Category: Business

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program finds extreme weather conditions in Syria have caused the lowest production of wheat and barley for nearly three decades in this war-torn country. Still, the Syrian government has managed to pacify most of country after more than seven years of brutal, murderous conflict that has reportedly killed more than 350,000 people. Because of improved security, more people are returning to their places of origin. But the report says despite improved access to agricultural land in some areas, erratic weather has caused a sharp decline in crop production this year, compared to last. It says large areas of rainfed cereals have failed because of a long dry period early in the season. This was followed by unseasonably late heavy…

Coffee drinkers in the nation’s capital can now order that tall pumpkin spice iced skim latte in sign language. Starbucks has opened its first U.S. “signing store” to better serve hard of hearing customers. The store in Washington is just blocks from Gallaudet University, one of the nation’s oldest universities serving deaf and hard of hearing students. Marlee Matlin, the only deaf actor to win an Academy Award, posted an Instagram video of herself ordering a drink early Tuesday. “The sign for the week is COFFEE,” she wrote. Starbucks announced in July that it would hire 20 to 25 deaf or hard of hearing baristas to work at the store. The store is modeled after a similar Starbucks signing store which opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2016.   ...

Global stocks tumbled Tuesday amid investors' concerns over world economic growth and gloomy forecasts from U.S. bellwether companies. Major Asian indexes fell sharply after China increased financing for privately-held companies. Compounding investor worries were gloomy forecasts from U.S. industrial giants Caterpillar and 3M. The developments dampened investor optimism about the global economy, which appears to be slowing after an expansion last year propelled global stocks higher. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund cut its global economic forecast for 2018 and 2019, blaming protectionist trade policies and uncertainty in emerging markets. The U.S. economy, which investors have viewed more favorably, has also shown signs of weakening. The housing and automobile sectors have faltered, and a report to be released Friday is expected to show U.S. economic growth moderated in the…

Foreigners sold a net 4.01 billion riyal ($1.07 billion) in Saudi stocks in the week ending Oct. 18, exchange data showed on Sunday - one of the biggest selloff since the market opened to direct foreign buying in mid-2015. The selloff came during a week when investors were rattled by Saudi Arabia's deteriorating relations with foreign powers following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Riyadh said on Saturday that Khashoggi died in a fight inside its Istanbul consulate, its first acknowledgment of his death after denying for two weeks that it was involved in his disappearance. A breakdown of the data showed foreigners sold 5 billion riyals worth of stocks and bought 991.3 million worth. The Saudi stock market is down about 4 percent since Khashoggi's disappeared. The market had…

The International Monetary Fund announced Friday it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on economic policies that would unlock a new loan deal that will provide nearly $4 billion. The new 14-month standby loan deal replaces an existing four-year financial aid package agreed in March 2015 and due to expire in five months, the IMF said in a statement. The agreement must be approved by the IMF board, which will come later in the year after authorities in Kyiv approve a 2019 budget "consistent with IMF staff recommendations and an increase in household gas and heating tariffs," a step the government had agreed on but never implemented. But the deal also stresses the need for "continuing to protect low-income households." Ukraine Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had been seeking the additional…

A women-to-women investment fund is coming to Britain next month to boost financing for female-owned businesses, its founder said Thursday, as efforts grow to close the gender investing gap. SheEO has lent more than $2 million to 32 female social entrepreneurs in the United States, Canada and New Zealand to grow their businesses since 2015 in an attempt to address a global gender investment gap. “Most of the people writing checks and investing are men,” founder Vicki Saunders told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “SheEO wants to fund female innovators with great ideas to create stronger communities and a better world.” Support for female entrepreneurs It is the latest venture to support female entrepreneurs around the world, who often face more obstacles than men, including a lack of access to finance,…

U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent on Thursday as the European Commission issued a warning regarding Italy's budget and concerns mounted about the possibility of strained relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia. S&P 500 technology stocks fell more than 2 percent, as did the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Wall Street's major indexes pared early losses in morning trading but reversed course to fall further as European markets closed. Italian bond yields jumped after the European Commission deemed the country's 2019 budget draft to be in breach of EU rules. U.S. stocks declined further after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pulled out of an investor conference in Saudi Arabia as the White House awaited the outcome of investigations into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "It's a function of a lot of things coalescing into a concern," said Mark Luschini, chief…

