Trump Lucky to Inherit Healthier Banking System, Greenwood Says

Donald Trump will enter the White House with the U.S. banking system in far better shape than it was for Barack Obama’s arrival eight years ago, according to Invesco chief economist John Greenwood. With Trump’s inauguration just two weeks away, the U.S. business cycle is in line for several years of expansion as bank lending is growing and activity has normalized, reducing the need for the Federal Reserve to create credit as it did under quantitative easing, Greenwood said Thursday at a news conference in Hong Kong.

The Latest: Investor says he’d sell casino to mayor at $300M

The Latest on Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian’s call for billionaire investor Carl Icahn to sell the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal casino : Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says he’d be happy to sell Atlantic City’s former Trump Taj Mahal casino – if the city’s mayor bought it. Icahn was responding to comments Wednesday by Republican Mayor Don Guardian, who called on Icahn to sell the casino, make a profit and move on.

Atlantic City mayor urges Icahn to sell ex-Taj Mahal casino

This Oct. 10, 2016 photo shows striking union members picketing outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City N.J. moments before it shut down. Owner Carl Icahn plans to surrender the casino license for the shuttered facility, and has filed a … deed restriction against the property preventing any future buyer from using it as a casino unless they pay an unspecified fee.

Amazon’s Alexa is officially coming to Ford cars

Ford has teamed up with Amazon to bring Alexa into its cars, the automaker announced at a press dinner at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The integration will let Ford users with SYNC 3 access Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, inside the car to do things like check the weather, play audiobooks, add items to shopping lists, and even control Alexa enabled smart home devices.

Alibaba Sues Sellers of Fake Swarovski Watches in Crackdown

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. sued two vendors it said used the company’s Taobao website to sell counterfeit Swarovski watches, just weeks after the site was labeled a haven for knockoffs by U.S. regulators. The lawsuit is the first legal action taken by an e-commerce site in China against sellers of counterfeit goods and Alibaba seeks 1.4 million yuan in damages, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

Libya Oil-Export Terminal Said to Re-Open as Crude Output Rises

Libya is re-opening its last major oil-export terminal that was shut amid fighting that hobbled output in the country with Africa’s largest crude reserves. The Zawiya terminal is preparing to resume exports after the pipeline supplying it was re-opened, an official at the state-run National Oil Corp. said, asking not to be identified for lack of authorization to speak to news media.

Former Fed board member J. Dewey Daane has died

J. Dewey Daane, a noted expert on monetary policy who was nominated to serve on the Federal Reserve board by President John F. Kennedy, has died. He was 98. His death Tuesday in Nashville was announced by Vanderbilt University where Daane had been a longtime professor at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management.

Ex-Hedge Fund Manager Generates 51% Return From Skiers? Paradise

The region of Trondelag is the cradle of Norway’s Winter Olympic dominance, with 14 gold medals over the past two events alone. Now, Jomar Kilnes, a former hedge fund manager who has come home after more than a decade in the Bahamas and the U.S., is showing that delivering outsized investment returns is the area’s real forte.

TRAI to meet CEOs of Airtel, Vodafone, Jio and Idea to discuss roadmap for 2017

In a first-of-its-kind exercise, regulator TRAI is scheduled to meet CEOs of all telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio, on Friday to discuss and identify important issues that need to taken up during the year. A similar meeting is slated with top executives of cable and broadcasting companies, multiple-system operators and DTH operators on January 10, TRAI sources said.

Toyota Plans Years of Building Cars Largely Controlled by Humans

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to spend years designing cars in which humans retain a large measure of control, since the goal of turning all driving decisions over to computers seems too dangerous for now. The problem, Toyota said Wednesday, is that society has come to accept 39,000 traffic fatalities a year in the U.S., mostly due to human error, but would never tolerate similar carnage involving cars controlled by computers.

Singapore Charges Ex-Falcon Bank Manager in 1MDB-Linked Case

Singapore prosecutors charged a former branch manager of Falcon Private Bank Ltd., the fifth person to be indicted in the city-state’s probe linked to a scandal-hit Malaysian state investment fund. Jens Sturzenegger, a Swiss, faces 16 charges including failing to report to the authorities that $1.27 billion of inflows into two bank accounts were suspicious, according to papers filed Thursday in a state court.

