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China to step up bank reserve ratio cuts to help small firms: state media

FILE PHOTO: Chinese 100 yuan banknotes in a counting machine while a clerk counts them at a branch of a commercial bank in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in a counting machine while a clerk counts them at a branch of a commercial bank in Beijing, China, in this March 30, 2016 file picture. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

April 7, 2019

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China will step up its policy of targeted cuts to banks’ required reserve ratios to encourage financing for small and medium-sized businesses that play a key role in economic growth, official media reported on Sunday.

China will also accelerate initial public offerings for small and medium-sized companies, Xinhua news agency cited a policy document issued by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, as saying.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu in Singapore and CoCo Li in Beijing; Editing by David Goodman)

Source: OANN

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Man arrested in cold-case California killing faces new sex assault charges, officials say

A man arrested in February in connection with the cold case murder of 11-year-old Linda O’Keefe was charged this week in two other sexual assaults that occurred in California sometime between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, prosecutors announced.

James Neal, 72, who made his first appearance at an Orange County courtroom, faces additional charges of lewd or lascivious acts upon a child in Riverside County, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced, according to the Orange County Register.

SUSPECT IS ARRESTED FOR MURDER OF 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHO WAS ABDUCTED AND LEFT IN DITCH 45 YEARS AGO

“While that evidence will be presented in court, there are now allegations of multiple sexual assault victims,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said, according to KTLA. “And so, we do believe that Mr. Neal was involved in creating more victims beyond the murder of Linda O’Keefe.”

Neal, of Monument, Colorado, was charged last month with the sexual assault and killing of the Newport Beach girl in July 1973. O’Keefe’s body was found in a Back Bay ditch the next day. Advanced DNA technology helped link Neal to the murder, police said.

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Neal faces a maximum 82 years to life in prison if convicted, authorities said.

Source: Fox News National

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Exclusive: ECB will tailor new loans to reduce demand, sources say

The skyline with its financial district and the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are photographed in the early evening in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO - The skyline with its financial district and the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) are photographed in the early evening in Frankfurt, Germany, December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

March 12, 2019

By Francesco Canepa

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymakers want to reduce banks’ reliance on central bank cash and will tailor a fresh loan facility to curb appetite, four sources familiar with the discussion have told Reuters.

With growth slowing and business confidence fading, the ECB announced new stimulus measures last week to prop up a still- fragile economy, promising to put off raising interest rates and to give banks access to more multi-year loans from the central bank.

But the sources, who asked not to be named, said the economy was still far stronger than a few years ago, so any support should be less generous, reflecting healthier fundamentals.

One of the key questions still on the table is just how cheap the ECB cash should be and whether the ECB should restrict access to its multi-year credit, commonly known at targeted longer-term refinancing operations, or TLTROs.

An ECB committee working on the design of the TLTRO proposed setting the rate at a premium of 25 basis points above the ECB’s main refinancing rate, now at zero. Then, as now, that rate could be reduced progressively to encourage banks to meet, or then exceed, their lending quotas.

But doves from the EU’s periphery considered such a rate too high, not giving banks enough support, and asked staff to prepare a proposal with more favorable terms, the sources said. They noted that even at a zero percent rate, it would be 40 basis points more expensive than the previous TLTRO.

An ECB spokesman declined to comment.

The sources added that, for now, the main refinancing rate is considered the lowest achievable rate on the TLTROs. But they said the discussion remains open and, if the economy performed worse than expected, they could opt for an even lower, possibly negative, figure.

The need to assess the growth outlook also provided an argument for the Governing Council to take more time to decide the terms of the loan, suggesting that the June 6 meeting is the likeliest opportunity for the ECB to publish the final terms, the sources said.

(Graphic: Depositors and borrowers at the ECB – https://tmsnrt.rs/2UpDLEM)

ADDICTED

A key argument for providing the loans is to roll over a previous TLTRO facility and avoid a sudden reduction in the ECB’s balance sheet. But policymakers also want to reduce banks’ reliance on ECB cash, the sources said.

Options under discussion include more stringent collateral rules on the new loans and more ambitious targets for lending volumes for those granted the knock-down rate.

While demand for the loans will depend on conditions, ECB calculations suggested the take-up of the new facility could be below 500 billion euros ($564 billion), compared with more than 700 billion in the previous round, with many northern European banks not rolling over previous facilities as they can borrow on the market on better terms.