Several major Russian companies are exploring ways to do deals abroad without using dollars, spurred on by a U.S. threat to broaden sanctions that have impeded access of some Russian firms to the international banking system. The Kremlin has been pushing companies to conduct more deals using other currencies to reduce reliance on the dollar. Russian Alrosa, the world's biggest producer of rough diamonds in carat terms, said it had completed a pilot deal with a Chinese client using yuan in the summer and another non-dollar transaction with an Indian client. Other companies working on similar transactions include energy firm Surgutneftegaz, agricultural company Rusagro and miner Norilsk Nickel. Russia's central bank said this week the amount of non-dollar dealings was growing, with the share of rouble settlements in the Russia-China…

In the late 1960s, while fledgling new retailers Walmart, Kohl's, Kmart and Target were hard at work establishing a foothold in the hearts, minds and wallets of the American consumer, the nation's dominant retailer was busy building the world's tallest building. In pouring its funds and focus into Chicago's Sears Tower, America's original super-store may have unwittingly become the architect of its own long, slow and painful demise. “Walmart, the strongest of all those four, wasn’t anywhere near where Sears was for a couple of decades," says James Schrager, professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. "So, if Sears was on top of things, even in the early 80s, they could have been Target or a better version of Kmart, they could have…

The Trump administration has again declined to label China a currency manipulator, but says it is keeping China and five other nations on a watch list. “Of particular concern are China’s lack of currency transparency and the recent weakness in its currency,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in his biannual report to Congress. “Those pose major challenges to achieving fairer and more balanced trade and we will continue to monitor and review China's currency practices, including thorough ongoing discussions with the People’s Bank of China,” he said. Mnuchin said China — along with Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland — would be placed on a list of countries whose currency practices require what the report calls “close attention.” Governments manipulate currency by keeping the exchange rates artificially low…

Jubilant customers stood in long lines for hours then lit up and celebrated on sidewalks Wednesday as Canada became the world's largest legal marijuana marketplace. In Toronto, people smoked joints as soon as they rolled out of bed in a big "wake and bake" celebration. In Alberta, a government website that sells pot crashed when too many people tried to place orders. And in Montreal, Graeme Campbell welcomed the day he could easily buy all the pot he wanted.  "It's hard to find people to sell to me because I look like a cop," the clean-cut, 43-year-old computer programmer said outside a newly opened pot store. He and his friend Alex Lacrosse were smoking a joint when two police officers walked by. "I passed you a joint right in front…

Electric auto brand Tesla Inc. said it signed an agreement Wednesday to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions. Tesla, based on Palo Alto, California, announced plans for the Shanghai factory in July after the Chinese government said it would end restrictions on full foreign ownership of electric vehicle makers to speed up industry development. Those plans have gone ahead despite tariff hikes by Washington and Beijing on billions of dollars of each other’s goods in a dispute over Chinese technology policy. U.S. imports targeted by Beijing’s penalties include electric cars. China is the biggest global electric vehicle market and Tesla’s second-largest after the United States. Tesla joins global automakers including General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG…

Western corporate chiefs are continuing to pull out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week, distancing themselves from questions about Riyadh's involvement in the disappearance and alleged killing of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist in Turkey. At first, many of the business leaders reserved judgment on what happened to the missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. But as reports from Turkey have mounted alleging that Saudi agents tortured, killed and dismembered Khashoggi two weeks ago inside the country's consulate in Istanbul, the chief executives have announced in recent days they will not be attending the three-day Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh starting Tuesday. Saudi Arabia has denied killing Khashoggi, a critic of the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in columns he wrote for The Washington Post.…

An Uber driver in New York City kidnapped a woman who fell asleep in his vehicle, groped her in the back seat and then left her on the side of a highway in Connecticut, federal authorities said Tuesday. Harbir Parmar, 24, of Queens was charged in U.S. District Court with kidnapping. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had an attorney. The FBI said in court papers that Parmar picked the woman up in Manhattan at 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 for a trip to her home in White Plains, New York, about an hour away. The woman fell asleep, authorities said, and Parmar changed her destination to an address in Boston, Massachusetts. The woman woke up to find the driver "with his hand under her shirt touching the top of…

