Bizness Lounge: March 2015

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Guaranty Trust Bank Battles Murtala Mohammed’s Son Over Unpaid Loan

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has granted a ‘mareva injunction’ restraining Risqua Mohammed, son of late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed from withdrawing funds from his accounts in any of the financial institutions in Nigeria.

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The presiding Judge Saliu Saidu, while making the order, ruled that Risquat Mohammed and his company, AMG Petroenergy Limited should not tamper with their funds in any financial institution in Nigeria pending the hearing and determination of a debt recovery suit filed against them by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).
GTB had filed the suit against the defendants (AMG and Risquat Mohammed) over their refusal to liquidate a multi-million dollars credit facility obtained from the bank despite repeated demands of payment.
While ruling in an ex-parte application filed by GTB’s lawyer, Norrison Quakers (SAN), Justice Saidu restrained the defendants jointly and severally by themselves, directors, agents, servants, privies, trustees, nominees, proxies, subsidiaries, companies, related

Buhari Leads With 3 Million Votes After Controversial Results From Rivers, Akwa Ibom Give Jonathan A Boost

Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), continues to lead incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with a comfortable margin, even as controversial election results from Rivers and Akwa Ibom states were added to the national tally, giving a boost to Mr. Jonathan.

Election observers as well as Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State had declared that last Saturday’s elections in the state turned into a fiasco, marked by intimidation and shootings of APC members and widespread manipulation by security agents. Even so, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state declared that Mr. Jonathan polled more than 1.48 million in the state, leaving Mr. Buhari with a little more than 69,000 votes.
Despite this figure and results from Akwa Ibom that

With 95% Polling Units Collated, SaharaReporters Projects Buhari As President-Elect

SaharaReporters is confidently projecting Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of last weekend’s presidential election based on collated poll results from 95 percent of Nigeria’s polling units. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will resume the official release of the poll figures at 10 a.m. Nigerian time today, with Mr. Buhari all but certain to be declared the president-elect.

Muhammadu Buhari Buhari Support Organizations

Last night, INEC suspended the official release of the state-by-state vote counts for the keenly contested presidential election. However, with only five percent of votes remaining to be added up, our figures indicate that Mr. Buhari is leading incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan by more than two million votes. In addition, the APC candidate has secured at least twenty-five percent of votes cast in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states. Mr. Buhari has so far won 14,855,820 million votes, with

Storm clouds are seen above the Canary Wharf financial district in London on Aug. 3, 2010. Reuters/Greg Bos

(Reuters) - Britain's economy expanded at a faster pace than previously estimated at the end of last year, boosted by a strong performance of exports, official data showed on Tuesday.
Gross domestic product between October and December grew by a quarterly 0.6 percent, the Office for National Statistics said, compared with 0.5 percent in a previous reading and matching the pace of growth in the third quarter.
For 2014 as a whole, the economy grew 2.8 percent, revised up from a previous estimate of 2.6 percent and the biggest expansion since 2006.
With five weeks until a closely-fought national election, the figures be welcome reading for Britain's ruling Conservative government.
Real household disposable income increased 2.3 percent compared with a year ago, the fastest rate of annual growth since the start of 2010.
Britain's current account deficit narrowed as a percentage of

Employees work at a factory run by PIKO, a model railway manufacturer, in the eastern German town of Sonneberg on Oct. 9, 2014. Reuters/Michelle Martin

(Reuters) - Germany's jobless rate hit a record low of 6.4 percent in March, data showed on Tuesday, in a positive sign for private consumption which is expected to drive growth in Europe's largest economy this year.
That beat the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for a reading of 6.5 percent and was the lowest since German reunification in 1990. It followed a reading of 6.5 percent in February.
The number of people out of work decreased by 15,000 on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 2.798 million, data from the Labour Office showed. That was bigger than the drop of 12,000 forecast in a Reuters poll.
"The job market has returned to full throttle growth in early 2015," Berenberg economist Christian Schulz said.
Separate data on Tuesday showed that German retail sales jumped by 3.6 percent in February in real terms on the year as shoppers spent more online and on shops on food, clothes and cosmetic products. The notoriously volatile indicator was, however, down on the month.
Private consumption was a key growth driver in 2014, and

