Category: Business

Shares on Japan's key stock exchange plummeted Tuesday, highlighting investor fears about political turmoil in Washington and this month's massive losses on Wall Street. The Nikkei 225 Index lost 1,000 points -- five percent of its value --to close Tuesday at 19,155, finishing under 20,000 points for the first time since September 2017. Tuesday's closing numbers are down 21 percent from its October high. China's Shanghai index finished nearly one percent lower Tuesday.Markets in Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, the U.S. and Europe were all closed in observance of Christmas. The losses on the Nikkei were a spillover from Monday's down day in the U.S., where the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, the S&P 500 Index fell nearly three percent and the NASDAQ Composite Index lost more than two percent.That…

U.S. stock markets fell sharply on Monday with the S&P 500 down more than two percent and the Dow off nearly three percent. President Donald Trump is blaming the Federal Reserve (central bank) for stock market declines and other economic problems. In tweets, Trump has said the only U.S. economic problem is rising interest rates. He accused Fed chief Jerome Powell of not understanding the market and damaging the economy with rate hikes. The Fed slashed the key interest rate nearly to zero to boost growth during the recession that started in 2007. The central bank kept rates low for several years. Eventually, growth recovered, and unemployment dropped to its lowest level in 49 years, and Fed officials judged that the emergency stimulus was no longer needed. Fed leaders voted…

The leading pan-European stock exchange has launched a 625 million euro takeover bid to acquire the Oslo Stock Exchange. Euronext, the operator of stock exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin and Lisbon, said in a statement that it had approached the board of directors of the Oslo Stock Exchange (Oslo Bors VPS) to seek its support for an all-cash offer for all the outstanding shares of Oslo Børs VPS, the Norwegian Stock Exchange and national CSD operator, based in Oslo. “Euronext strongly believes that Oslo Børs VPS’ unique strategic and competitive positioning, including a global leading position in seafood derivatives and a deep-rooted expertise in oil services and shipping, would further strengthen Euronext’s position as the leading market infrastructure for the financing of the real economy in Europe,” the statement…

South Korea said Monday it will fine BMW $9.9 million and will file a criminal complaint against the German automaker for delaying a recall of cars with faulty engines that caught fire.  South Korea's transport ministry said its investigation uncovered that BMW knew about the faulty engines, but did not execute a prompt recall.  The ministry said BMW deliberately tried to cover up the technical issues with the exhaust gas recirculation, or EGR, even after dozens of fires had been reported earlier this year.  "BMW announced earlier that it had become aware of the connection between the faulty EGR cooler and the fire only on July 20 this year," the ministry said in a statement. "But we discovered that . . . BMW's German headquarters had already formed a special…

U.S. President Donald Trump's Treasury secretary called top U.S. bankers on Sunday amid an ongoing rout on Wall Street and made plans to convene a group of officials known as the "Plunge Protection Team.” U.S. stocks have fallen sharply in recent weeks on concerns over slowing economic growth, with the S&P 500 index on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression. "Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation's six largest banks," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Twitter shortly before financial markets were due to open in Asia. U.S. equity index futures dropped late on Sunday as electronic trading resumed to kick off a holiday-shortened week. In early trading, the benchmark S&P 500's e-mini futures contract was off by about a…

A White House official says tension between a president and the interest-rate setting Federal Reserve is "traditional as part of our system.'' Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says it should come as no surprise that President Donald Trump is unhappy the central bank, an independent agency, "is raising rates and we think driving down the value of the stock market."   Speculation about the fate of Trump's appointed Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, has swirled after Bloomberg News reported that Trump discussed firing Powell after this past week's rate increase.   Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted Saturday that Trump has denied ever suggesting that and doesn't believe he has the right to dismiss Powell.   Mulvaney also tells ABC's "This Week" that the economy's "fundamentals are still strong."   ...