The White House has announced plans to negotiate separate trade deals with Britain, the European Union and Japan. "We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Tuesday. He added that the White House wanted to "address both tariff and non-tariff barriers and to achieve fairer and more balanced trade." As required by law, Lighthizer sent three separate letters to Congress announcing the intention to open trade talks. He wrote that the negotiations with Britain would begin "as soon as it's ready" after Britain's expected exit from the European Union on March 29. Lighthizer called the economic partnership between the U.S. and EU the "largest and most complex"in the world, noting the U.S. has a $151 billion trade…

Major U.S. stock markets made strong gains Tuesday as strong earnings reports encouraged investors. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 547.87 points, or 2.2 percent, to close at 25,798.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 59.13 points, or 2.2 percent, to 2,809.92 with all 11 sectors finishing higher. The Nasdaq composite, home to many tech stocks, jumped 214.75 points, or 2.9 percent, to 7,645.49. New U.S. economic data showing gains in job openings and industrial production also helped buoy prices. Tuesday's Dow gain marked a sharp turnaround from some recent trading sessions, when worries about rising interest rates sent stock market indexes down steeply. Those concerns also pushed down the value of European stocks, but the major indexes in France, Germany and Britain also posted gains Tuesday.    ...

Concerns about debt diplomacy on China's expansive infrastructure megaproject — the Belt and Road — have become an increasing source of debate from Asia to Africa and the Middle East. In recent weeks, more than $30 billion in projects have been scrapped and other loans and investments are under review.   Public opposition is also testing the resolve of ruling authorities from Hanoi to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, as concerns about Chinese investment build. In late August, Malaysia's newly elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad canceled more than $20 billion in Belt and Road projects for railway and pipelines, and Pakistan lopped another $2 billion off plans for a railway following a decision late last year to cancel a $14 billion dam project, citing financial concerns. Nepal canceled its dam project last month…

The U.S. government's budget deficit hit $779 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, while spending increased and tax revenues remained nearly flat, the Treasury said Monday. It was the biggest deficit since 2012, and $113 billion more than the figure a year ago. The 2018 deficit amounted to 3.9 percent of the country's more than $18 trillion annual economy, up from 3.5 percent last year. The government's deficit spending boosted the country's long-term debt figure to more than $21 trillion, forcing the government to pay an extra $65 billion last year in interest on money the government has had to borrow to run its programs. In all, government spending rose by $127 billion last year, while tax collections increased by $14 billion. The Treasury said the annual…

Zimbabwe's government says the country is emerging from a recent economic meltdown that saw shops run out of goods and motorists spend long hours in lines at gas stations. Economists say Zimbabwe's crisis is not over, as people have no confidence in the currency or in President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government. For weeks now, there have been long and winding queues at most fuel stations in Zimbabwe, as the precious liquid has been in short supply. Lameck Mauriri is one of those now tired of the situation. "We are really striving but things are tough to everyone," said Mauriri. "I do not know how those in rural areas, how they are surviving, especially if in Harare it is like this. We are sleeping in fuel queues. There is not fuel, there…

More Americans are moving to smaller cities in search of a better quality of life. They're leaving places like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York for mid-sized cities such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Dallas, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. A huge draw for these second-tier cities is that the cost of housing consumes a much smaller chunk of people's salaries. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than half of the people who move do so for housing-related reasons. They're looking for a new or better home, cheaper housing, or to buy a home rather than rent. It costs about $4,100 a month to rent a place in Manhattan. That's almost two-thirds of New York City's median household income of $83,500. Buying a…

Sears has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, buckling under its massive debt load and staggering losses.  Sears once dominated the American retail landscape. But the big question is whether the shrunken version of itself can be viable or will it be forced to go out of business, closing the final chapter for an iconic name that originated more than a century ago. Holdings will also close 142 unprofitable stores near the end of the year. Liquidation sales at these stores are expected to begin shortly. This is in addition to the previously announced closure of 46 unprofitable stores that is expected to be completed by November 2018. The company, which started out as a mail order catalog in the 1880s, has been on a slow march toward extinction as…

