The Federal Reserve took the first tentative steps Wednesday to unwind its history-making economic stimulus. As markets expected, the U.S. central bank announced it will begin to roll off its $4.5 trillion balance sheet in October. Most of those assets consist of the Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities it acquired under a program known as quantitative […]
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ASK young American parents about Toys “R” Us and they are likely to be able to sing a jingle from their childhood: “I don’t wanna grow up, ’cause maybe if I did, I couldn’t be a Toys ‘R’ Us kid”. For children of the 1980s, Toys “R” Us was a mecca at the strip mall, […]
Read moreIt was a menacing mix for mortgages last week. Back-to-back major hurricanes, a holiday weekend and higher interest rates combined to bring a 9.7 percent drop in total mortgage application volume last week from the previous week. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted weekly read was also 21.5 percent lower than the same week one […]
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‘We all win!’: The secret emails that landed a UK real estate cartel with a $500,000 fine
A group of real estate agents who colluded to push up local fees in southwest England has been fined £370,084 ($500,620) by national competition authorities after incriminating emails were uncovered detailing the cartel’s illegal plans. The six agents were all based in the Burnham-on-Sea area in the county of Somerset and had agreed in a […]
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UK retail sales surge in August, likely to boost Bank of England rate hike bets
British retail sales unexpectedly surged in August, official figures showed on Wednesday, boosting the chance that the Bank of England will raise interest rates in November. Last week the BOE said it was likely to raise interest rates in the coming months if the economy and inflation pressures strengthen as expected. Wednesday’s official data showed […]
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Spanish police raid Catalan government buildings over fears of independence vote
Spanish police are reported to have raided several departments of Catalonia’s regional government as tensions rise between Madrid and the pro-independence regional government over a banned independence referendum. Several news reports state that Spain’s Guardia Civil entered several departments of the Catalonian government this morning, arresting a junior minister, as they continue to seek more […]
Read moreEuropean markets were set to open mixed on Wednesday morning, as investors observed heightened geopolitical tensions over the Korean Peninsula and awaited monetary policy guidance from the Federal Reserve. Britain’s FTSE 100 is poised to open 5 points higher at 7,276; the German Dax is expected to open down by around 15 points at 12,545 […]
Read moreGermany’s Thyssenkrupp and India’s Tata Steel struck a preliminary deal on Wednesday to merge their European steel operations in a 50-50 joint venture to create the continent’s No.2 steelmaker after ArcelorMittal. The deal will not involve any cash, Tata Steel said, adding that both groups would contribute debt and liabilities to achieve an equal shareholding […]
Read moreThe Federal Reserve is on the cusp of reversing the most ambitious monetary stimulus program in world history amid questions over how much impact it really delivered. There’s little question that the program, known as quantitative easing or “money printing,” boosted the stock market. The three iterations of QE between November 2008 and October 2014 […]
Read moreStudents looking to bring home the best pay throughout their careers may want to consider careers in law, medicine or engineering. According to a report from job search platform Glassdoor, some of the best compensated jobs in the U.S. are concentrated within those fields. To compile its list of highest-paying jobs in America, Glassdoor examined […]
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