U.S. home builder sentiment steady in September – group
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. homebuilder sentiment was unchanged in September after four straight months of gains, the National Association of Home Builders said on Tuesday.
U.S. outlook puts new long-term ECB loans on money market agenda
LONDON (Reuters) – Some money market players are betting the European Central Bank will offer banks new long-term loans (LTROs) to counter upward pressure on short-term interest rates from the Federal Reserve’s stimulus reduction.
Western banks eye growth in Islamic trade finance
DUBAI (Reuters) – Islamic trade finance, a tiny part of global banking business, is starting to attract interest among big Western banks because of rapid growth of trade involving wealthy Gulf economies, bankers said on Tuesday.
EU’s Rehn warns Italy on instability, housing tax
ROME (Reuters) – The European Union’s top economic official told Italy’s parliament its fragile economy cannot afford political instability and criticized recent decisions on taxation.
ECB starts outlining test for top euro zone banks
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Central Bank’s upcoming assessments of bank balance sheets should include in-depth details on their government bond holdings to be credible, one of the central bank’s top policymakers said on Tuesday.
The Landesbanken: Inside Germany’s trillion euro banking blind spot
HAMBURG (Reuters) – Many Germans feel that whoever wins Sunday’s election, they should not fund any more bailouts of fellow European countries, whose errant banks are a particular bugbear for Berlin.
Lloyds share sale raises prospect of UK’s complete exit by 2015
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain could have sold the 6 percent stake in banking group Lloyds it placed with investment institutions nearly three times over, sources said, raising the prospect it could sell all its shares before the 2015 General Election.
Stocks, dollar dip as Fed decision on stimulus looms
PARIS (Reuters) – Shares dipped and the dollar lost ground on Tuesday as investors consolidated positions before this week’s U.S. Federal policy meeting at which the central bank is set to start scaling back stimulus.
Philips lifts targets, to return $2 billion to shareholders
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Philips raised most of its financial targets and announced plans to return 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) to shareholders, saying it would reap the benefits of a two-year revamp to focus on healthcare, lighting and consumer applia…
GM’s Chevy Silverado tops Consumer Reports’ truck list
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co’s Chevrolet Silverado was the top-scoring full-size pickup truck in a road test, edging Chrysler’s Ram 1500, which was the preferred vehicle to drive on a daily basis, according to Consumer Reports.