An increase in world oil prices is helping Vietnam earn money that will quicken its already fast economic growth and may help the country build new infrastructure. The only red light: higher fuel prices among Vietnam's consumers. Vietnam, though not a major oil-producing nation like much of the Middle East, has counted energy-related commodities as its fifth highest source of exports. The industry is largely state-owned, including energy supplier PetroVietnam, with $3.1 billion in annual sales. Much of Vietnam’s energy comes from under the seas off its east and south coasts. If crude oil prices hold at an average $65 per barrel this year, above last year’s average of US$60, economic growth will exceed the 6.7 percent target set by the legislature, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s website said last…

World stocks are climbing Friday after two days of sharp losses. Major U.S. stock indexes are up more than 1 percent, but they're still on track for their biggest one-week loss since late March. Technology and internet companies were some of the hardest hit over the last two days and they led the market higher Friday. Apple climbed 2.7 percent to $220.18. Consumer-focused companies also rallied, as Amazon jumped 3.8 percent to $1,783.96 and Netflix surged 4.7 percent to $336.30. The S&P 500 index climbed 37 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,766 at 9:45 a.m. Eastern time. The benchmark index tumbled 5.3 percent over the past two days and as of Thursday it had fallen for six consecutive days. The S&P is down 5.6 percent from its latest record high,…

Just in case any of the global central bankers and finance ministers gathered in Indonesia missed the message delivered repeatedly this week, the host nation said it again Friday: Everyone stands to lose if trade wars are allowed to escalate. Indonesian President Joko Widodo didn't mention the United States or China, the world's two largest economies, but it was clear who he was talking about in an address to the plenary session of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings on the island of Bali.   WATCH: IMF Urges US and China to De-escalate Tariff Wars "Lately it feels like the relations among the major economies are becoming more and more like Game of Thrones," Widodo said in a speech peppered with references to the HBO series about dynasties…

Elon Musk replied with a tweet saying "This is incorrect" after the Financial Times reported that outgoing Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. Chief Executive James Murdoch was the lead candidate to replace him as Tesla Inc. chairman. Tesla has until Nov. 13 to appoint an independent chairman of the board, part of settlements reached last month between Tesla, Musk and U.S. regulators after Musk tweeted in August that he had secured funding to take the electric car maker private. The SEC settlement capped months of debate and some investor calls for stronger oversight of Musk, whose recent erratic public behavior raised concerns about his ability to steer the money-losing company through a rocky phase of growth. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which said Musk's tweeted statements about going private were fraudulent, allowed the billionaire to retain his role as CEO while requiring he…

Parties to a new global treaty to combat the illicit sale of tobacco products have taken the first steps toward cracking down on this multi-billion dollar trade.  At a three-day meeting at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva they have outlined a plan to shut down the lucrative black market trade in tobacco. A global tobacco treaty (Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products) entered into force on September 25, with 48 countries joining the new protocol, which is part of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC).  Two-thirds of the parties have enacted or strengthened national legislation aimed at tackling illicit trade in tobacco products. Parties attending the meeting have set up a working group to create a monitoring system to track and trace…

One of Donald Trump's top economic advisers says the president is not trying to improperly influence the U.S. central bank. The director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, spoke to the television network CNBC a day after Trump said the U.S. Federal Reserve is "loco" (crazy) for raising interest rates. On Thursday, Trump continued his attacks on the central bank, calling the Fed "out of control," but denied he has plans to fire Fed Chair Jay Powell.  Kudlow said, "We all know the Fed is independent. The president is not dictating policy to the Fed."   The Federal Reserve slashed the benchmark interest rate nearly to zero in an emergency, temporary effort to boost economic growth hurt by a severe recession 10 years ago. Since then, the economy has stopped shrinking…

The world's longest commercial flight, a 19-hour journey from Singapore to New York, took off Thursday from Changi Airport. The Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900ULR will touch down at Newark Liberty International Airport early Friday after traveling 15,350 kilometers. Singapore Airlines previously flew the same route, but abandoned it in 2013 due to high oil prices and the gas-guzzling four-engine aircraft used.  Singapore Airlines is offering no coach seats, instead stocking the plane with 67 business-class spots and 94 premium economy. Shortly before takeoff, premium economy tickets were going for more than $2,100. The Airbus A350-900ULR ("Ultra Long Range") is a new two-engine plane with far greater range and fuel capacity than other commercial airliners. In addition, it has several features that aid passenger comfort during the trip, like hospital-grade air…