Residents walk along a street as it snows in downtown Istanbul February 9, 2012. Reuters/Osman Orsal

A massive power outage in Turkey on Tuesday crippled services in over 40 cities, forcing planes to divert and affecting train services, local media reported. The outages on Tuesday led to the cancellation of the Istanbul metro’s services and train lines to the capital of Ankara. A number of social media posts also indicated that flights had been cancelled or delayed.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said authorities were investigating all possible causes, and did not rule out the possibility of a terror attack, Hurriyet Daily News reported. Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told media that power had been restored to about 80 percent of all affected areas, Reuters reported, and that electricity would soon "be completely restored."

The country’s energy ministry released a statement saying its main distribution lines were affected, likely originating somewhere in the western Aegean region, Hurriyet

ISIS militants reportedly killed at least 30 civilians in central Syria on Tuesday. Above, a Turkish army vehicle near the Syrian town of Kobani, as pictured from the Turkish-Syrian border in Sanliurfa province, Oct. 7, 2014. Reuters

The Islamic State group on Tuesday executed at least 30 people, including two children, during an attack on a regime-held village in the central Syrian city of Hama, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing a monitor of the conflict in Syria.
ISIS militants “executed at least 30 people, including women and children, by burning, beheading, and firing on them” in the village of Mabujeh, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
Mabujeh, which is located in the eastern region of Hama, is home to Sunni Muslims as well as people from minority sects, including Alawites and Ismailis. ISIS frequently targets minority communities in Syria, especially Shiite Muslims, whom it accuses of apostasy, or

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration is considering investing tens of millions of dollars of New Jersey pension money in a firm whose chairman was among the largest donors to the Christie-run Republican Governors Association. Reuters

Chris Christie’s administration, criticized for the skyrocketing fees that New Jersey has paid private financial firms to manage the state’s billions of dollars of pension investments, tried a novel way to defend itself this week: It disputed the data that Christie officials themselves had published.

At the same time, recent statements by New Jersey investment officials suggest that additional fees -- perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars have been paid to financial firms during the Republican governor’s tenure but gone undisclosed.

On Monday, testifying to state legislators about the annual budget, New Jersey Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said Christie officials have been “very frustrated with the distortions and misrepresentations” about fees. “The amount of total standard fees” that New Jersey is

Ackman says shutting Herbalife down is key to him

Hedge fund mogul William Ackman, who has spent more than two years accusing Herbalife of running a pyramid scheme, said on Monday that shutting down the company is "one of the most important things" he can do.
Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Institutional Investors' in Washington, Ackman said again that Herbalife has caused "enormous harm to a very vulnerable population" by targeting undocumented Latinos in the United States and other poor people.
Sparking some laughter in the audience, he urged everyone who might own stock in the company to sell it.
The company has vehemently denied running a pyramid scheme ever since Ackman's $20 billion hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, first unveiled a $1 billion short bet against the company in December 2012. Federal and state regulators, including

Darren Huston, president and CEO of Priceline.com

Tim Mullaney, special to CNBC.com

Darren Huston was trying to watch a hockey game, half-listening to a headhunter talk about a company he had never heard of before. But as the headhunter went on, the then-45-year-old executive in charge of Microsoft's global consumer and online businesses tuned out the arena noise and began listening to what he thought was an impossible story.
"I said, 'There's nothing that big in Europe on the Internet,''' he recalled, laughing.

Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Darren Huston, president and CEO of Priceline.com

The 2011 call was from Booking.com, the Amsterdam-based unit of Priceline Group that dominates the European online travel market. By last year, Huston became president and CEO of Priceline itself, which has come from dot-com laughingstock to the fifth most-valuable U.S. Internet company—if one still really considers it a U.S. company, because 90 percent of its profits come

Iran deal: ‘No happy ending’ for Middle East

Holly Ellyatt | @HollyEllyatt

As the deadline for a deal between Iran and major world powers over its controversial nuclear program looms large, analysts are debating what opportunities or risks a deal could open up in Iran, the Middle East and beyond.
Representatives from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China (the so-called P5+1) met once again Tuesday with Iranian officials in Lausanne, Switzerland in an effort to negotiate a deal ahead of a midnight deadline.
It comes after a 12-year standoff between the UN Security Council and I

Here’s why it could get way worse for gold

Alex Rosenberg | @CNBCAlex

Gold has gotten little love this year. With a 1.25 percent drop on Monday, the precious metal has sacrificed what little gains it had in 2015. And it could soon get even worse for bullion.
That's because the Federal Reserve is finally expected to raise its key federal funds rate this year, perhaps as early as June. That could prove to be a highly deleterious event for gold, for several distinct but related reasons.
First, as short-term rates rise, holding gold becomes more painful. Gold is a not-yield-bearing asset, a fact that hardly matters in a world in which dollars are hardly a yield-bearing asset, either. But as the risk-free rate increases, keeping dollars stashed in safe accounts becomes relatively more attractive, compared to hoarding gold.
Second, as rates rise, more people around the world will look to keep their money stashed in greenbacks. The increased interest will cause the dollar itself to rise in value—making the price of gold relatively more expensive for overseas buyers, as Erin Gibbs of S&P Capital IQ points out.
"Since about 60 percent of all buyers of gold are from the

US individual tax share grows, corporates lag

Tax collections from individual Americans last year reached their highest share of the U.S. economy in seven years while corporate tax revenue again lagged historical averages, a new congressional report showed on Monday.
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) said in a review of the tax system that individual federal income tax receipts were 8.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal 2014. That level was last achieved in 2007 before the financial crisis plunged the economy into its worst recession since the 1930s.
Read MoreRetirement: Minimize taxes to maximize savings
As large companies clamor for tax code reforms aimed at reducing corporate rates, the JCT data show individual wage-earners and business owners who treat their firms' profits as personal income are bearing an increasing share of the U.S. tax burden.

Source: IRS

Meanwhile, federal corporate income tax collections were just 1.9 percent of GDP, up slightly from the past two years, but below the 2.6 percent average since 1950.
Social insurance taxes, which include Social Security and Medicare taxes collected from workers' wages, rose to 5.9 percent of GDP, well above the 4.9 percent

Comcast to form company to invest $4.1B in growth firms

Tom DiChristopher

Getty Images

Comcast said Tuesday it will form a new strategic company to invest in and operate "growth-oriented companies" in the United States and abroad.
Michael J. Angelakis, Comcast vice chairman and CFO, will serve as the company's chief executive and will be a financing partner.
Comcast will commit $4 billion to the venture, while Angelakis will invest at least $40 million. The remaining capital in the $4.1 billion venture will come from senior management members at the new company, which will serve as the exclusive outside investor with Comcast for 10 years.
"This is a time of tremendous change and opportunity in our core technology and media industries, as well as in adjacent business areas," Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement. "We believe the ability to establish entrepreneurial ventures that partner with and