China and the United States held a vice ministerial-level call on Friday, the second such contact in a week, achieving a "deep exchange of views" on trade imbalances and the protection of intellectual property, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said. A statement posted on the ministry's website on Sunday said the two countries "made new progress" on those issues, without specifying further. It also said China and the United States discussed arrangements for the next call and mutual visits. On Wednesday, the ministry said Beijing and Washington had held a vice ministerial-level telephone call about trade and economic issues, without providing other details. The calls took place amid signs of a thaw in a trade dispute between the United States and China, the world's two largest economies. U.S. President Donald…

In 2018, sitting leaders relinquished power in South Africa and Ethiopia. Zimbabwe elected a new leader after 37 years of rule by former President Robert Mugabe. Peaceful power transitions were also seen in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali. But while many find those trends encouraging, the opposite is also true in countries where some of world's longest serving leaders continue to hold power. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports on the overall trends that are sparking both hope and worry. ...

Now in its 10th year, America's economic expansion still looks sturdy. Yet the partial shutdown of the government that began Saturday has added another threat to a growing list of risks.    The stock market's persistent fall, growing chaos in the Trump administration, higher interest rates, a U.S.-China trade war and a global slowdown have combined to elevate the perils for the economy.    Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, said he thinks the underlying fundamentals for growth remain strong and that the expansion will continue. But he cautioned that the falling stock market reflects multiple hazards that can feed on themselves.    "What really matters is how people perceive these headwinds — and right now markets and investors perceive them as leading us into a recessionary environment,''…

U.S. President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Bloomberg reported Saturday. Citing four people familiar with the discussions, Bloomberg reported Trump has become more frustrated with Powell after months of stock market losses and the central bank's interest rate hike on Wednesday. Advisers reportedly have warned Trump that firing Powell would further roil financial markets, yet they said Trump has discussed the matter many times in the past few days. The sources who spoke with Bloomberg on condition of anonymity were not convinced Trump would fire Powell, and were hopeful the president's anger over the situation would subside over the holidays.The White House and the Federal Reserve have declined to comment. A firing of Powell would come after weeks of heavy losses in the markets. On…

After almost 10 years, Wall Street's rally looks like it's ending.  Another day of big losses Friday left the U.S. market with its worst week in more than seven years. All of the major indexes have lost 16 to 26 percent from their highs this summer and fall. Barring huge gains during the upcoming holiday period, this will be the worst December for stocks since 1931.    There hasn't been one major shock that has sent stocks plunging. The U.S. economy has been growing since 2009, and most experts think it will keep expanding for now. But it's likely to do so at a slower pace.    As they look ahead, investors are finding more and more reasons to worry. The U.S. has been locked in a trade dispute with China for…

The Canadian economy expanded by a greater-than-expected 0.3 percent in October from September, pushed higher by strength in manufacturing, finance and insurance, Statistics Canada data indicated Friday. Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted monthly GDP would increase by 0.2 percent. Fifteen of the 20 industrial sectors — which Statscan says represents around 80 percent of the economy — posted gains. The release could well be a pleasant surprise for Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, who complained earlier this month that economic data heading into the fourth quarter were weaker than expected. The manufacturing sector grew by 0.7 percent on higher output of machinery, primary metals, chemicals and food. The finance and insurance sector advanced by 0.9 percent on increased activity in bond and money markets. Wholesale trade grew…

Plans to build another privately-financed power station in Nigeria to help end decades of chronic blackouts have been delayed because of concerns about persistent shortfalls in payments for electricity across the sector. The $1.1 billion Qua Iboe Power Plant being developed by energy infrastructure company Black Rhino and the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation won't get a green light by the end of 2018 as planned and it was unclear when the deal might close, NNPC told Reuters. The delay is a setback for Africa's biggest oil producer where 80 million people don't have access to grid power supplies and it exposes the difficulties in attracting private investment to a sector that successive governments have tried to reform. The uncertainty surrounding the 540-megawatt Qua Iboe plant stems from the difficulties…

It was another miserable day on Wall Street as a series of big December plunges continued, putting stocks on track for their worst month in a decade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 464 points Thursday, bringing its losses to more than 1,700 points since Friday. The benchmark S&P 500 index has slumped 10.6 percent this month and is almost 16 percent below the peak it reached in late September. The steady gains of this spring and summer now fell like a distant memory. As we've entered the fall, investors started to worry that global economic growth is cooling off and that the U.S. could slip into a recession in the next few years. The S&P 500 is on track for its first annual loss in a decade. The technology…