American Drivers Seen Paying $52 Billion More to Fill Up in 2017

Americans may spend $52 billion more to fill their cars this year as OPEC output cuts boost oil prices and state tax hikes take a bigger bite, according to GasBuddy Organization Inc. The national yearly average will rise to $2.49 a gallon from $2.13 in 2016, analysts at GasBuddy, which tracks retail prices and availability,said in a 2017 outlook. The jump more than reverses the $39 billion decline last year.

Crown Jewel of U.S. Shale Behind the Endless Pursuit of Williams

Some 67 years after the Transco pipeline was laid from the Gulf Coast of Texas to New York City, it remains the crown jewel of the natural gas industry, fed by America’s richest shale patch. In the past year, the allure of this 10,500-mile system has helped trigger two failed takeover bids for Williams, a clash between Armstrong and billionaire pipeline magnate Kelcy Warren and a mass exodus from the company’s board.

Intel handed out barf bags for its event at CES

Attendees at tech trade shows are accustomed to getting plied with all sorts of shwag, but those who attended Intel’s event on Wednesday got something different: barf bags. to attendees at its press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada – a precaution in case audience members got sick during the virtual reality experience.

Amazon’s voice-assistant Alexa is coming to its first phone ever

That’s according to a billboard, first spotted by Digital Trends’ Andy Boxall , at the Consumer Electronics Show currently being held in Las Vegas. The billboard says the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei’s Mate 9 will be the “first smartphone with Amazon Alexa,” adding it’ll be available on January 6 through Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, and B&H.

Futures Lower, but Dow 20k Is in View; Asia Mixed

Futures for U.S. markets were lower late Wednesday, but investors on Thursday may take a run at bumping the Dow Jones Industrials over the record 20,000 mark amid a handful of economic indicators. The Dow and the S&P 500 slid 0.04% at 9:14 p.m. EST while Nasdaq lost 0.09%.

Obama renominates FCC Democrat in his final two weeks

President Obama has renominated Federal Communications Commission Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel to be reappointed to the five-member panel after his initial nomination effort failed last year. The president made the announcement Wednesday as part of a slew of last-minute nominations sent to the Senate with just over two weeks left in office.

Apple to Invest $1 Billion in SoftBank Fund to Support Tech

Apple Inc. is planning to invest $1 billion in SoftBank Group Corp.’s giant new technology fund, adding its name to a growing list of interested parties and giving the iPhone maker a new avenue to tap up-and-coming technologies. Qualcomm Inc. also said it will participate in the fund, but the terms and the amount of its investment are still under discussion.

Alibaba cracks down on counterfeiters on their platform

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has sued two vendors for selling counterfeit goods, weeks after being blacklisted by a US industry watchdog. The move comes just two weeks after the company was put back onto the US’s “notorious markets” list over failing to curb the sale of counterfeit goods.

Why Valero Energy, Ensign Group, and The Bancorp Slumped Today

Wednesday was another good day for the stock market, as major market benchmarks posted gains of between 0.25% and 1% to climb back within reach of new record levels. Many market participants focused on the release of the Federal Open Market Committee’s most recent meeting minutes, which didn’t have any major surprises that threatened the positive mood among investors.

Why Nike CEO Says “Less Is More”

For the year, Nike stock dropped 19%, making it the worst-performing stock of the Dow. The lackluster year has left investors wondering how the company will fix the issues that have worried Wall Street — namely slower-than-expected-sales growth as well as higher input costs and inventory issues that have decreased gross margin and earnings potential.

Why Encana, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, and Tenet Healthcare Jumped Today

The stock market continued to perform well on Wednesday, sending the S&P 500 to within a point of a new all-time record closing high. The Dow remained stubbornly below 20,000, but major market benchmarks posted gains of around half a percent as the latest release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meeting didn’t raise any alarms or reveal any big surprises from monetary policymakers.

7 Signs Amazon’s Best Days Are Ahead of It

The company has come to dominate the retail industry and is rapidly disrupting many other areas of the global economy. Yet with its stock up several hundred times in value since its 1997 IPO, you’d be excused for thinking Amazon’s days of turbocharged growth are long gone.