How markets are calling Fed's bluff: Ex-Fed gov

Matthew J. Belvedere | @Matt_Belvedere

The markets have been "absolutely spoiled by the Federal Reserve" and its accommodative monetary policy since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh said Tuesday.
"Now, I would say the markets are exhausted. They're exhausted that the Fed has decided there's a new set of benchmarks," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" in an interview. "Before it was forward guidance. Now it's, 'Just kidding about forward guidance.'" Citing the sliding unemployment threshold for considering an interest rate hike, he said it's now 5.5 percent or even 5 percent, down from 6.5 percent not too long ago.
The financial markets have Fed Chair Janet Yellen's number, Warsh said. The "taper tantrum" back in the days of quantitative easing bond purchases and now the "dollar tantrum" ahead of possible rate hikes each forced central bank policymakers to reconsider their timing. "This is a very dangerous development," he argued, with the tail wagging the dog.
Warsh, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, was a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush.
The inflation excuse for not rushing into rate hikes is not sound, he said. "The reality is inflation is not a problem;" it's not too low.
He said core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy components, is running at about 1.5 percent—only slight lower than the Fed's 2 percent target. "What's the difference to the real economy?"
"I don't like policies that are being changed based on what's happening on our ticker machine," Warsh said. "The Federal Reserve should be focused on what's happening three or four years out," not recent data that's been skewed by harsh winter weather.

Strong case for June rates liftoff, says Fed's Lacker

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeff Lacker

The Federal Reserve will have a "strong" case to hike U.S. interest rates in June, a hawkish Fed official said on Tuesday, dismissing recently weak economic data as transitory and perhaps due to unseasonable weather.
Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, who has long called for a prompt tightening of monetary policy, said consumer spending, the labor market and other economic conditions have improved significantly over the last year.
Read MoreNew data show US economy stalled in first quarter
A voting member this year on Fed policy who made many familiar arguments, Lacker predicted more improvement in the labor market and wages in the months ahead, and 2.0 to 2.5 percent GDP growth for the year. He said moves in the dollar and in oil prices were likely transitory, so U.S. inflation should rise to a 2-percent target.

Kenya Corruption Probe: Government Ministers Step Down At President Uhuru Kenyatta's Request

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (left), flanked by his Deputy William Ruto, addresses a news conference at the State House in Nairobi December 2, 2014. Reuters

Several of Kenya’s top government ministers stepped down Saturday after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta asked high-ranking officials named in an ongoing corruption probe to leave their offices, according to a report. The state-run Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission produced the confidential corruption report, which documents unspecified instances of corruption by top Kenyan government and corporate officials
Kenyatta asked anyone negatively referenced in the document to resign in order to allow an investigation into any wrongdoing to proceed. Labor Minister Kazungu Kambi, Infrastructure Minister Michael Kamau and Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir were

Does the Sunni-Shiite divide matter in Yemen? Sunni Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday to counter Iran-allied Shiite forces besieging the southern city of Aden, where the U.S.-backed Yemeni president had taken refuge. Above, a Houthi fighter walks at the site of an airstrike in a residential area near Yemen's Sanaa Airport, March 26, 2015. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Amid escalating conflict in Yemen and battles in Iraq and Syria, many wonder how the Middle East became seeded with such conflict. One argument frequently made is that of a sectarian division between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, as highlighted by the so-cold cold war between regional powerhouses Iran (Shiite) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni), which most recently have been jockeying for power in Yemen.

Attributing conflict to age-old divides between

Apple CEO Tim Cook asked corporations to oppose so-called religious freedom laws. Reuters

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook penned an op-ed for the Washington Post where he asked corporations to oppose bills like the so-called religious freedom laws signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The measures essentially allow residents to discriminate against others based of their religious beliefs.
“There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country,” Cook began. “A wave of legislation, introduced in more than two dozen states, would allow people to discriminate against their neighbors. Some, such as the bill enacted in Indiana last week that drew a national outcry and one passed in Arkansas, say individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to

A screenshot of the Spotify tile on the Playstation user interface. Sony

If you've got a Spotify playlist that serves as the perfect soundtrack to your Bloodborne or Destiny sessions, rejoice: as of Monday, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 owners can now soundtrack their gaming sessions using Spotify. The partnership puts the full range of the streaming music service's features inside 64 million game consoles in 41 countries, and it is exclusive. “You won’t see us on any other game consoles any time soon,” a Spotify spokesman said.
According to Eric Lempel, Sony’s vice president of business and operations in the Americas, the two companies entered discussions about a possible partnership last year, and before long their product teams were visiting with one another on a regular basis. The end result is an integration puts Spotify and its catalog at or near the center of the gaming experience. In addition to being

