Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google both discounted their virtual assistant speakers so deeply over the holiday shopping season that they likely lost a few dollars per unit, highlighting a sharply different strategy from Apple as it prepares its HomePod speaker, analysts said. Both companies cut prices for the smallest version of their speakers, the Amazon Echo […]
Read moreSometimes it feels like silver has become the forgotten metal, as gold comes off its best year since 2010 and silver gained merely half as much in 2017. But there’s good reason to be bullish on silver at the start of the year. Silver’s recent setup gives us reason to believe there is a seasonal […]
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Britain's open to foreign investment, trade minister Fox tells China
British trade minister Liam Fox said on Wednesday that London would continue to welcome foreign investment, after a U.S. panel rejected a Chinese acquisition of a U.S. money transfer company on national security concerns. Fox was on a visit to China, the latest installment in long-running economic talks between China and Britain, which has taken […]
Read moreCheck out which companies are making headlines before the bell: Alibaba – Alibaba’s Ant Financial Services affiliate has ended its agreement to buy payment services company MoneyGram, following objections by federal regulators. The companies were unable to garner the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions by foreign […]
Read moreNo dynamic could be more important in 2018 for investors than how the Federal Reserve manages what should be an accelerating economy. The question essentially becomes whether growth gets too strong. In that case, where GDP shows sustained gains above 3 percent and the Fed finally starts hitting its 2 percent inflation target, the central […]
Read moreA set of sweeping reforms to Europe’s financial industry came into force on Wednesday, with market participants in every corner of the continent’s financial services system likely to be affected. The new laws, which amount to the biggest change to Europe’s financial markets in a decade, are an attempt by regulators to shine more light […]
Read moreChina is planning to build a 13.8 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) technology park dedicated to developing artificial intelligence (AI), state-backed news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday. The campus will be constructed within five years and situated in the suburban Mentougou district in western Beijing. It will cover 54.87 hectares, Xinhua said. The technology park will be […]
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Trading firm’s stock spikes 17% after it says cryptocurrency boom has boosted profits
Shares of spread-betting firm Plus500 surged Wednesday after it said it had benefited from increased interest in cryptocurrencies. Plus500 said in a trading update it had achieved record quarterly revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017, and an additional 246,000 customers, owed in part to its cryptocurrency contracts for difference (CFD). CFDs let traders bet […]
Read moreRipple, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by value, hit a record high on Wednesday as its strong rally continues. The digital coin reached $2.51, according to data from CryptoCompare, which tracks the price of various cryptocurrencies based on different exchanges. This passed the previous all-time high of $2.44 on December 30. Ripple’s strong rally has seen […]
Read moreBeijing’s crackdown on pollution has put China on track to overtake Japan this year as the world’s biggest importer of natural gas, used to replace dirtier coal. China — already the biggest importer of oil and coal — is the world’s third biggest user of natural gas behind the United States and Russia, but has […]
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