In a move being called one of the most important communications advances for deaf people in decades, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously earlier this month to replace support for an outdated form of text telephone communications with support for real-time text . Those in Minnesota’s deaf and hard of hearing community say it’s news they’ve been waiting on for years.
Day: December 27, 2016
Toshiba Falls by Limit as U.S. Nuclear a Nightmare for Costs
Toshiba Corp. plunged by the daily limit in Tokyo as the once heralded U.S. nuclear renaissance is turning into a nightmare for the Japanese company. The shares fell by 20 percent to 311.6 yen in Tokyo, following a 12 percent drop Tuesday.
One Group of Oil Investors Didn’t Cash In on the 2016 Rally
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures have gained 45 percent so far this year as OPEC engineered the first global output cut in 15 years. The U.S. Oil Fund LP, an ETF designed to track oil prices that has seen investors pour in nearly $3 billion in the past two years, only grew 6.6 percent over the same period.
Qualcomm Fined $853 Million by South Korean Antitrust Agency
South Korea’s antitrust regulator slapped a record 1.03 trillion won fine on Qualcomm Inc. for violating antitrust laws, the latest in a string of government actions that threaten the U.S. chipmaker’s most profitable business. The South Korean Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday that the company licensed its key patents only to mobile-phone makers and didn’t properly negotiate the terms of its licenses.
Facebook Safety Check creates false alarm in Bangkok
Facebook users in Bangkok were falsely alerted to an “explosion” in the Thai capital, after the social network activated its Safety Check feature. It allows Facebook users in danger zones to mark themselves as safe, but in this instance was triggered by a protestor throwing firecrackers.
Futures Higher as Dow 20K Nears; Asia Mixed
Futures for U.S. markets pointed northward late Tuesday as investors aim for a Dow Jones Industrials index of an unprecedented 20,000. They are counting on the historic Santa rally and buoyant oil prices to get the job done.
Related Article: What to Watch Wednesday: Pending Home Sales Index
On Wednesday investors await the pending home sales index. Released by the National Association of Realtors at 10 a.m. ET, the pending home sales index for November is expected to rise 0.5% month over month.
Growth Investing 2017: 3 Stocks to Put on Your Radar
With the market hovering near historic highs, many value-minded investors are avoiding stocks that trade at higher multiples than their industries or the overall market. But shunning “expensive” stocks altogether could cause you to miss some growth plays that could crush the market’s returns next year.
Biogen and Fitbit trade higher while Endologix tumbles
The Food and Drug Administration ordered Endologix to stop shipping a device used to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms because of manufacturing problems. Several early clinical studies of the company’s experimental treatment for acute myeloid leukemia were stopped because of possible liver side effects.
BP Buys Woolworths Australian Gas Stations for $1.3 Billion
BP Plc will pay A$1.785 billion for Woolworths Ltd.’s network of Australian gas stations in a deal that will cement the London-based oil company as one of the nation’s biggest fuel providers. The British energy company will acquire 527 fuel outlets that are currently supplied by rival Caltex Australia Ltd., as well as 16 development sites, according to a statement Wednesday from Sydney-based supermarket owner Woolworths.
Amazon Reports Best Holiday Yet With Record Orders for Echo
Amazon.com Inc. said it had its best holiday season yet, having shipped more than 1 billion items through its Prime and Fulfillment services, and receiving a record number of orders for its own Alexa devices. Sales for Echo speakers based on Alexa’s voice-recognition software were nine times more than the 2015 holiday season, Amazon said in a statement Tuesday.
What Happened in the Stock Market Today
Fitbit shares spiked 7% following a rare piece of encouraging news about the fitness device maker’s holiday sales trends. Its activity tracking software was the second most-popular download among free apps on Apple ‘s iTunes this past week, beating such heavyweights as Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram.
West Virginia settling drug suit against 2 more distributors
Two major prescription drug distributors have agreed to settle a West Virginia lawsuit alleging they fueled West Virginia’s opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers into the state over several years.
