Loans Suit
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) asked a judge to dismiss a suit by the U.S. government claiming the bank made reckless mortgage loans that caused losses for a federal insurance program. The U.S. suit alleges more than a decade of misconduct by Wells Fargo in connection with a Federal Housing Administration program. Wells Fargo...
2024-03-15
Bloomberg
Canada Fourth Quarter Labor Productivity Report (Text)
The following is the text of Canada's business sector labor productivity report for the fourth quarter released by Statistics Canada. The labour productivity of Canadian businesses rose 0.5% in the fourth quarter, after advancing 0.4% the previous quarter. Businesses boosted their real output (+0.9%) at a faster pace i...
2024-04-01
Bloomberg
Freddie Mac Warns Lenders on Mortgage Insurance Deals
Freddie Mac told mortgage lenders to halt a practice that might help them avoid repurchasing flawed home loans. In a letter to the industry today, government-owned Freddie Mac said its rules prohibit the practice, in which lenders pay cash to mortgage insurers in return for a promise they won’t rescind policies. Freddi...
2024-06-03
Bloomberg
India Fights Lloyd’s Expanding Piracy Zone After 300-Fold Insurance Jump
India is lobbying Lloyd’s of London to reverse its expansion of the area judged prone to pirate attacks to cover almost all of the nation’s west coast after insurance costs surged as much as 300-fold this year. “There is no longer any threat along the Indian coast,” Shipping Secretary K. Mohandas said in a May 23 inter...
2024-07-26
Bloomberg
New York Beats California in Sales for First Time: Muni Credit
New York is set to topple California from its two-decade reign as the biggest borrower in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market. Wall Street’s home state and its local governments are on a pace to sell more debt than their California counterparts for an unprecedented second straight year, according to Citigroup Inc. ...
2024-11-04
Bloomberg
Best Stock Market Since 1997 Seen With S&P 500 Momentum
The broadest equity rally on record will pick up speed through year end and lift the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the biggest annual increase in 16 years, if history is any guide. Shares have climbed in the final two months 82 percent of the time since 1928 when the benchmark gauge advanced at least 10 percent throug...
2024-10-19
Bloomberg
Greece May Need to Do More to Meet Deficit Target for 2011, EU's Rehn Says
The Greek government may have to step up its budget-cutting efforts to meet its 2011 deficit target after the European Union raises its estimate of the Mediterranean country’s budget shortfall, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, has found “certain entitie...
2024-09-10
Bloomberg
Stocks, Euro Fall on Greece Concern as Commodities Gain
U.S. benchmark stock indexes slipped from four-year highs and the euro fell for the first time in four days as Greece struggled to qualify for aid. Copper rose on speculation policy makers will work to support growth. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.6 percent to 1,429.08 at 4 p.m. in New York. The euro depre...
2024-04-26
Bloomberg
MetLife Exits Reverse Mortgages in Retreat From Banking
MetLife Inc. (MET) , the largest U.S. life insurer, agreed to sell its reverse-mortgage portfolio to Nationstar Mortgage LLC as Chief Executive Officer Steven Kandarian retreats from banking to limit U.S. regulation. MetLife will cut about 500 jobs as part of the move, said John Calagna, a spokesman for the insurer. Th...
2024-07-02
Bloomberg
Is Obamacare Headed for Even More Trouble?
The decision of President Barack Obama's administration to delay a crucial component of its health-care reform law, first reported today by Bloomberg News, raises two immediate questions. First, can the White House protect other components of the law from renewed attack? Second, what does this say about the broader pro...
2024-11-07
Bloomberg
Qualcomm’s First-Quarter Sales Forecast Trails Estimates
Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) , the largest maker of chips for smartphones, forecast fiscal first-quarter sales that may fall short of analysts’ estimates amid a shift to less-expensive handsets that has curbed chip prices. Sales in the period ending in December will be $6.3 billion to $6.9 billion, the San Diego-based company ...
2024-08-29
Bloomberg
China Stock-Index Futures Rise After Agribank, China Life Profit
China’s stock-index futures rose after Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (601288) to China Life Insurance Co. reported profit increases in the first half of the year. Futures on the CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) expiring in September gained 0.1 percent to 2,331.20 as of 9:19 a.m. local time. Developers may move after the Xinhu...
