Reports indicate that Argentina's president is planning to nationalize gambling, one of the country's most treasured pastimes. It's unclear whether this step would be good or bad for the average gambler. But it holds nothing but trouble for Argentina's economy.
It's not turning out to be a good week for Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). Over the past few days, the bank has been embroiled in two international scandals and cut by analysts at Goldman Sachs. That follows a month that saw a major credit downgrade, participation in the fumbled IPO of Facebook Inc. and behind-the-scenes grumbling by the FDIC. The bank has lost more than one-third of its market capitalization since late March.
The Indian rupee continued its downward slide for the fourth consecutive day Thursday to touch an all-time low of 56.57 against the US dollar.
The Reserve Bank of India disappointed the industry as it left the repo rate and cash reserve ratio unchanged at 8 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively, in its mid-quarter policy review Monday. The reverse repo rate, at which banks lend money to the RBI, also remains unchanged at 7 percent.
Technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti appealed to Italy's politicians on Wednesday to back his tough economic medicine to avoid Rome becoming the next victim of the euro debt crisis, after a bailout for Spain's banks failed to calm markets.
Standard & Poor's said on Monday that India could become the first of the so-called BRIC economies to lose its investment-grade status, sending the rupee and stocks lower, less than two months after cutting its rating outlook for the country.
Spain will attempt Thursday to sell as much as 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) of bonds at interest rates expected to be dangerously high.
This backdrop of the weakening of the global economy could promote a broad round of coordinated central bank easing.
Shares of big gold mining companies rocketed higher Friday as the yellow metal regained its status as a safe-haven amid growing fear that the American economy may not be able to offset the combined drag of the euro zone crisis and sharply decelerating growth in China and India.
Ford Motor Co will pursue its boldest attempt yet to tackle a nearly $50 billion risk to its business when it begins offering lump-sum pension payout offers to 98,000 white-collar retirees and former employees this summer.
Investing in Brazil's booming economy has turned another page as foreign companies, especially Japanese firms, move from putting money into the nation's financial industry to putting it into the real economy of South America's largest nation.
Investors on Wednesday eagerly snatched up a new two-year German bond with a zero-percent coupon, meaning investors were willing to pay to loan money to Europe's strongest economy when expected inflation is factored in. The yield ended at 0.07 percent.
A highly popular tranche of municipal debt issues is likely to feel the sting of a multi-notch ratings downgrade soon, a Wells Fargo credit strategist warned. The downgrade would wreak havoc on the portfolio strategy of a substantial number of investors in tax-exempt debt, and would also likely have noisy political repercussions in Puerto Rico, the municipality whose bonds are in the crosshairs.
Germany's benchmark 10-year bond yield approached Wednesday the record euro-era low it struck on Monday, as investors reduced risk exposure as Greece seemed to be edging closer to leaving the currency bloc. The yield fell to 1.44 percent, just over the 1.43 it struck just two days ago, before rebounding to 1.5 in afternoon trading.
As the leader of JPMorgan Chase & Co's hedging unit quit after trading losses that could end up exceeding $3 billion, the board seemed to be rallying behind CEO Jamie Dimon before the huge bank's annual shareholder meeting Tuesday.
Despite RBI's desperate efforts to prop it up, rupee declined by 18 paise to reach 53.60 against dollar in the late morning trade on Friday. However, rupee stabilized in the later sessions at 53.54/55 before closing at 53.45 and India's industrial production surprisingly declined by 3.5 percent in March, for the first time in five months, prompting the industry to seek cut in interest rates.
Fewer Americans than expected filed for jobless benefits last week, calming some concerns about the jobs market recovery after a disappointing April employment report. However, many signs point to the fact that companies are still very cautious about adding workers.
Bond investors brought the governments of Spain and Italy to the brink of crisis Friday as the cost of borrowing rose to nearly unsustainable levels.
Just three years into the bull market and in an environment of low interest rates and subdued sentiment, the U.S. stock market's valuation is already too rich, say asset management firm GMO LLC's Ben Inker and other investment experts
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), the second largest U.S. bank by assets, said its first-quarter earnings fell 68 percent due to a $4.8 billion accounting charge related to debt valuation.
Global markets saw a shallow but broad selloff Wednesday, as unsettling news from Spain combined with a histrionic report by the International Monetary Fund to give investors pause regarding the situation in Europe.
BlackRock Inc , the world's largest asset manager, said first-quarter profits were steady, bolstered by strong inflows into its popular iShares exchange-traded fund business.