Broadway holiday numbers dip, including revenue, attendance
Broadway box offices failed to break any records over the Christmas holiday, despite mild weather and eye-popping hauls by huge hits like “Hamilton.” Revenues, attendance and the number of shows all dipped.
Co-op Group planning 1,500 UK jobs with 100 new stores
The Co-operative Group is planning to create 1,500 jobs in the new year by opening 100 stores across the country. The group will invest A 70m in the new shops, which will be spread throughout London, south-east England, Yorkshire and Scotland.
Seattle Genetics Plunges After Drug Studies Halted on Deaths
Seattle Genetics Inc. plunged the most in five years after U.S. regulators halted several early-stage blood cancer studies following the deaths of four patients who suffered from liver damage. The Food and Drug Administration halted the trials testing Seattle Genetics’s acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, therapy, called SGN-CD33A.
ECB Says Paschi Needs $9.2 Billion, More Than Bank’s Plan
The European Central Bank said Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA needs about 8.8 billion euros to bolster its balance sheet, almost twice the amount the Italian lender had sought to raise in a failed capital increase. The calculation is based on the results of a 2016 stress test, the Italian bank said in a statement late Monday, citing two letters from the ECB.
Britons face debt hangover in 2017 from festive spending
Many Britons will start 2017 with both a debt- and alcohol-induced hangover after using credit cards to fund Christmas celebrations, according to new research. Just over half believe they will still be settling up for this Christmas when the next festive season rolls around.
Pleasanton: Ex-employee claims Versace store used a codea for black customers
A former employee at Versace’s outlet store here is suing the global retailer for discriminatory practices, alleging that employees of the store used a “code” to notify each other when black customers walked into the store. Christopher Sampino, 23, the plaintiff in the case, alleged in the lawsuit that he was fired around Oct. 1 for being mixed race after working at the store for two weeks.
Person fatally hit by Caltrain in Burlingame
Pamela Turntine is the Deputy Breaking News Editor of the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Mercury News and East Bay Times.
Work-life balance
Every Christmas, Today on BBC Radio 4 invites people from different walks of life to “guest edit” the programme, choosing the topics and interviewees they want in it. Here Helena Morrissey, non-executive chair of Newton Investment Management and a campaigner for greater gender diversity in the boardroom, gives her take on a subject close to her heart.
The motion picture literary agent’s clients include Jon M. Chu, Michael Bay and Adam F. Goldberg.
Carlson’s filmmaker clients at WME include Jon M. Chu, Michael Bay, Adam F. Goldberg, Richard Tanne , Wash Westmoreland , Mike Lesslie , Clay Kaytis , Mark Burton , Jeff Wadlow , Paul Tibbitt and television directors David Slade, Matt Shakman, Tom Harper and Colm McCarthy. Carlson also represented Hasbro, for whom he negotiated a cinematic universe deal with Paramount .
Why Apple Inc.’s Next iPad Pro Won’t Be Delayed Due to Chip Yields
“TSMC is scheduled to start making Apple’s A10X chips for the next-generation iPad series slated for launch in March 2017,” the report says. DigiTimes , citing industry sources, explains that “unsatisfactory yields for the foundry’s 10nm process could disrupt the schedule.”
Rates on short-term Treasury bills rise to 8-year high
The Treasury Department auctioned $34 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.555 percent, up from 0.515 percent last week. Another $28 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.660 percent, up from 0.645 percent last week.
Most Popular New ETF Strategies of 2016
The exchange traded fund universe has steadily expanded with many new additions and strategies this year. There are now 1,961 U.S.-listed exchange traded products, which include both exchange traded funds and exchange traded notes, with a little over $2.5 trillion in assets under management.
Back-of-the-Napkin Analysis: Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.’s Rebound
To make matters worse, Ells, now the sole CEO, admitted during an investor conference that he was nervous about hitting fiscal 2017 guidance. A great deal has been done, including Moran’s departure which rectifies the obvious friction that occurs when a vessel has two captains, to right the ship following the food-poisoning scares of a year ago.