The sources added that the question of tiering the ECB’s deposit rate to shield banks from negative rates had not been discussed.

“Any TLTRO-III rate at, or above the refi rate would lead to very low demand on top of TLTRO-II rollover (which could be a feature, not a bug, if growth picks up),” Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Pictet Wealth Management, wrote on Twitter after Reuters’ article was originally published.

($1 = 0.8868 euros)

(Graphic: TLTRO II holdings by country – https://tmsnrt.rs/2F6e1rV)

(Additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Kevin Liffey, Larry King)

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NATO chief says Brazil, other Latin American countries could become ‘partners’

FILE PHOTO - NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg addresses joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington
FILE PHOTO - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress as Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi listen in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

April 3, 2019

By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NATO can look at the possibility of other Latin American states joining Colombia in becoming alliance partners, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, while appearing to rule out U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Brazil could one day become a full member of the North Atlantic security body.

“Until 2017, NATO didn’t have any partners in Latin America and then in 2017 we got our first partner, which was Colombia, and to be a close partner of NATO is something that is good for NATO and the partner country,” the NATO leader told Reuters in an interview ahead of a NATO ministerial meeting in Washington.

“So of course, it is a possibility to look into the possibility of having also other countries in Latin America become partners which then provides a platform, a framework for close political and practical cooperation,” he said.

At a joint White House news conference last month, Trump said he had told visiting far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro he would designate Brazil a “major non-NATO ally” and possibly go further by supporting a campaign to make Brazil “maybe a NATO ally,” something that would imply full membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

NATO membership is currently limited to countries of western Europe, Turkey, Canada and the United States, although NATO partner countries include Australia and New Zealand, as well as European non-members Sweden and Finland.

Ask if a country such as Brazil could become a member, Stoltenberg said:

“No. Partners are not members. But partners are very close partners. We work very closely with them, practically and politically, and that’s a very good way to strengthen cooperation with NATO and countries that are not members of the alliance.”

Asked about Brazil becoming a partner, he said:

“Well someone has to propose it and it also has to be a request from Brazil, but … we just agreed with Colombia to make Colombia a close partner with NATO and of course it’s absolutely possible to have more partners in Latin America, but it has to be an expressed wish from Latin America and of course (it’s) something we have to discuss then among the 29 allies.”

Earlier Stoltenberg addressed the U.S. Congress and delivered an impassioned defense of the partnership he called “the most successful alliance in history,” which has often been derided by Trump since he took office in 2017.

Colombia reached an agreement in 2017 to become the only Latin American nation to join NATO as a “global partner,” a relationship short of “ally” status, which means it would not necessarily have to take part in collective military action.

Other NATO global partners apart from those mentioned by Stoltenberg include Afghanistan, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Pakistan.

Becoming a “major non-NATO ally” in itself implies a status upgrade that would give a country preferential access to purchases of U.S. military equipment and technology.

Supporting Brazil for alliance membership would be a considerable step further, one that Trump recognized would mean he would “have to talk to a lot of people.”

NATO membership is governed by Article 10 of its 1949 founding treaty, which limits invitations to European states, subject to the approval of existing members and meeting alliance criteria.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: OANN

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Notre-Dame smolders as investigation begins

Firefighters work at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris
Firefighters work at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France April 16, 2019. A massive fire consumed the cathedral on Monday, gutting its roof and stunning France and the world. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

April 16, 2019

By Matthias Blamont and Inti Landauro

PARIS (Reuters) – Firefighters doused the smoldering ruins of Notre-Dame with water on Tuesday, the morning after a raging inferno swept through the gothic cathedral in the heart of Paris as investigators tried to establish what started the fire.

Hundreds of firemen battled the blaze which consumed the roof and collapsed the eight-centuries-old cathedral’s spire for more than eight hours before bringing it under control, saving its bell towers and outer walls. [nL5N21X56Y]

Pockets of fire continued to burn inside the building and thorough checks on the cathedral’s structural soundness would be needed, junior interior minister Laurent Nunez said.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had launched an inquiry into the fire. Several police sources said they were working on the assumption for now that the fire was accidental.

“It’s a symbol of our country that risked being destroyed,” Culture Minister Franck Riester told CNews television.

