SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will offer Pacific countries up to A$3 billion ($2.18 billion) in grants and cheap loans to build infrastructure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, as Canberra seeks to counter China’s rising influence in the region. Australia and China have been vying for influence in sparsely populated Pacific island countries that…
TOKYO (Reuters) - Wall Street stock futures and Asian shares lost steam on Wednesday after Democrats won control of the U.S. House of Representatives, boosting the party’s ability to block President Donald Trump’s political and economic agenda. People walk past an electronic board showing Japan's Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, October 12,…
The long wait is apparently almost over. Amazon is said to be in talks to develop its second headquarters, HQ2, in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York, and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia, The New York Times reported on Monday evening, citing people familiar with the plans. The decision follows…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reimposes oil and financial sanctions against Iran on Monday, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its missile and nuclear programs and counter its growing military and political influence in the Middle East. FILE PHOTO: Iranian rials, U.S. dollars and Iraqi dinars are seen at…
THE LOS ANGELES regional food bank distributes 300,000 meals a month, but that, says its director, Michael Flood, is only a fraction of what the hungry 1.4m people in the county need. The bank resembles the vast warehouse operation of a supermarket chain, with apartment-sized refrigerators and fork-lift trucks processing millions of pounds of groceries.…
LONDON — Stocks are sinking, again, after disappointing earnings reports from US tech giants Amazon, Google and Snap weighed on an already gloomy global sentiment in markets this week. US stocks have been having a rocky "red October," with catalysts ranging from fears about a China trade war, the Fed raising interest rates, and a…
Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve Chairman credited with taming U.S. inflation nearly four decades ago, gave a rare interview Tuesday to the New York Times in which he expressed his pessimism and concerns about the U.S. government and economy during the Trump administration. “We’re in a hell of a mess in every direction,” Volcker…
Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images In recent weeks, both Uber and Airbnb have sent formal letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking the regulatory agency to expand efforts that would allow drivers and hosts to also be paid in company shares. Exactly how this would work in practice remains unclear. The move comes…
Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Monday morning after a multiyear battle to stay afloat amid steep declines in sales and customer traffic. The company said that it would close 142 stores before the end of the year and that Eddie Lampert would step down as CEO while remaining the company's chairman. The more…
Goldman Sachs, which lacked the inroads into Saudi Arabia that other banks had, sent its co-president, Harvey M. Schwartz, along with the head of its Middle East and North Africa business. Endeavor, the Beverly Hills holding company for entertainment agencies, sent its co-chief executive, Ariel Emanuel, to help push along negotiations for a Saudi investment.…
