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| Asian shares pinned at 5-mth lows, Turkey in spotlight Monday, Jan 27, 2014 11:26 PM PST By Hideyuki Sano TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares were pinned near five-month lows on Tuesday as concerns that slower growth in China and reduced U.S. monetary stimulus could hurt some emerging economies dependent on exports and foreign capital. Investors are now focusing on whether the central bank of Turkey, one of the epicentres of the latest rout in emerging markets, could salvage the lira at an emergency policy meeting later in the day, after India surprised markets by raising rates. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan briefly dipped to a five-month low, extending a 3.8 percent loss in the past three days before recouping the losses to trade almost flat. Investors drew some comfort from the news that a Chinese trust firm had reached an agreement to resolve a troubled high-yield investment product, just days away from what could have been a precedent-setting default in China's shadow banking system. Full Story | Top |
| South African rand recovers footing, market eyes on Turkey Monday, Jan 27, 2014 11:25 PM PST  South Africa's rand regained some of its footing against the dollar on Tuesday, largely tracking a similar recovery in emerging market peer the Turkish lira, whose slide to multi-year lows it had mirrored the previous day. South Africa and Turkey are both in the "fragile five" group of emerging economies whose weak economic fundamentals, including large balance of payments deficits, make them particularly vulnerable during bouts of global risk aversion. Full Story | Top |
| Toyota to curb Japan output in April as tax hike kicks in Monday, Jan 27, 2014 11:15 PM PST  By Yoko Kubota TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp plans to curb daily vehicle output in Japan by 15 percent in April from a year earlier as it adjusts for a dampening of demand from a national sales tax rise, a source familiar with its production plans said on Tuesday. The tax hike to 8 percent from 5 percent is widely expected to spur a pickup in consumer spending before it goes into effect on April 1, followed by a temporary slump when it kicks in. The tax increase, engineered by the previous opposition administration but given final approval by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and urged by IMF officials and global credit ratings agencies, aims to rein in Japan's huge public debt even at the risk of slowing the economy in the short term. Toyota plans to manufacture around 12,200 vehicles a day in the month of April, down 15 percent from a year ago, the source told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Lufthansa eyes former Deutsche Telekom CEO for top job: reports Monday, Jan 27, 2014 11:07 PM PST  German airline Lufthansa has contacted the former chief executive of Deutsche Telekom in its hunt for a new chief executive, German media reported on Tuesday. Rene Obermann, former CEO of Deutsche Telekom, had taken up the top job at Dutch cable operator Ziggo only this month, but has found himself back on the job market after the operator on Monday agreed a takeover offer from U.S. firm Liberty Global . Lufthansa chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber is interested in Obermann and the supervisory board has been in contact with the manager, Handelsblatt and Rheinische Post newspapers reported on Tuesday, citing company sources. Germany's largest airline has been looking for a new CEO since September, when it was announced that Christoph Franz would leave at the end of May 2014 to become chairman at Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche . Full Story | Top |
| Pirates kidnap two near Nigerian facility run by Eni-sources Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:41 PM PST Pirates attacked a tugboat near the Brass River crude oil export terminal in Nigeria, kidnapping the ship's captain and an engineer, two security sources said. The Italian oil company Eni operates the terminal. Attacks by armed gangs are common along the winding creeks of the Niger Delta, home to Africa's biggest oil industry. Gunmen who were about seven in number ... boarded it", a Nigerian state security source said of Saturday's attack. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa platinum talks remain deadlocked Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:40 PM PST  By Zandi Shabalala PRETORIA (Reuters) - Government-brokered talks between South Africa's AMCU union and the world's top three platinum producers ended on Monday with no breakthrough in efforts to end a strike that has hit half of global output of the precious metal. "They want to sleep on our demands, we are confident that progress will happen tomorrow," Jimmy Gama, the main negotiator for the Association of Mineworkers and Construction (AMCU), told reporters after the talks ended at a Pretoria hotel. AMCU members downed tools on Thursday at American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, bringing operations around the gritty mining town of Rustenburg to a halt and dealing a fresh blow to investor confidence in Africa's largest economy. Dozens of AMCU activists and shop stewards, clad in their trade-mark green shirts, danced after the talks ended and chanted that the companies were "running back to (President Jacob) Zuma, they have lost the war." The strikes are an unwelcome distraction for Zuma and his ruling African National Congress (ANC) ahead of general elections expected in three months. Full Story | Top |
| Asian shares pinned at five-month lows, Turkey in spotlight Monday, Jan 27, 2014 10:03 PM PST  By Hideyuki Sano TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares were pinned near five-month lows on Tuesday as concerns that slower growth in China and reduced U.S. monetary stimulus could hurt some emerging economies dependent on exports and foreign capital. Investors are now focusing on whether the central bank of Turkey, one of the epicenters of the latest rout in emerging markets, could salvage the lira at an emergency policy meeting later in the day, after India surprised markets by raising rates. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan briefly dipped to a five-month low, extending a 3.8 percent loss in the past three days before recouping the losses to trade almost flat. Investors drew some comfort from the news that a Chinese trust firm had reached an agreement to resolve a troubled high-yield investment product, just days away from what could have been a precedent-setting default in China's shadow banking system. Full Story | Top |