Firefighters who entered the burning cathedral saved many of its treasures, Riester said, although some paintings remained inside and risked smoke and water damage.

The fire tore through the cathedral’s timbered roofing, where workmen were carrying out extensive renovations to collapsed balustrades and crumbling gargoyles and the spire’s wooden frame.

Hundreds of stunned onlookers lined the banks of the Seine river as the fire raged, reciting prayers and singing liturgical music in harmonies late into the night as they stood vigil. [nL5N21X5QJ]

MULTI-MILLION DONATIONS

President Emmanuel Macron promised France would rebuild Notre-Dame, considered among the finest examples of French Gothic cathedral architecture and visited by more than 13 million people annually.

“We will rebuild it together. It will undoubtedly be part of French destiny and our project for the years to come,” Macron said outside the cathedral shortly before midnight.

France’s Fondation du Patrimoine, a charity which works to protect French heritage, is launching an international appeal to raise funds for the rebuilding that is likely to cost hundreds of millions of euros.

Other campaigns were swiftly launched in the United States as well-wishers around the world pledged contributions via social media. [nL1N21X1MC]

Two of France’s wealthiest men, Francois-Henri Pinault, chief executive of the Kering group which owns brands including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, and Bernard Arnault, the main shareholder of luxury group LVMH, said they would donate 100 million euros ($113 million) and 200 million euros respectively.

“This tragedy strikes all the French and beyond all those who are attached to spiritual values,” Pinault said in a statement.

A centuries-old crown of thorns made from reeds and gold and the tunic believed to have been worn by Saint Louis, a 13th century king of France, were saved, Notre-Dame’s top administrative cleric, Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, said.

Copper statues representing the Twelve Apostles and four evangelists were removed by crane last week as part of the renovation work.

American tourist Susan Hargrove said she’d been left breathless by the scale of devastation.

“We are talking of world history, of our Western culture but also of something that is truly universal,” Hargrove said. “Notre-Dame means something to everybody.”

($1 = 0.8843 euros)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Inti Landauro, Richard Lough, Sarah White; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Raissa Kasolowsky)

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Britain’s Ocado to establish U.S. office in Washington D.C. area

FILE PHOTO: A man walks from the main reception of the Ocado CFC (Customer Fulfilment Centre) in Andover
FILE PHOTO: A man walks from the main reception of the Ocado CFC (Customer Fulfilment Centre) in Andover, Britain May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

March 18, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – British online supermarket Ocado plans to establish an office for its Ocado Solutions technology business in the Washington D.C. area of the United States, it said on Monday.

It said from April the office will be based in Tyson’s, Virginia, ahead of establishing a permanent location in the Washington D.C. area.

Last year Ocado signed major technology partnership deals with Kroger in the U.S. and Sobeys in Canada.

The deal with Kroger will see the roll-out of 20 highly automated distribution centers – or Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFCs) as Ocado calls them – across the United States in the coming years.

The development of a CFC for Sobeys in Canada is also underway for the Greater Toronto area.

“We selected the DC area for its great connections to cities across the U.S. and Canada, as well as for its strong technology and engineering talent pools,” said Luke Jensen, the CEO of Ocado Solutions.

Ocado, which last month sold a half share in its British retail business to Marks and Spencer for 750 million pounds ($995 million), is due to publish first-quarter results on Tuesday.

Shares in Ocado, up 94 percent over the last year, rose 1 percent to 1,134.3 pence by 1153 GMT, valuing the business at 7.84 billion pounds ($10.4 billion).

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton and Louise Heavens)

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U.S. disaster aid won’t cover crops drowned by Midwest floods

The contents of grain silos which burst from flood damage are shown in Fremont County, Iowa
The contents of grain silos which burst from flood damage are shown in Fremont County Iowa, U.S., March 29, 2019. Photo taken March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Polansek

April 2, 2019

By Tom Polansek

MALVERN, Iowa (Reuters) – The Black Hawk military helicopter flew over Iowa, giving a senior U.S. agriculture official and U.S. senator an eyeful of the flood damage below, where yellow corn from ruptured metal silos spilled out into the muddy water.

And there’s nothing the U.S. government can do about the millions of bushels of damaged crops here under current laws or disaster-aid programs, U.S. Agriculture Under Secretary Bill Northey told a Reuters reporter who joined the flight.