Airbus’s A380 Woes Deepen as Jets Delayed for Top Buyer Emirates
Airbus Group SE’s struggles with its A380 superjumbo jet are deepening as the planemaker delays deliveries of a dozen aircraft over the next two years to Emirates, the double-decker’s biggest customer. To make up for the financial drag from the tardier handovers, Airbus will accelerate cost cuts, according to an e-mailed company statement Tuesday.
8i Is Trying To Bring Virtual Reality Out Of The Gaming World
Imagine if you could climb Mount Everest and go on stage at a Beyonce concert with your friends…before breakfast. Linc Gasking and his team of visual effects experts at 8i thinks they can make holograms of humans so real, that VR will go mainstream and they’ll alter the human experience forever.
What Return Can Bank of America Stock Deliver Over the Long Term?
When you buy a stock, you shouldn’t focus on how much you think it’ll be worth next week, next month, or even next year. What you should focus on instead, as I do below with Bank of America , is how much it’ll likely be worth in a decade or two, after allowing the law of compounding growth to work its magic.
TSP Contribution Limits in 2017
The Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP, is the defined contribution retirement plan offered to U.S. civil service employees and retirees, as well as members of the uniformed services. With nearly five million participants, the TSP is one of the most popular retirement programs in America.
The Oil Industry’s 5 Biggest Surprise Winners of 2016
My hand isn’t up, and I’ll bet most who follow the industry closely didn’t tap it as their top pick this year, either. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that few expected that the five best-performing large-cap energy stocks would be ONEOK, Continental Resources ONEOK’s success in 2016 was partially due to its poor performance in 2015, when the stock got cut in half over concerns about its direct exposure to commodity prices, which were in a tailspin.
Is Danaher Corporation Stock a Buy for 2017?
A heavy exposure to healthcare and environmental solutions used to make it the go-to stock when analysts were concerned about an economic downturn. Furthermore, the more cyclical bits of the business have been bundled together and spun off into a new company called , leaving Danaher even more exposed to non-cyclical end markets.
Industrials Keep Dow Away from 20,000
U.S. stocks pared some gains in afternoon trading on Tuesday, pulling the Dow Jones Industrial Average away from the elusive 20,000 mark as losses in industrials slightly offset gains in technology and financial shares. The blue-chip index, which came within 20 points of hitting the milestone earlier, was trading near session lows.
2 Dividend Stocks That Are Too Unsafe
To sidestep that imminent sell-off, investors should be very choosy with their dividend plays next year. Dividend stocks with poor earnings growth, unsustainable payout ratios, or inconsistent dividend hikes should be avoided at all costs.
Star Wars Actor Carrie Fisher Dies at 60
Carrie Fisher, who rose to fame as Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” films and later endured drug addiction and stormy romances with show business heavyweights, died on Tuesday, her daughter said through a family spokesman. “It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning,” Lourd said in a statement issued by Simon Halls.
The ‘Sell-By’ Dating Game: Solving the Confusion Over Food Labels
When food is past the “sell-by” date on the label, should you throw it out immediately or is it still safe to eat? The Nutrition Twins Lyssie Lakatos and Tammy Lakatos Shames clear up the mystery. “As registered dieticians I want to say that we live by ‘if in doubt, throw it out.’
New FHA Loan Limits May Help You Buy a Home
Just before Thanksgiving, the Federal Housing Finance Agency released the conforming loan limits change for 2017. This change resulted in higher loan limits beginning in January for many counties across the country.
Psychological Barrier Keeping the Dow Under 20K?
Dec. 27, 2016 – 7:35 – University of Maryland economist Peter Morici on the markets, President-elect Trump’s policies and President Obama’s legacy.
The Hidden Factors That Determine Your Life Insurance Rate
As a life insurance agent, my job is to get my clients the coverage they need at the most affordable price possible. I tell clients their age, gender and desired amount of coverage are the factors that matter most in policy cost.
Asus’ latest Chromebook appears online for $499, but quickly pulled
Likely due at CES 2017, Asus’ new Chromebook looks to pack a full HD screen with 360-degree hinge and two USB-C ports. An unannounced Asus Chromebook appeared on Newegg for a short period of time, revealing presumed specifications under a 360-degree 12.5-inch FHD touch display.