Saudi Aramco’s planned initial public offering remains on track, the company said on Thursday, after Bloomberg reported that the oil company is preparing contingency plans for a possible delay by a few months into 2019. Saudi authorities are aiming to list up to 5 percent of the world’s largest oil producer on both the Saudi […]
Read moreThis has been a remarkably easy time to be a bull. September is set to be the 11th straight month in which the S&P 500 has either risen or has fallen by less than 0.1 percent. If stocks continue to act well in the second half of the month, that will make this the longest […]
Read moreIt’s a rather slow year for IPOs, but Thursday we’ll see an IPO floated at the NYSE that is getting more than the usual amount of attention. The company is Social Capital Hedosophia, and they are planning a fairly healthy IPO of $500 million: 50 million shares at $10. Normally, of course, IPOs announce price […]
Read moreWorries rippled through the consumer market for antivirus software after the U.S. government banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Labs software on Wednesday. Best Buy said it will no longer sell software made by the Russian company, although one security researcher said most consumers don’t need to be alarmed. Best Buy declined to give details […]
Read moreCredit reporting company Equifax blamed a web server vulnerability in its open-source software, called Apache Struts, for the recent data breach that compromised personal details of as many as 143 million U.S. consumers. The massive data breach had exposed valuable information to hackers between mid-May and July and sent Equifax shares tumbling, the company said […]
Read more“Age is just a state of mind” is a laugh line in the geezer comedy “The Expendables” and a wan Hallmark-card slogan. But it also captures the sentiment of an investment scene dominated by talk of the “aging bull market” in stocks. At 8½ years since the prior bear market ended in March 2009, this […]
Read moreGermany’s Munich Re warned it could miss its profit target this year, the first major reinsurer to flag a hit to earnings from damage caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. “These two events are expected to result in high insured losses, which the market and Munich Re are unable to quantify at the moment,” it […]
Read moreSwitzerland’s central bank tweaked its long-held language about the “significant overvaluation” of the Swiss franc on Thursday as it kept other parts of its ultra-expansive monetary policy on hold. The Swiss National Bank acknowledged the weakening of the franc against the euro in recent weeks, which it said “is helping to reduce, to some extent, […]
Read moreBillionaire Elon Musk has shared a sequence of clips demonstrating “how not to land” a SpaceX rocket. In an Instagram post Thursday, the SpaceX chief executive described the “sordid history” of orbital rocket Falcon 9. The rocket “eventually managed to land in one piece and stay that way,” Musk said. “Maybe Falcon realized it still […]
Read moreCurrency, United States Finance
Bank of England warns it may raise interest rates in 'coming months'
The Bank of England held interest rates steady Thursday but said that a hike is likely to be needed in the “coming months.” The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 7-2 to keep rates at a record low 0.25 percent but noted that a strengthening economy and inflationary pressures could prompt them […]
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