The U.S.-China trade war is spooking potential investors in soybean crushing plants planned for Wisconsin and New York state, developers said, casting doubt on the future of a sector that had been a rare bright spot in the U.S. farm economy. Crushers in the United States have been posting near-record profits by snapping up cheap and plentiful soybeans no longer purchased by China and making soymeal and soy oil for export to Europe and Southeast Asia. But margins are not predictable as the United States and China attempt to resolve their trade differences before a March 2 deadline, adding another puzzle as investors parse out the costs and impacts of a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies. WSBCP LLC, or the Wisconsin Soybean Crushing Plant, is struggling to…

A state of emergency has been declared in two eastern Sudan states after at least eight protesters were killed in mass demonstrations against rising prices. Thousands of protesters marched in cities and towns across Sudan Thursday, angry over widespread corruption and the rising costs of basic goods, including bread. Eyewitnesses in al-Qadarif said men wearing uniforms were among the protesters. Prices for food have skyrocketed in recent months, with inflation topping 60 percent. This comes after the government cut subsidies earlier this year. Protesters there torched government buildings, including the headquarters of the ruling National Congress Party. Eyewitnesses in Atbara say the building was burned to the ground. States of emergency were declared in the cities of al-Qadarif and Atbara. Some of the Sudanese protesters are demanding a regime change.…

The independent U.S. central bank raised borrowing rates Wednesday for the fourth time this year, dismissing President Donald Trump's contention that policymakers ought not tinker with the country's robust economy, the world's largest.    The Federal Reserve board voted 10-0 after a two-day meeting to increase its benchmark short-term interest rate — which is the rate that banks charge each other on overnight loans to meet reserve minimums — by a quarter percentage point to a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, its highest point in a decade.     But the Fed also took note of clouds on the horizon for the U.S. economy, saying it expected to increase rates again only twice in 2019, not three times as it had previously projected. It also cut its 2019 economic growth forecast…

The United States and China blamed each other for the crisis in the world trading system during a two-day "trade policy review" of the United States at the World Trade Organization. The Chinese representative to the WTO, Hu Yingzhi, accused the United States of deforming the rules of world trade, which is having a detrimental impact on the economy and on American workers. U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea retorted that the crisis was caused by China's trade-distorting practices. He disputed the charge that the United States is the center of the crisis, saying instead that the U.S. is the epicenter of the solution. WTO Trade Policy Review Division Director Willy Alfaro described the two-day debate as lively and engaged. He told VOA that member states expressed a number…

Poland has signed a long-term deal with a U.S. company for supplies of liquefied natural gas as part of an effort to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, the two sides announced on Wednesday. Port Arthur LNG, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, and Poland’s state gas company PGNiG jointly announced the agreement for the sale of 2.7 billion cubic meters per year of gas to Poland over a 20-year period. Their statement said that is enough to meet about 15 percent of Poland’s daily gas needs. “This agreement marks an important step toward Poland’s energy independence and security,” the U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said. Sempra Energy’s CEO Jeffrey Martin said the deal helps his company “advance our vision to become North America’s premier energy infrastructure company.”…

The White House and Congress appeared headed toward agreement Wednesday on a stopgap spending plan to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday, but it does not include the $5 billion President Donald Trump wanted for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would vote later in the day on the measure funding operations for a quarter of the U.S. government until Feb. 8, when Trump and lawmakers could again face the possibility of a partial closure. Democratic leader Charles Schumer said Democrats would support the temporary spending plan, with the remainder of the U.S. government already funded through the end of next September. Trump made a pledge during his 2016 campaign to build a border wall to thwart illegal…

Every Brazilian, including current and former members of the armed forces, will have to compromise under the next administration's pension reform plan, a former general set to become government minister said in an interview. Retired General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz told Reuters in Brasilia last week that it was "inadmissible" in today's world for some Brazilians employed in the public sector to retire in their 40s or 50s. On December 4, right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said he planned to tackle the overhaul of Brazil's fiscally burdensome pension system with piecemeal reforms that can pass Congress, starting with an increase in the minimum age of retirement. Many economists say cuts to Brazil's social security system are essential to controlling a huge federal deficit and regaining Brazil's investment-grade rating. "There are…

