Forex and Online Stock Trading

By Dan Wilchins (Reuters) - Over the past few years, Citigroup Inc has been grappling with an unusual problem - how to incur more U.S. taxes. The third-largest U.S. bank tried to buy the foundering Wachovia Corp in the fall of 2008 in part because the deal would have brought it more taxable domestic income, a person familiar with the matter said. ...

Read the original article...

By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies hoping to export natural gas are frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await U.S. Department of Energy approval of their applications and may turn to the courts to speed up the process. Both the slow pace of decisions on applications to ship U.S. liquefied natural gas abroad and the process for making those decisions could be challenged, legal sources say. Potential strategies could be laid out during a House of Representatives panel on Tuesday, which will focus on the current impediments to U.S. LNG exports. ...

Read the original article...

Brent crude futures were barely changed around $105, holding not far off their strongest level in 10 weeks on mounting tensions in the Middle East.

Read the original article...

(Reuters) - A New York court designated a pension fund as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by shareholders of Elan Corp against SAC Capital, a court filing showed, as the hedge fund continued to face varied legal challenges over insider-trading charges. Pension fund City of Birmingham Retirement and Relief System has been named as the lead representative party, who will act on behalf of other co-litigants in directing the lawsuit, according to a court order on Monday. ...

Read the original article...

By Xiaoyi Shao and Jonathan Standing BEIJING (Reuters) - China's house prices rose at the fastest pace this year in May from a year earlier, though the pace of gains eased from the previous month, highlighting the dilemma facing the central bank as it balances the need to support the economy against holding down housing inflation. Average new home prices in 70 major Chinese cities in May rose 6 percent from a year earlier, after a two-year high of 4.9 percent in April, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday. ...

Read the original article...

By Stanley White TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese cabinet ministers welcomed the Group of Eight summit's stance on Tokyo's sweeping stimulus policies as a vote of confidence in the government's strategy to end 15 years of entrenched deflation and revive a lackluster economy. Japan's economics minister also moved to parry any suggestion that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies, known as "Abenomics", are aimed at intentionally weakening the yen to benefit the country's exports. ...

Read the original article...

Asian equity markets fell across the board on Tuesday, as nervous investors awaited the Fed's policy decision.

Read the original article...

Tens of thousands of people march through the streets of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to show their discontent with the nation’s political class

Read the original article...

TOKYO (AP) — Jitters over a possible change in U.S. stimulus efforts by the Federal Reserve helped pull share prices mostly lower in early Asian trading Tuesday.

Read the original article...

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hinted in an interview aired on Monday that he may be looking for a new chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, saying current Chairman Ben Bernanke has stayed a lot longer than he had originally planned. Obama, speaking to Charlie Rose, host of a PBS interview program, compared Bernanke to longtime FBI Director Robert Mueller, who agreed to stay two years longer than he had planned and is to leave in the coming months. "Well, I think Ben Bernanke's done an outstanding job. ...

Read the original article...

G8 communiqué being drafted by British officials will attempt to find whatever common ground it can, including a condemnation of use of chemical weapons

Read the original article...

By Chikako Mogi TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares slid on Tuesday as investors waited on tenterhooks for news of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's plans for its stimulus program - with the mere suggestion of fine-tuning it enough to unnerve investors. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7 percent, dragged down by a 0.9 percent decline in Australian shares which faced selling in high-yielding stocks. The pan-Asian index, which plumbed its lowest since September on Thursday, was weighed down by a 1 percent drop each in its materials and energy sectors. ...

Read the original article...

The U.S. dollar hovered above a two-month low against the yen.

Read the original article...

The U.S. dollar hovered above a two-month low against the yen.

Read the original article...

Gold was little changed on Tuesday as investors awaited guidance from a Federal Reserve meeting on the outlook for the bank's stimulus program.

Read the original article...

Gold was little changed on Tuesday as investors awaited guidance from a Federal Reserve meeting on the outlook for the bank's stimulus program.

Read the original article...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The governors of Texas and South Dakota visited Connecticut on Monday to court gun manufacturers that have threatened to leave since the state passed tough new gun-control laws this year in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Read the original article...

By Jonathan Stempel and Sruthi Ramakrishnan (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp on Monday said it has sued Dish Network Corp to block its tender offer for Clearwire Corp, on the eve of a key deadline in a takeover battle that also includes Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank Corp. The lawsuit filed on Monday in Delaware Chancery Court accuses Dish of trying to "fool" and "coerce" Clearwire shareholders into tendering their shares, and rejecting Sprint's competing effort to buy the 49.8 percent it did not already own of the wireless broadband provider. ...

Read the original article...

TOKYO (Reuters) - New York-based hedge fund company Third Point said it had raised its stake in Japan's Sony Corp and asked for an opportunity to present its proposal to Sony's board for a partial spin-off of the company's entertainment unit. The move comes after Third Point, a $13 billion hedge fund founded by billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, last month proposed that the struggling electronics maker conduct an initial public offering for its profitable music and movie business, saying it could boost Sony's share price by as much as 60 percent. ...

Read the original article...

By Alwyn Scott PARIS (Reuters) - As airplane makers gathered outside Paris to show off their newest high-tech jetliners on Monday, a less-heralded technology story was unfolding back home on the factory floors of the world's leading aerospace firms. The planned introduction of at least half a dozen new plane designs that push the boundaries of flight performance has given the industry its biggest opportunity in a decade or more to automate factories, add new techniques and reduce costs. ...

Read the original article...

By Soyoung Kim and Deepa Seetharaman NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) - Johnson Controls Inc is speaking to private equity firms about selling its roughly $1 billion automotive electronics unit, after buyout interest from many rival auto parts suppliers faltered, according to several people familiar with the matter. The unit's performance was weaker than industry bidders had expected, disappointing some interested parties and prompting Johnson Controls to reach out to a broader group of buyers, the people said. ...

Read the original article...

By Nadia Damouni and Olivia Oran NEW YORK (Reuters) - Since Starboard Value LP was spun off as a separate hedge fund just over two years ago it has been fast gaining a reputation for aggressive shareholder activism, pushing for change in household names including AOL and Office Depot Inc . Initially investing in small cap value companies, Starboard quickly gained a reputation in Silicon Valley as a corporate raider, targeting mostly technology companies including Agilysys Inc , Openwave Systems and Extreme Networks Inc among several others. ...

Read the original article...