LONDON (Reuters) - Stewart Ford, founder of now-defunct “death bonds” firm Keydata, said on Wednesday he might seek an appeal after losing a battle against Britain’s markets regulator over a record 76 million pound ($100 million) fine.Ford, who has fought the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and its FSA predecessor since it fast-tracked Keydata Investment Services into administr...Read More
INFN hit a record low out of the gateOptical networking equipment concern Infinera Corp. (NASDAQ:INFN) is suffering a massive sell-off in early trading, after being pummeled with bear notes following the company's third-quarter revenue miss and disappointing fourth-quarter profit outlook. No fewer than three brokerage firms have slashed their price targets on the stock, including a notable drop t...Read More
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Democrats won governorships on Tuesday in several U.S. states that supported Republican President Donald Trump in 2016 but lost high-profile races in Florida and Ohio, as voters cast ballots in dozens of gubernatorial contests across the country.The hotly contested race in Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams was seeking to become the first black woman to be elected...Read More
Quarterly revenue fell short of expectations and same-store sales slumpedThe shares of Michael Kors Holdings Ltd (NYSE:KORS) have plunged 16% to trade at $48.50 -- fresh off a new annual low of $47.47. Although the retailer said fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings arrived at $1.27 per share, more than analysts were expecting, the $1.25 billion in revenue it earned over the three-month period f...Read More
HELSINKI (Reuters) - The European Union’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Wednesday it was impossible to say when divorce talks with Britain would be finalised and that there would be no deal agreed without a solid fix for the Irish border.“To be frank, we are not there yet. The clock is ticking. The choices need to be made now on the UK side,” Barnier told reporters aft...Read More
(Reuters) - U.S. Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican, won re-election late Tuesday despite publicly losing a corporate supporter shortly before Election Day and being criticized by some within his own party for inflammatory remarks on immigration and race.Just days before the Nov. 6 elections, agricultural dairy cooperative Land O’Lakes pulled its support for King, saying it sought...Read More
Afghanistan selected preferred bidders for three gold and copper mines in 2012. It took the war-torn nation six years to finally sign the contracts.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the deals in the past few weeks. The government took time to finalize the agreements because it wanted to ensure they were transparent and will help eliminate corruption in awarding contracts, Ghani said in an in...Read More
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa is likely to hold a parliamentary election in May next year, after the electoral commission announced a timeline on Wednesday, in a vote that will decide whether President Cyril Ramaphosa remains in power.The commission said the election would take place sometime between May 7 and August 5 next year but Ramaphosa, who has the final say on the date, has previou...Read More
The skin condition expert fell to an annual low yesterdayNear the top of the Nasdaq today sits Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ:FOMX), up 12.7% to trade at $11.4, after the drugmaker said its experimental foam treatment for rosacea met its late-stagy study goals. The company expects to file for a U.S. marketing application in 2019, with some projecting sales for the treatment to reach $110 mill...Read More
(Reuters) - The United States on Monday re-imposed sanctions against Iran’s oil exports to punish Tehran for its involvement in several Middle Eastern conflicts.Washington had been pushing governments to cut imports of Iranian oil to zero. but fearing a crude oil price spike, it granted Iran’s biggest buyers - China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey - sanctio...Read More
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it hoped Russia would continue to allow Israel to strike Iranian targets in Syria, despite Moscow’s supply of the S-300 air defense system to the Syrian government.“Russia has been permissive, in consultation with the Israelis, about Israeli strikes against Iranian targets inside Syria. We certainly hope that that permissive approa...Read More
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were on course to open higher on Wednesday after the midterm elections handed Democrats the House of Representatives and saw Republicans reinforce their control of the Senate in a widely expected outcome.After an initial muted market reaction globally, futures for the three major Wall Street indexes powered higher along with global stocks, while the dollar fell on fading ho...Read More
Options traders had been targeting puts on Etsy and TwilioWe recently took a look at the pre-earnings options activity onEtsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY) and Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO), and interestingly, speculators were taking a bearish approach on both stocks. While some of this may have been shareholders hedging, given both stocks' strong showings on the charts this year, anyone who was expecting an earning...Read More
LISBON (Reuters) - EU regulators are close to wrapping up their third case against Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google involving its AdSense advertising service, Europe’s antitrust chief said on Wednesday, suggesting the company may soon be hit with another hefty fine.The comments by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager come four months after she levied a record 4.34 billion euro...Read More
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif./SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Albemarle Corp’s (ALB.N) claim to have developed a unique process that would more than triple its lithium production from Chile’s Atacama desert without using more water is drawing increased scrutiny from regulators and investors pushing for more details.The development could help Albemarle cement its position as the world’s largest lith...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threw his support behind top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi, saying she ought to be U.S. House Speaker, one day after Democrats won enough seats in the midterm congressional election to take control of Congress’ lower chamber.“In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they g...Read More
The Fed's two-day meeting begins todayFutures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are higher this morning, up over 150 points and eyeing a third straight win, as investors digest the midterm election results from last night. Election Day brought little that surprised investors, as Democrats took the House and Republicans maintained control of the Senate. Blue chips such as Caterpillar (CAT)...Read More
(Kitco News) - Australia’s weak currency is the key behind the country’s gold mining success, which is seeing new exploration and low debt levels, according to RBC Capital Markets.“The Australia gold mining sector is very healthy; we have strong margins and low to no levels of debt in the sector. There’s plenty of exploration upside, which can deliver some additional discov...Read More
Gold may well benefit two ways from U.S. midterm elections,says Commerzbank. Democrats won control of the House of Representatives,although Republicans maintained the Senate. This presumably will put an end anyfurther tax cuts, “which means in the longer term that the Fed will need to implementfewer rate hikes, which per se will have a negative impact on the U.S. dollar,”Commerzbank sa...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Now that the Democrats have won control of the U.S. House of Representatives, they need to choose a leader and that means solving one of their toughest puzzles: Nancy Pelosi.A contest among the Democrats for the House’s top job of speaker will play out over the next 10 weeks or so, with the formidable 78-year-old San Francisco liberal at the center.Pelosi has been clea...Read More