US News

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has agreed to pay $10.35 billion USD to settle claims for loans originated by the bank and sold to Fannie Mae between 2000 and 2008. The loans in question were actually originated by Bank of America N.A. and Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America acquired in 2008.  $3.6 billion of the […]

Director lifestyle (oops I meant to say oil exploration services) group Vialogy (LSE:VIY) needs to raise cash urgently or it is going bust. That is not just me saying that,. That is the bombshell from its auditors that the company snuck out over Christmas when no-one was watching. Its attempts since then to sucker private […]

President Barack Obama has said that failure by the United States government to reach an agreement on further raising the nation’s debt ceiling would lead to “catastrophic consequences”. The Democratic president faces the challenge of reaching an agreement with Republican majority in the House of Representatives, with the Unites States Senate currently under Democratic control, but […]

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C): The stock has been upgraded by JMP Securities. Its earlier rating stood at Underperform and it now has been elevated to Market Perform.

The Chinese service sector has grown at its fastest rate for four months indicating that the country is set for a period of sustained economic recovery. Newly released results for China’s National Bureau of Statistics shown that non-manufacturing purchasing manager’s index, known as PMI, increased to 56.1 in December from November’s 55.6, with any figure […]

The US has ended a sweeping antitrust investigation on Google without imposing any sanctions to its core search business. The decision of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was welcomed by supporters who thought that the investigation was brought up by rivals as Microsoft to limit Google’s rise. The FTC announced a settlement that limits to […]

Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL): The company announced that it would purchase Skippy, the No.2 peanut butter brand in the US. The deal is likely to be worth $700 million.

There is no time to pour champagne. After the fraught deal on the fiscal cliff that averted $600 billion of more taxes and spending cuts, the US Congress will have to face many issues regarding the situation of the biggest economy in the world. The Senate bill, in fact, doesn’t reduce the US national debt, […]

Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s has called for the US government to address its budget problems following a temporary agreement over the “fiscal cliff”. Arguing that “Washington’s governance and policymaking had become less stable” Standard and Poor’s cited recent events as demonstrating that current budget governance was “less stable, less effective and less predictable”. The […]

Now you see it.  Now you don’t.  You’ve watched it for months.  Now, suddenly it’s gone.  Where did it go?  No one knows.  How did President Obama and the US Congress do that?  The simple answer is sleight-of-hand prestidigitation. Please don’t misunderstand.  The magic was not in making the Fiscal Cliff disappear.  The magic was […]