The Bab Al-Mandab strait is one of seven of global oil-tanker chokepoints. U.S. Energy Information Administration

(Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday, extending steep losses from the previous session, as Iran and six world powers tried to reach a deal that could add oil to the market if sanctions against Tehran are lifted.
The two sides tried to break an impasse in nuclear negotiations on Sunday ahead of a deadline to find a preliminary agreement by Tuesday, exploring compromises in a number of areas.
Benchmark Brent crude futures had dropped to $56.04 by 0320 GMT, down 37 cents after falling 5 percent on Friday as the market began to price in the possibility of a

A stack of U.S. dollars. Reuters

(Reuters) - Private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC has told investors it will seek to raise a new $12 billion global fund, just two years after amassing a $11.2 billion fund, according to people familiar with the matter.
The fundraising comes as other private equity firms such as Blackstone Group LP and Silver Lake Partners LP take between four to six years on average to spend their investors' money in global funds of similar size.
Private equity investors, which usually include public pension funds, insurance firms and sovereign wealth funds, prefer their money to be deployed quickly, assuming it's invested wisely.
The sources asked not to be identified because the fundraising process is confidential. Warburg Pincus declined to comment.

Houthi fighters inspect the damage caused by air strikes on the airport of Yemen's northwestern city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold near the Saudi border, March 30, 2015. Warplanes struck the Yemeni capital of Sanaa overnight and after daybreak on Monday, residents said, the fifth day of a campaign by Saudi-led forces against Houthi forces opposed to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Reuters/Naiyf Rahma

Saudi Arabian ground troops are expected to march through Yemen, leading to a further escalation of a conflict in which Riyadh and its Sunni Arab allies have been fighting Shia Houthi rebels, who now control most of the Yemeni military with assistance from ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has been launching airstrikes o

Janet Yellen speaking on March 18, 2015.

Alex Rosenberg | @CNBCAlex

In a speech on Friday, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen stayed her dovish course, maintaining that an increase in the federal funds rate "may well be warranted later this year." She also emphasized the Fed's data dependence, as well as her general tone of "cautious optimism" in the economy.
Yet it was in her discussion of what she termed "special risks and other considerations" where things got interesting. The first of her three special concerns around hiking rates run along the following lines:
"Some recent studies have raised the prospect that the economies of the United States and other countries will grow more slowly in the future as a result of both

Crunch time: Greece risks rising once again

Holly Ellyatt | @HollyEllyatt

A detailed list of concrete reforms from Greece had yet to be submitted to the country's international creditors Monday, prompting analysts to warn that Greece risks are rising – again.
The country's leftwing government outlined some reforms on Friday, but officials from the bodies overseeing its bailout – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) – were not convinced by its latest attempt to get a final – and desperately needed – tranche of aid.
One euro zone official told Reuters that

Curb your economic pessimism

Larry Kudlow | @Larry_Kudlow

The economy has been in a tepid, soft, slow recovery for the past five-and-a-half years. It's the weakest rebound in generations. The Commerce Department's revision of fourth-quarter GDP shows that nothing much has changed. Over the past year, real economic growth registered 2.4 percent, slightly higher than the recovery average. It ain't much.

Getty Images

Meanwhile, winter economic reports for retail sales, manufacturing, and capital investment point to a weaker first quarter, perhaps around 1 percent. And Wall Street is talking about a possible profits recession, with expectations of a 2 or 3 percent drop in corporate earnings for the first half of 2015. So the market bears are out in full force.
Read MoreHow the Fed is 'screwed'—and what happens next
Now, let's acknowledge that coming off a deep recession, the rebound should

Should you prepare for a round-trip corporate bond trade?

