Germany, ECB play hardball with Greece
BERLIN/HELSINKI (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out a debt writedown for Greece on Saturday, and a European Central Bank policymaker threatened to cut off funding to Greek banks if Athens does not agree to renew its bailout package.
Greece seeks to reassure Europe as tensions rise
ATHENS (Reuters) – New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, striking a conciliatory note on debt talks after a turbulent start to office, has called the European Central Bank chief to assure him that Athens was seeking an agreement.
U.S. regulators recall 2.1 million vehicles in new air bag issue
(Reuters) – The auto industry’s air bag troubles deepened on Saturday as U.S. federal safety regulators said three big automakers will recall about 2.1 million older vehicles to fix defects that could cause air bags to deploy when they are not supposed to.
McDonald’s to slow Russia expansion due to fall in rouble
MOSCOW (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp. will open fewer new restaurants in Russia this year than last because a fall in the rouble has increased expansion costs and is hurting consumers, its Russian chief executive Khamzat Khasbulatov told Reuters.
JPMorgan to pay $99.5 million to resolve currency rigging lawsuit
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co, the largest U.S. bank, agreed to pay $99.5 million to settle its portion of an antitrust lawsuit in which investors accuse 12 major banks of rigging prices in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.
Exclusive: Treasury official among those eyed for regional U.S. Fed openings
(Reuters) – A U.S. Treasury official and a director at the New York Federal Reserve are among those who have been considered to replace two hawkish Fed policymakers, according to people familiar with the searches.
BMW, Bosch join Deutsche Bahn in airline cartel damages claim
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German carmaker BMW and car supplier Bosch [ROBG.UL] said on Saturday they would join Deutsche Bahn [DBN.UL] in two claims for about 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in damages from air freight carriers who were involved in a cart…
Exclusive: GM and China’s SAIC to push into Indonesia with no-frills vans
BEIJING (Reuters) – General Motors and Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp will soon announce a joint push into Indonesia, using their no-frills Wuling brand to establish a beachhead in Southeast Asia’s biggest market and from there tackle other markets in the region.
Energy may see further weakness as key names report
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock prices in the U.S. energy sector have been under pressure in 2015, and there could be more bad news to come when several key players report their fourth-quarter results next week.
Greek emergency funding would be a decision for ECB council: Constancio
CAMBRIDGE, England (Reuters) – ECB Vice-President Vitor Constancio said on Saturday that a decision on whether to give Greece emergency funding would be up to the central bank’s Governing Council.