2024-09-30
Bloomberg
Asian Private Banks' Employee Raids Are Straining `Credibility,' UBS Says
Private banks’ habit of raiding each other for top employees in Asia has strained relations with their clients, said UBS AG ’s vice chairman of wealth management. “As an institution, in a way, you lose credibility,” Singapore-based Carlo Grigioni said at a conference in Singapore yesterday. “The clients at the end of t...
2024-09-30
Bloomberg
Dombrovskis Likely to Retain Power in Latvian Vote as Russian Party Gains
Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis , who curbed spending to unlock bailout funds, will probably remain in power after Oct. 3 elections that may see a Russian party garner the most votes for the first time. Polls show the premier’s Unity bloc is about even with Harmony Center, which represents Russian speakers wh...
2024-10-25
Bloomberg
Estonian Doctors, Employers Reach Deal on Wages, BNS Reports
Estonian medical workers reached an agreement with their employers on wage increases and lower workloads that may end a 3 1/2-week nationwide strike, Baltic News Service reported, citing the doctors’ union. Minimum wages for hospice workers will rise 23 percent from March, with pay increases of 17.5 percent and 11 perc...
2024-03-08
Bloomberg
JSW Steel, Reliance, Unitech: India Stocks Preview
(Corrects to remove north India reference in Chennai Petroleum item.) The following companies may have unusual price changes in India trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and share prices are as of the last close. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell 263.78, or 1.4 percent, to 18,222.67. The ...
2024-12-16
Bloomberg
Aflac’s Sales in Japan Are ‘Way Ahead of Target,’ CEO Amos Says: Tom Keene
Aflac Inc. (AFL) , the health insurer that gets about three-quarters of its sales in Japan , will continue to beat goals in that country, said Chief Executive Officer Dan Amos. “We have achieved all of our targets and our sales are actually running way ahead of target, as we said in the third quarter, and we expect the...
2024-12-03
Bloomberg
What's Wrong With the Republican Fiscal Cliff Counteroffer
House Republicans are out with their response to the President's opening bid on the fiscal cliff, and it's not very impressive. Here are three big problems with the letter they sent to the White House: 1. It's not really a proposal -- it's just a set of headline numbers without specific policies. The letter says Republ...
2024-12-12
Bloomberg
Falcone’s Future Hinges on LightSquared Returns as SEC Mulls Lawsuit
A day after being told that U.S. regulators may sue him, billionaire hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone telephoned Sheldon Lowe, a close friend of 23 years, and told him that he would fight back. Falcone, 49, who rose to fame with bets against U.S. subprime mortgages in 2007, sounded calm and determined, Lowe, a Miami-b...
2024-04-27
Bloomberg
Rajaratnam Sued Partner for Leaving Him Out of Venture-Capital Transaction
Nine years before his indictment for using confidential tips to trade stocks, Raj Rajaratnam, a co-founder of hedge fund firm Galleon Group LLC, sued a partner for leaving him out of the loop on a deal that may have made him millions of dollars. In September 2000, Rajaratnam filed a fraud lawsuit against the founder o...
2024-04-22
Bloomberg
North West Avoids Target by Dominating Arctic: Corporate
North West Company Inc. (NWC) , the oldest Canadian grocer, is trading at a record high as its dominance of remote markets from the Arctic to the South Pacific shields it from U.S. competitors such as Target Corp. (TGT) The Winnipeg-based company has carved out a market niche in northwest Canada where a pack of gum ca...
2024-01-23
Bloomberg
Mark Wilson Wins PGA Tour’s Humana Challenge by Two Strokes
Mark Wilson won golf’s Humana Challenge by two strokes for his fifth U.S. PGA Tour victory and third in the past two seasons. Wilson birdied his final hole yesterday to finish 24 under par over four rounds at three different courses in La Quinta, California. Robert Garrigus, John Mallinger and Johnson Wagner tied for s...
2024-05-10
Bloomberg
Soaring Rate of Immigrant Parents Imperils Overhaul Boon
Robert Liang and his wife, Alice, are living arguments for backers of an immigration-law revision: Though undocumented, they’re hardworking small-business owners who don’t want government help. The immigrants from Taiwan also embody an argument for its opponents: They’re older than 50. Some 11 million undocumented work...
2024-10-20
Bloomberg
Fidelity National to Require Banks to Sign Foreclosure Warranty
Fidelity National Financial Inc. , the largest U.S. title insurer by market share, will require lenders to sign a warranty assuring their paperwork is sound before backing sales of foreclosed homes. An indemnity covering “incompetent or erroneous affidavit testimony or documentation” must be signed for all foreclosure ...