Greek lawmakers approved the heavily indebted country's budget for 2019 late Tuesday, the first since Greece exited an eight-year bailout program. The budget lawmakers passed with a 154-143 vote still is heavy on austerity measures to ensure Greece registers a hefty surplus, in compliance with its debt relief deal with international creditors. Earlier Tuesday, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said the proposed budget was Greece's first in 10 years to be drafted "under circumstances of relative financial and political freedom" from bailout creditors. "Today we have the opportunity to vote for a budget that now reflects the priorities of the Greek government, and not of [its] supervising institutions," he said during a parliamentary debate. As the debate drew to a close, more than 2,000 people demonstrated peacefully outside parliament in two…

The finance committee of Mexico’s lower house of Congress on Tuesday rapidly approved the revenue section of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s 2019 draft budget, auguring speedy passage in the legislature his party controls. Lopez Obrador’s leftist government only unveiled the budget proposal on Saturday night. It met with a positive initial response from financial markets, with investors warming to his commitment to keep a lid on spending. The president’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and its allies dominate Congress, having won the first outright majority in more than two decades. Having been approved by the finance committee without changes, the revenue section is expected to go to the floor of the lower house on Tuesday afternoon. Once approved, the revenue budget proposal moves to the Senate. The budget is a…

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for the implementation of reforms but offered no new specific measures in a highly anticipated speech that marked the 40th anniversary of China's move towards market liberalization. In a speech lasting nearly an hour-and-a-half, Xi called for support of the state economy while also guiding the development of the private sector, and said China will expand efforts at opening up and ensure the implementation of major reforms. "We must, unswervingly, reinforce the development of the state economy while, unswervingly, encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of the non-state economy," Xi said during a speech at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Xi was speaking on the day China marked as the 40th anniversary of the start of late leader Deng Xiaoping's campaign of…

China hopes Britain's exit from the European Union can happen in an orderly way and that the bloc will reduce hurdles to Chinese investment and keep its markets open, China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday. China, the world's second-largest economy, has watched Brexit nervously, worried not only about potential market turmoil from a disorderly departure but about losing Britain's supportive voice for free trade within the EU. "China hopes to see Brexit proceed in an orderly fashion and stands ready to advance China-EU and China-UK relations in parallel," the ministry said in a lengthy policy document on EU ties. The EU and China are often at loggerheads over trade and other issues, with the EU sharing many of the same concerns as the United States about market access, trade imbalances…

Mexico's wage commission said on Monday it planned to hike the country's minimum wage by 16 percent to around $5 per day and leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged further increases to keep salaries apace with inflation. The salary commission, made up of government, business and labor representatives, said the daily minimum wage would rise to 102.68 pesos from 88.36 pesos on Jan. 1, the biggest such hike since 1996. "During many years the minimum wage has lost its purchasing power. Some say it has lost 70 percent of its purchasing power over the last 30 years," said Lopez Obrador. "We're never going to have wage (increases) below inflation," said Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1. Low wages have helped to attract foreign companies to Mexico and…

Nissan's board met Monday but failed to pick a new chairman to replace Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested last month on charges of violating financial regulations, saying more discussion was needed.   Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa told reporters that the board approved a special committee of outsiders to strengthen governance at the company. A date for the selection of a chairman was not decided.   "We plan to be cautious in this process, and I do not plan to rush this," Saikawa said.   The recommendations for beefing up governance are due in March, and Saikawa said he was willing to wait until then to choose a chairman.   The board meeting came amid an unfolding scandal that threatens the Japanese automaker's two-decade alliance with Renault SA…

The United States said on Monday that China's "unfair competitive practices" were harming foreign companies and workers in a way that violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, but vowed to lead reform efforts. U.S. trade ambassador Dennis Shea drew fire from Chinese envoy Zhang Xiangchen who said the Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminum products allowed protectionism under the guise of dubious national security concerns. The heated words, in texts seen by Reuters, were exchanged at the start of a closed-door review of U.S. trade policies, held every two years at the WTO, which continues on Wednesday. Shea expressed concern about the WTO dispute settlement system having "strayed far from the system agreed to by members" and said that the Appellate Body had overreached in some legal interpretations. Zhang…