Thanksgiving shopping crowds ‘good not great’; online sales strong
PITTSBURGH/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Retailers across the United States offered early Black Friday discounts to lure bargain-hunters on Thanksgiving eve, but initial checks showed crowds in brick-and-mortar stores were subdued even as online sales jumped.
BTG Pactual redemptions rise in day after CEO arrest: source
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Clients stepped up withdrawals from Grupo BTG Pactual SA’s money management unit on Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the bank’s strategy, as Latin America’s largest independent investment bank tries to contain fal…
Two-decade Pfizer mission pays off for Guggenheim’s deal king
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Alan Schwartz knows how to play a long game. The executive chairman of boutique investment bank Guggenheim Partners spent almost 20 years cultivating Pfizer boss Ian Read as a client. His strategy paid off handsomely when Gu…
Merck plans to sell its allergy business unit to cut debt: Bloomberg
(Reuters) – German drugs and chemicals maker Merck KGaA is planning to sell its allergy business, Allergopharma, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
Mis-selling risks grow with China’s insurance sales army
HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese insurers are on a hiring binge, recruiting an army of agents to sell their products to a burgeoning middle class, but the risk of mis-selling by inexperienced agents on commission could prove costly to the industr…
Oil eases on persistent supply glut, production outlook
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Thursday after six days of gains, as concerns that escalating tension in the Middle East could disrupt supply faded, and the focus returned to a persistent market glut.
Euro on shaky ground, stocks up on talk of aggressive ECB easing
LONDON/TORONTO (Reuters) – The euro slipped towards seven-month lows, bond yields fell and European shares rallied on Thursday on growing talk of aggressive stimulus from the European Central Bank next week.
VW’s Audi suspends two engineers in emissions probe
BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s luxury flagship Audi has suspended two engineers after its larger diesel engines were found evading emissions limits in the United States, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday.
Bank of America to halt dollar supplies to Angola: sources
LUANDA (Reuters) – Bank of America will stop supplying U.S. dollars to Angola at the end of this month, two foreign exchange sources said on Thursday, a move that could pile pressure on the oil exporter’s ailing kwanza <AOA=> currency.
WTO talks stuck again as ministers prepare to meet, Azevedo says
GENEVA (Reuters) – World trade talks are deadlocked and ministers are unlikely to find a way out of the impasse when they meet in Nairobi next month, World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo said on Thursday.