Leslie Shaffer | @LeslieShaffer1

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

While corporate bonds may not look terribly attractive amid rising rate expectations, Goldman Sachs tips a good performance – but only in the short term.
"The yield differential between U.S. and European bonds, coupled with the stronger dollar should drive demand for U.S. credit," Goldman said in a report dated Friday. "Return potential in U.S. high-yield credit is attractive as spreads have been volatile recently, in part due to lower oil prices, and should narrow again." Bond yields move inversely to prices.
Read More Why Europe's bonds keep finding buyers

It upgraded corporate credit to Overweight from Neutral on a three-month view, but is underweight on a 12-month outlook as it expects rising yields to weigh on returns.
Short term vs longer term
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to deliver its first interest rate hike sometime this year, in a step toward "normalizing" policy from the

Economists upbeat about growth this year: NABE

John W. Schoen | @johnwschoen

The U.S. economy looks as if it's headed for another good year, according to the latest forecast from a group of business economists.

In its latest survey, the consensus of the National Association for Business Economics panelists peg the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) at 3.1 percent this year—easing to a 2.9 percent annual pace nest year. That compares with GDP growth of 2.4 percent last year.
"Healthier consumer spending, housing investment, and government spending growth are expected to make outsized contributions to the projected acceleration," NABE President John Silvia, chief economist of Wells Fargo.
That will help keep the job market humming—with payrolls expanding by about 250,000 new positions a month this year and roughly 216,000 next year. That should

Geopolitical risk could offset Iran deal's oil impact: Strategist

Tom DiChristopher

Traders are worried that Iran will put pressure on crude if it begins selling oil into an already oversupplied market, but rising geopolitical risks could push prices higher, Helima Croft, chief commodities strategist at RBC Capital Markets, said on Monday.
Croft made her comments as Saudi Arabia engaged in a fifth day of attacks on neighboring Yemen, and following an announcement by Arab countries that they would form a regional army led by Egypt and the Saudis.
"I think if we had no geopolitical risk in the oil market, then you could really be talking about a moderated price. The Middle East still remains such an important production zone, and whe
you have stories about the Saudis putting new troops around oil facilities, the Kuwaitis bolstering security at oil facilities," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
Read More Iran's nuclear deal and how it could affect oil

"If you have one significant event in one of these countries, Iraq for example, that

Teva to buy Auspex in all-cash deal

Drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals said it would buy Auspex for $101 per share in cash, or $3.5 billion in equity value.
Teva said the deal, done at a 42 percent premium, would add a portfolio of drugs for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.
Auspex shares closed Friday at $70.91 and had not traded premarket Monday. Teva shares rose 1.5 percent in premarket trading.

Obama, Putin's personal details accidentally disclosed

Katrina Bishop | @KatrinaBishop

Personal details of world leaders—including U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin—were accidentally disclosed by an employee of the Australian immigration department, The Guardian reported Monday.
The details of all world leaders who attended the last November's G-20 summit were disclosed, the newspaper said, adding that those affected were not informed of the breach.

Jewel Samad | AFP | Getty Images

An Australian immigration official inadvertently sent the personal information to the organisers of the Asian Cup soccer tournament, according to The Guardian, which saw an email from the immigration department outlining the breach.
The revealed information included the passport numbers and visa details of the leaders, who included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"The personal information which has been breached is the name, date of birth, title, position nationality, passport number, visa grant number and visa subclass held

As fears from Ebola and a global slowdown spread, stocks plunged on October 15, with the Dow falling more than 400 points during the afternoon before recovering slightly.