2024-03-29
Bloomberg
MF Global Hearing, EPA ‘War on Coal’, EU Freight: Compliance
Edith O’Brien, the MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) assistant treasurer who has become a key figure in tracing the disappearance of as much as $1.6 billion in customer funds, declined to answer questions from House lawmakers. O’Brien, who appeared yesterday under subpoena before a House Financial Services subcommittee, inv...
2024-05-21
Bloomberg
Sub-Sahara Africa Stocks: Kenya Reinsurance, Oando of Nigeria
Kenya’s All-Share Index (NSEASI) climbed 0.2 percent, a third day of gains, to 64.33 in Nairobi. Namibia’s FTSE/Namibia Overall Index (FTN098) slid for a second day, retreating 0.2 percent to 856.81 in Windhoek. The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NGSEINDX) fell 0.3 percent to 22,309.62 in Lagos, according to ...
2024-01-06
Bloomberg
Thieves Defy Death to Tap Metal Price Boom as U.K. Cracks Down
Thieves in the U.K. are stealing sculptures, copper cabling from railroad tracks, church roofs, bells, manhole covers and even hospital equipment as demand increases for metals on the world’s commodities markets. At least two people a month are killed trying to take copper power cables, railway scrap metal and lead fro...
2024-01-23
Bloomberg
Speculators Raise Wagers on Higher Metals by Most Since July: Commodities
Speculators raised bets on higher metal prices by the most since July, turning bullish on copper for the first time in four months on signs of growth in the U.S., increasing demand in China and more confidence in Europe. Money managers expanded combined net-long positions in five industrial and precious metals by 13 pe...
2024-02-26
Bloomberg
Banks Lead Worst Drop for Czech Stocks in 7 Months: Prague Mover
Financial companies led the steepest drop in Czech shares in seven months as electoral deadlock in Italy spurred concern the euro area’s debt crisis will worsen. Erste Group Bank AG (RBAG) of Austria tumbled 3.4 percent by the close in Prague, while Komercni Banka AS (KOMB) declined 3.3 percent and Vienna Insurance Gro...
2024-09-22
Bloomberg
New Zealand’s Economy Almost Stalls in Second Quarter, Weakening Currency
New Zealand ’s economy almost stalled last quarter, sending the local currency to a four-month low and reinforcing the case for central bank Governor Alan Bollard to maintain record-low interest rates until 2012. Gross domestic product rose 0.1 percent in the three months through June from the previous quarter, less th...
2024-06-26
Bloomberg
Portugal Throws Open Europe’s Them-And-Us Austerity Divide
When it comes to sharing the burden of austerity, some Portuguese feel more equal than others. Half way through his four-year term, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is trying to curb popular resentment over what opponents say is a widening gulf between private employees and about 600,000 public workers who have mostl...
2024-05-26
Bloomberg
Lloyds Banking Said to Rule Out Sale of Scottish Widows Unit
Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY) has ruled out a sale of its Scottish Widows insurance unit as part of a review of the business, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The London-based bank is examining its strategy following Antonio Horta-Osorio’s appointment as chief executive officer on March 1. Analysts inclu...
2024-08-10
Bloomberg
Swiss, Germany Agree to Settlement in Tax-Evasion Dispute
Switzerland and Germany completed an accord to end a dispute over tax evasion by wealthy Germans holding cross-border accounts with Swiss private banks. As part of the settlement, Swiss banks will pay 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.8 billion) to the German government to cover the failure by their clients to disclose undecl...
2024-01-17
Bloomberg
AIG’s Eastwood Adds Duties as Portalatin Departs
American International Group Inc. (AIG) , the bailed-out insurer, increased duties for regional leaders and reorganized its main unit into three geographic segments after the departure of the executive overseeing growth markets. Peter Eastwood will add Latin America to his job leading the U.S. and Canada for the Charti...
2024-12-03
Bloomberg
EU Will Miss January Deadline to Implement Basel Overhaul
The European Union said it will join the U.S. in missing next month’s deadline to legally implement an overhaul of Basel bank rules, as EU debate drags on over issues including banker bonuses, liquidity rules and leverage limits. “The legal entry into force of CRD IV is no longer realistic for January 2013,” Stefaan De...