| Honda becomes first Japan automaker to be net exporter from U.S. Monday, Jan 27, 2014 09:19 PM PST  Honda Motor Co last year exported more cars out of the United States than it imported into the country, claiming a first among major Japanese automakers. More than 30 years after it began building cars in the U.S., the company's North American arm said it shipped 108,705 Honda and Acura brand vehicles out of the U.S. in 2013. The company imported 88,537 vehicles into the U.S. from Japan. The net exporter status is also the product of significant recent investment - Honda has put more than $2.7 billion into expanding its North American auto plants in the past three years. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. securities class-action suits rise, big Supreme Court case looms Monday, Jan 27, 2014 09:10 PM PST  Investors are pursuing more lawsuits accusing companies of fraud, according to a new study, but filings may plunge if the U.S. Supreme Court decides soon to remake the legal landscape. Plaintiffs filed 166 federal securities lawsuits seeking class-action status in 2013, up 9 percent from 152 in 2012, according to data released Tuesday by Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. The Supreme Court, in a case involving Halliburton Co to be argued on March 5, could accelerate that decline as it reexamines a 1988 precedent that made it easier to pursue class actions against companies. A narrowing or overruling of Basic could have "seismic" implications, said Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford law professor who works with Cornerstone and a former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in an interview. Full Story | Top |
| Drug critic slams FDA over antibiotic oversight in meat production Monday, Jan 27, 2014 08:40 PM PST The United States Food and Drug Administration allowed 18 animal drugs to stay on the market even after an agency review found the drugs posed a "high risk" of exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through food supply, according to a study released Monday by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The study by the NRDC, a non-governmental group that criticizes the widespread use of drugs in the meat industry, is the latest salvo in the national debate over the long-standing practice of antibiotic use in meat production. Agribusinesses say animal drugs help increase production and keep prices low for U.S. consumers, while consumer advocates and some scientists raise concerns over antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The FDA stirred the debate late last year when it unveiled guidelines for drug makers and agricultural companies to voluntarily phase out antibiotic use as a growth enhancer in livestock. Full Story | Top |
| Road access to Alaskan port of Valdez cut off by avalanches Monday, Jan 27, 2014 08:27 PM PST  By Steve Quinn JUNEAU, Alaska (Reuters) - Road traffic to Valdez, Alaska, was cut off from the rest of the state after a series of avalanches over the weekend blocked the only road into the coastal community, officials said on Monday. The highway to the town of about 4,000 was blocked after an avalanche in the Keystone Canyon on Friday, followed by another on Saturday, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Utilities spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said. "There is limited space for everything, but once water recedes, we'll be working on both ends, north and south." Valdez, one of Alaska's main seaports, lies in a remote area of the Chugach Mountains. Full Story | Top |
| Over 600 passengers, crew fall ill on Royal Caribbean cruise Monday, Jan 27, 2014 07:25 PM PST (Reuters) - The number of passengers and crew who fell ill aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship climbed to more than 600 on Monday, many of them vomiting and suffering diarrhea. The updated sick count aboard the Explorer of the Seas, which cut short its Caribbean cruise and was expected to dock in New Jersey on Wednesday, is more than double the 300 originally thought to have been felled by gastrointestinal illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those sick were some of the onboard entertainers, which caused shows to be canceled, passengers said. Another ill passenger, Arnee Dodd of Connecticut, wrote on Twitter: "I've been sick and quarantined... Everything I touch goes in a biohazard bag." Passenger Brittany Ann Schneider, who did not get sick, told Reuters that for two to four days she saw few people. Full Story | Top |
| China says New York Times reporter broke visa rules, will leave Monday, Jan 27, 2014 07:23 PM PST  China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that a China-based reporter for the New York Times broke rules on residence visas and would be leaving the country before the end of the week, in a case which could sour Beijing's relations with Washington. The issue of media freedom for foreign reporters in China has attracted high-level concern in the United States, especially over worries that the government is denying visas for organizations that carry negative stories about China. Last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden expressed concern, while on a visit to Beijing, over China's efforts to restrict the activities of foreign news organizations. Neither the New York Times Co nor Bloomberg News has been given new journalist visas for more than a year after they published stories about the wealth of family members of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and current President Xi Jinping, respectively. Full Story | Top |
| Congressional negotiators reach deal on U.S. farm bill Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:49 PM PST  By Eric Beech WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House and Senate negotiators on Monday reached a bipartisan agreement on the long-overdue U.S. farm bill that ends a pricy direct subsidy to farmers while expanding government-backed crop insurance programs, and trims spending on food stamps for poor Americans by about one percent. "We've got a bill that makes sense, works for farmers and ranchers and consumers and families that need help, and protects our land and water and our wildlife," Debbie Stabenow, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told Reuters. The agreement on a new five-year bill came after lawmakers spent weeks ironing out differences over food stamps, dairy price supports and other issues contained in earlier House and Senate legislation. "I cannot march backwards and deliver more spending, more regulations and more waste." The 949-page conference agreement will be brought up for a vote in the House of Representatives "as early as this week," according to a statement from Stabenow. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Senate subcommittee sets hearing on consumer data security Monday, Jan 27, 2014 06:44 PM PST The U.S. Senate banking panel has scheduled a subcommittee hearing for next week on safeguarding consumers' financial information following the theft of data at retailers such as Target Corp and Neiman Marcus, the committee said on Monday. Witnesses at the subcommittee on national security and international trade and finance hearing next Monday will include officials from the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, the American Bankers Association and National Retail Federation, the committee said in a statement. A data breach over the holiday shopping season at Target, the third-largest U.S. retailer, resulted in the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records and 70 million other records with customer information such as addresses and telephone numbers. Full Story | Top |
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