Jenny Cosgrave | @jenny_cosgrave

Volatility has been creeping back into markets, creating headaches for investors as they try to navigate wild swings in currencies and oil, geopolitical uncertainty and diverging moves by global central banks.
But although traders have been forced to accept a new era of choppy trade, some hedge fund managers argued this is not all bad.
"Finally, some volatility is coming back to the market," Salvatore Cordaro, chief investment officer (CIO) at Tages Capital, told CNBC, highlighting that it was "quite unusual" to have volatility in government bond yields, for instance, even as they were moving lower.
"I think it is a reflection of people trying to anticipate what logical

Use a computer rather than your brain: Fund manager

Matt Clinch | Karen Tso

One of the U.K.'s most successful hedge fund managers has spoken of the benefits of using the "emotionless systematic approach" of automated stock-picking rather than following a consensus trade.
With $25 billion in assets under management and 340 employees, David Harding's Winton Capital is the world's 14th-largest hedge fund firm, according to investing publication Alpha magazine. Winton is a commodity trading adviser (CTA) fund which is a hedge fund that uses financial innovations like futures contracts and are usually systematic traders or trend-followers.
Often dubbed as the "Wizard of Winton," Harding is known in the industry for profitable long-term bets on oil and gold, as well as making hay during the global

UnitedHealth Group to buy Catamaran for $12.78B

Health insurer UnitedHealth Group unit OptumRx Corp agreed to buy pharmacy benefit manager Catamaran Corp in a deal worth about $12.8 billion.
Catamaran, formed from the merger of SXC Health Solutions and PBM Catalyst Health Solutions in 2012, helps the administrators of group healthcare plans reduce their prescription drug costs.

Dawn Villella | Bloomberg News | Getty Images

UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth's offer of $61.50 per share represents a premium of 27 percent to Catamaran's Friday close on the Nasdaq.
Catamaran's stock was trading at $60.50 premarket on Monday, while UnitedHealth's was up nearly 3 percent.
After the deal, UnitedHealth expects to fill more than one billion prescriptions, the companies said.
The deal value is based on Illinois-based Catamaran's total

Charts say the S&P is set to rise 14%: Technician

Alex Rosenberg | @CNBCAlex

<p>Trading Nation: Bad Q2 ahead?</p> <p>Craig Johnson, Piper Jaffray, and David Seaburg,Cowen, remain bullish on the stock market and discuss the tough week for stocks and give an outlook on earnings. </p>

Craig Johnson isn't worried.
Despite the tough week that stocks just suffered, the head of Piper Jaffray's technical research group remains bullish.
All we've seen is "some short-term profit-taking as we come into quarter-end," Johnson said, referring to the S&P 500's 2.25 percent drop over the past week. "The primary trend is still up—that has not changed, and it will not until we reverse that trend."
Johnson says the S&P's uptrend is still very much intact, and due to

Indonesia seeks major role in Chinese-led infrastructure bank

JAKARTA

China's President Xi Jinping (front C) guides guests at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank launch ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing October 24, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Takaki Yajima/Pool

Related News

Another U.S. ally, South Korea, seeks to join China-backed AIIB

(Reuters) - Indonesia wants to play a major role in a new Chinese-led Asian infrastructure bank, with at least the vice-president's position reserved for the Southeast Asian country, the finance minister said.
The $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), expected to start operations by the end of the year, is attracting a growing list of countries from Britain to India to New Zealand.
Under President Joko Widodo, Indonesia is expected to be

ECB's Draghi says money printing will help recovery

ROME

European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi arrives at a meeting of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in Brussels March 23, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Yves Herman

(Reuters) - Bond-buying by the European Central Bank will reinforce the euro zone's economic recovery, its president, Mario Draghi, said on Thursday, adding that there was already evidence that the scheme was taking effect.
"Monetary policy is reinforcing the cyclical recovery. I insist in saying 'cyclical' because this recovery is not structural", he said, in a reference to long-term problems such as unemployment that remain.
Draghi told lawmakers in Italy's parliament that recent data "are

