The leaders of five of the world’s largest emerging markets will showcase a new currency reserve fund and development bank this week. Critics say neither is enough to revive the group’s waning clout. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known as the BRICS, will approve the creation for the $100 billion reserve fund and $50 billion bank at a July 15-16 summit in Brazil’s coastal city of Fortaleza and the capital Brasilia. The initiatives are born out of frustration with a lack of partic

July 14, 2014

Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis. The agreement announced Monday comes weeks after talks between the sides broke down, prompting the government to warn that it would sue the New York investment bank. The bank had offered to pay less than $4 billion, a sum substantially less than what the Justice Department was asking for. The settlement stems from the sale of securities made up of subprime mortg

July 14, 2014

LISBON (AFP) ― Portuguese authorities managed Friday to ease wider market fears over the health of the country’s biggest listed bank Banco Espirito Santo, which is being hammered by its parent group’s debt woes.“There is no reason to doubt the security of the funds entrusted to the BES, and its savers have no need to be worried,” Portugal’s central bank said in a statement.Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho added: “There is no reason for the state to intervene in a bank which has solid capital a

July 13, 2014

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom of Germany have reached a basic agreement for a merger between their US affiliates Sprint and T-Mobile US, the business daily Nikkei reported Saturday.Eight financial institutions, including Japan's top three megabanks Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui, will provide a credit line of around four trillion yen ($39 billion) for SoftBank's purchase of T-Mobile through Sprint, according to the report.The combined customer base of Sprint, ra

July 12, 2014

LISBON (AP) ― The specter of Europe’s financial crisis is back to haunt investors. Worries over the health of Portugal’s biggest bank on Thursday raised fears that the country might run into financial trouble again ― just weeks after emerging from a bailout ― and trigger a flare-up in the market crisis Europe thought it had quelled. Stocks and bonds fell in Europe and the U.S. while the price of gold rallied as traders sought it out as a safe investment. The tensions center on Espirito Santo Int

July 11, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal Reserve officials are in broad agreement that they will likely announce an end to their monthly bond buying program in October, bringing to a close the third round of massive bond purchases the central bank has relied upon to boost economic growth following the Great Recession. Minutes of the Fed’s June 17-18 meeting released Wednesday showed officials were in basic agreement that the if the economy continues to improve, the final reduction in bond purchases would total

July 10, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Global sales of electronic devices including PCs, tablets and mobile phones hit 2.4 billion units this year, with the mobile segment leading the way, a survey showed Monday.The survey by Gartner Inc. suggests a moderation in the declining PC market, predicting that tablet sales will overtake the traditional computer by 2015.Gartner analysts said the tablet market is cooling a bit, with growth slowing to 23.9 percent this year, around half the pace of 2013. The PC market meanwh

July 8, 2014

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Argentina told a U.S. lawyer Monday that a court order demanding it pay more than $1.3 billion in debts by the end of the month had to be stayed so Buenos Aires can avoid defaulting.Economy Minister Axel Kicillof outlined Argentina’s long-running position during four hours of talks in New York with attorney Daniel Pollack, appointed to break the impasse over debt payments.There was no sign of a breakthrough after Kicillof swept out of the negotiations, refusing to speak to journ

July 8, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The United States wants China to break a logjam over a proposed WTO information technology pact in annual bilateral talks this week, the top U.S. trade envoy said Monday.China should show “real leadership” by helping to advance negotiations on the expansion of the World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said.Froman, who will join the U.S. delegation at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing on Wednesday and

July 8, 2014

CAIRO (AP) ― Egypt’s president decreed an increase in sales tax on cigarettes, beer and wine, the latest in a series of price hikes that aim to ease the country’s staggering budget deficit. The decision announced Sunday increases a flat tax on local and imported cigarettes to between 25 and 40 cents per pack, depending on the brand. It doubles an already existing tax on beer, from 100 percent to 200 percent, and increases the tax on local and imported wines to 150 percent. Since assuming the pre

July 7, 2014