Iraqi army units advanced overnight Sunday toward Kirkuk, a major oil city that’s dominated by the country’s Kurdish people and which recently declared independence. The Iraqi national army has taken control of “vast areas” without opposition from Kurdish peshmerga fighters, Reuters reported, citing state television. There were no confirmed reports of fighting. Oil prices reacted […]

Emerging markets should get their fiscal houses in order while monetary conditions remain loose, the International Monetary Fund warned. Governments have to some extent taken advantage of lower interest rates and cheap financing costs, but when monetary and financial conditions normalize, financing costs could rise, said Tao Zhang, the organization’s deputy managing director. Many countries […]

China’s consumer price index rose 1.6 percent in September from a year ago, meeting expectations. Meanwhile, the producer price index jumped 6.9 percent in September from a year ago, which topped expectations. According to a Reuters poll, China’s Consumer Price Index was forecast to rise 1.6 percent in September from a year ago. August CPI […]

Major Asian indexes on Monday are expected to focus on Wall Street’s firmer Friday close as investors await the release of China inflation data. U.S. September consumer prices released Friday were softer than expected. Still, although the headline 0.5 percent increase was below the 0.6 percent predicted in a Reuters poll, the rise in prices […]

No free fruit in hotel rooms, no free hair cuts and no prawns on the menu – delegates at this week’s Communist Party Congress in China can expect austere treatment in keeping with President Xi Jinping’s pledge to crack down on corruption and extravagance. Part of Xi’s fight against deep-seated graft has been to ensure […]

China’s ruling Communist Party has agreed to amend the party constitution, expected to embed President Xi Jinping’s political thought, ahead of next week’s five-yearly party congress in which Xi will further tighten his grip on power. The party’s Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, on Saturday passed a previously announced proposal to […]

China’s foreign aid is sharply in focus this week with an unprecedented new data trove showing the country’s growing global reach and detailing how Beijing spends its cash. In recent decades, the world’s second largest economy has evolved from an aid recipient to a net aid donor. But a lack of official information on China’s […]

A series of tremors and landslides near North Korea’s nuclear test base likely mean the country’s sixth and largest blast has destabilized the region, and the Punggye-ri nuclear site may not be used for much longer to test nuclear weapons, experts say. A small quake was detected early on Friday near the North’s nuclear test […]

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup failed to deliver on a number of fundamental areas even though they turned in better-than-expected quarterly earnings, one analyst said after investors sold down the two banking stocks. Speaking to CNBC’s “The Rundown” on Friday, Vertical Group’s equity research analyst Dick Bove listed the three areas to look for in any […]

Samsung Electronics said Friday that its vice chairman and chief executive officer, Oh-Hyun Kwon, had decided to step down from management. That followed an early morning guidance from the South Korean tech giant that it was expecting record operating profits of about 14.5 trillion Korean won ($12.8 billion) for the quarter ending in September. Kwon […]