Nutritionists warn diners to be wary of Warren Buffett's 'junk-food' portfolio

By Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK

Financial investor Warren Buffett looks on during an announcement ceremony at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, January 28, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

(Reuters) - Following Warren Buffett's investment advice may be smart but nutritionists say that eating too many of the "junk-food" products made by companies he has invested in isn't quite as wise.
His move on Wednesday to inject Velveeta cheese, Jell-O, Lunchables, Oscar Mayer wieners, and Kool-Aid into his portfolio, stuffs an already amply supplied larder. The additions came from the acquisition of Kraft Foods Group Inc (KRFT.O) by H.J. Heinz Co, which is controlled by 3G Capital and Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N).
His larder already included everything from Burger King's BKCBK.UL Triple Whopper burgers, Coca-Cola soft drinks and Tim Horton donuts to See's Candies and

Lower U.S. jobless claims suggest solidly improving labor market

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON

People wait in line to enter the Nassau County Mega Job Fair at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York October 7, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to a healthy and expanding labor market.
The sustained jobs market strength underscores the economy's solid fundamentals and suggests a recent slowdown in economic activity will be temporary.
Harsh weather, the now-settled labor dispute at the country's busy West Coast ports, softer global demand and a strong dollar undercut growth early in the first quarter.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 282,000 for the week ended March 21, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
That was the lowest level since mid-February and was better than economists' expectations for a dip to 290,000. A Labor Department analyst said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data.
"The constructive trend in claims in recent weeks suggests that

Wall Street lower in wake of air strikes on Yemen

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK

Trader Joseph Lawler works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange March 6, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell at the open on Thursday to put the S&P 500 on track for a fourth straight decline, after Saudi Arabia and its allies launched air strikes on Yemen.
Oil prices spiked, with Brent crude up 2.4 percent to $57.86 and U.S. crude up 3 percent to $50.69 after warplanes from Saudi Arabia and its allies struck Shi'ite Muslim rebels fighting to oust Yemen's president. Halliburton shares gained 1.5 percent to $44.12.
"Obviously the situation in Yemen is being used as the excuse for this pullback, which is a continuation of yesterday," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
"Whether or not this is the beginning of a correction that could take us down by eight or ten percent I’m not sure, but certainly the ingredients for one are in the making."
U.S. stocks had dropped on Wednesday as a slump in

Things that will happen if Venezuela implodes

Silvana Ordoñez | @SilvanaCNBC

Meridith Kohut | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Women shop at a private-sector grocery store in Caracas, Venezuela in February.

An economic implosion is becoming increasingly likely in Venezuela, and the country's debtholders, trade partners and neighbors are bracing for the fallout.
The country's energy-dependent economy requires oil prices above $100 per barrel in order to sustain itself. Oil accounts for 95 percent of the country's export earnings, and combined with gas, it's 25 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Internationally traded Brent crude prices have fallen more than 48 percent in the past year.
Meanwhile, a combination of inflation and currency controls have generated scarcity of basic needs such as flour, toilet paper and medicine. Venezuelans stand in

Is foreign interest in India peaking?

Ansuya Harjani | @Ansuya_H

Adeel Halim | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Overseas institutional investors have pumped billions of dollars into Indian equities over the past year, fueling a seemingly unstoppable rally, but signs suggest that foreign interest may be peaking, according to analysts.

"Our interactions with 80 investors in the USA suggest FIIs' (foreign institutional investors) incremental interest in India is near a short-term peak," Mahesh Nandurkar, India equity strategist at CLSA wrote in a report published on Tuesday.
There is growing unease about weak corporate earnings, says Nandurkar, which will unlikely see a meaningful recovery for a couple more quarters.
Furthermore, big-bang reforms including the passage of the land acquisition bill and goods and services tax (GST) bill appear to be some time away, he said.
"While there is a general agreement on the attractiveness of India's structural long-term story, several investors appeared to be seriously re-evaluating their positioning and

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

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