China cash squeeze seen creating Vietnam-size credit hole: survey

China’s money-market cash squeeze is likely to reduce credit growth this year by 750 billion yuan ($122 billion), an amount equivalent to the size of Vietnam’s economy, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The number is the median estimate of 15 analysts, whose projections last week ranged from cuts of 20 billion yuan to 3 trillion yuan. The majority of respondents also said they approve of the government’s handling of the credit crunch and said the episode reinforces their expectations for pol

July 8, 2013

Renault’s Ghosn expects European car market will shrink further by 2015

Carlos Ghosn, Chief Executive Officer of Renault SA, Europe’s third-biggest carmaker, predicted that the European car market will probably shrink further in 2014 and 2015 as rising unemployment continues to sap consumer demand. “I think that 2014, 2015 are going to be at best stable in Europe,” Ghosn, who also runs Yokohama-based Nissan Motor Co. ― 43 percent-owned by Renault ― said in an interview today in Aix-en-Provence, southern France. “More realistically, we may see another decrease, maybe

July 7, 2013

U.S. jobs surge sparks talk of Fed taper

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The United States added 195,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said on Friday in a better-than-expected report that stoked speculation the Federal Reserve will soon curb its large economic stimulus.Bond yields shot up while Wall Street stocks closed one percent higher after the June employment growth came in well above the consensus estimate of 166,000 jobs.Marking the steady pickup in job creation in the economy, the April and May jobs numbers were revised higher, by a co

July 7, 2013

IMF tells Italy: press reforms, create youth jobs

ROME (AP) ― The International Monetary Fund pressed Italy on Thursday to do more about “unacceptably high” unemployment, especially among young people and women, and urged it to bring back an unpopular property tax whose return could threaten the survival of Premier Enrico Letta’s coalition government. Former premier Silvio Berlusconi made suspension of the tax on primary residences a condition of his conservative forces vital support for Letta’s government. Letta reluctantly agreed to let prope

July 5, 2013

ECB, BOE soothe markets in rate pledge

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Europe’s two most important central banks took unprecedented moves Thursday to reassure financial markets that interest rates on their side of the Atlantic are unlikely to rise any time soon. Seeking to calm worries about the political crisis in Portugal and ease concerns that the prolonged period of easy money is coming to an end in the United States, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England separately pledged to keep their borrowing costs low for as long as needed.T

July 5, 2013

BlackBerry fades as third phone contender with Apple, Google

BlackBerry’s chances of becoming a viable contender to Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the smartphone market are dimming amid lackluster demand for its flagship touch-screen device. Corporate information-technology departments have long wanted a third alternative to Apple’s iPhones and devices based on Google’s Android operating system, to ensure innovation and price competition. Yet many businesses are dropping support for BlackBerry as employees flock to touch-screen devices from Apple, Samsung

July 4, 2013

Yahoo startup shopping spree continues

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― Yahoo forged ahead Wednesday on its months-long takeover binge with word that it had bought Xobni, a startup behind tools for better managing contact lists and email inboxes.Yahoo did not disclose how much it paid for Xobni ― which is ‘inbox’ spelled backwards ― but said it planned to use the startup’s technology to improve Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and other “communications offerings.”San Francisco-based Xobni was launched in 2006, and two years later the venture-backed firm

July 4, 2013

Merkel hosts European youth jobs summit

BERLIN (AP) ― German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that money isn’t the main obstacle to tackling Europe’s high youth unemployment as she brought together officials from across the continent to discuss how best to get young people into jobs. EU leaders have agreed to put aside 8 billion euros ($10.4 billion) starting next year, on top of funding from other European funds and institutions, to ease youth unemployment. German officials say that, in total, 24 billion euros will be availabl

July 4, 2013

Yahoo buys iPhone video tool Qwiki in mobile push

Yahoo Inc. has acquired Qwiki Inc., a mobile tool for creating videos on Apple Inc. iPhones, as Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer seeks to add technology and engineers in the area of mobile software. Qwiki’s app will continue to be supported and its employees will move to Yahoo’s New York offices, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said in a statement Tuesday. Yahoo paid as much as $50 million for the startup, technology blog AllThingsD reported. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. May

July 3, 2013

U.S. auto sales maintain momentum

DETROIT (AP) ― Three years ago, U.S. car buyers started trickling back into showrooms after largely sitting out the recession. That trickle has turned into a flood.From owners of revitalized small businesses that need to replace aging pickups to new hires who need a fresh set of wheels for the daily commute, increasingly confident buyers pushed auto sales back to pre-recession levels in the first six months of this year. Sales in the January-June period topped 7.8 million, their best first half

July 3, 2013

Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche ratings cut by S&P

Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, and Credit Suisse Group AG had their credit ratings lowered by Standard & Poor’s as new rules and “uncertain market conditions” threaten their business. Long-term counterparty credit ratings for the three banks were cut to “A” from “A+,” S&P said Tuesday in a statement. The ratings company also affirmed its A long-term rating and “A-1” short-term rating on UBS AG, according to the statement. The outlook for all four companies is stable. Banks are still in recovery

July 3, 2013