The USDA has no mechanism to compensate farmers for damaged crops in storage, Northey said, a problem never before seen on this scale. That’s in part because U.S. farmers have never stored so much of their harvests, after years of oversupplied markets, low prices and the latest blow of lost sales from the U.S. trade war with China – previously their biggest buyer of soybean exports.

The USDA last year made $12 billion in aid available to farmers who suffered trade-war losses, without needing Congressional approval. The agency has separate programs that partially cover losses from cattle killed in natural disasters, compensate farmers who cannot plant crops due to weather, and help them remove debris left in fields after floods.

But it has no program to cover the catastrophic and largely uninsured stored-crop losses from the widespread flooding, triggered by the “bomb cyclone” that hit the region in mid-March. Congress would have to pass legislation to address the harvests lost in the storm, according to Northey and a USDA statement to Reuters.

“It’s not traditionally been covered,” he said. “But we’ve not usually had as many losses.”

Indigo Ag, an agriculture technology company, identified 832 on-farm storage bins within flooded Midwest areas. They hold an estimated 5 million to 10 million bushels of corn and soybeans – worth between $17.3 million to $34.6 million – that could have been damaged in the floods, the company told Reuters.

Across the United States, farmers held soybean stocks of 2.716 billion bushels as of March 1, the largest on record for the time period, the USDA said on Friday. Corn stocks were the third-largest on record.

Some Congress members have expressed interest in pursuing legislation to provide aid for damaged crops in storage, Northey said. But passing legislation could require a lengthy political process in the face of an urgent disaster, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley told farmers at a meeting in Malvern, Iowa.

“If we have to pass a bill to do it, I hate to tell you how long that takes,” said the senator from Iowa, who joined Northey on the helicopter tour.

With farm incomes declining for years before the flood, many farmers had planned to sell their grain in storage for money to live, pay their taxes or finance operations, including planting this spring.

THROWING AWAY CROPS

From the helicopter, piloted by National Guard members, officials surveyed miles of flooded fields in Iowa, littered with lawn chairs, fuel tanks, furniture, tires and other flood debris.

Farmers will have to destroy any grains that were contaminated by floodwater, which could also prevent some growers from planting oversaturated fields.

Near Crescent, Iowa, farmer Don Rief said the flood damaged more than 60,000 bushels of his grain, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He tried to move the crops before the flood, but dirt roads were too soft from the storm to support trucks.

“We were just hurrying like hell,” Rief said. “Hopefully USDA will come in and minimize some of the damage.”

The USDA does not have a program that covers flood-damaged grain because farmers have typically received more advance notice of rising waters, allowing them to move crops and limit losses, said Tom Vilsack, who ran the agency under former President Barack Obama.

In this case, floods inundated fields quickly after multiple levees failed when rain and melting snow filled the Missouri River and other waterways. The frozen ground was unable to soak up the water.

Near Percival, Iowa, railroad tracks leading up to a grain facility were flooded and broken. A Deere & Co dealership, Wendy’s restaurant, Motel 6 and gas station nearby were also underwater, along with homes, cars and farm equipment.

Some farmers moved machinery such as tractors on to highways to keep it out of the path of the floods. The equipment was still parked there during the flyover on Friday.

DISASTER RELIEF ‘GAP’

About 416,000 acres of cropland across six counties in Iowa were flooded, said Amanda De Jong, state executive director for the USDA Iowa Farm Service Agency.

Of that, about 309,000 acres will be eligible for the federal program that helps farmers and ranchers remove debris left by natural disasters on farmlands, De Jong said last week. She estimated the program would need about $34 million to clean up the fields.

Iowa’s agriculture secretary Mike Naig said the U.S. government also should help compensate farmers for some of the grain that was damaged.

“This is clearly a gap that we think needs to be addressed,” said Naig, who accompanied Grassley and Northey in the chopper.

Time is short for a solution, said Carol Vinton, supervisor of Mills County, Iowa, one of the state’s two most heavily damaged counties.

Vinton said she was getting calls from farmers whose grain was damaged and are worried about making good on previously signed contracts to deliver those crops to elevators.

The USDA wants to do everything it can to help farmers hurt by the disaster, Northey said.

“They spent all last year raising that crop, putting it in the bin and they maybe already have it marketed,” he said. “And now they’re going to have to spend time just to get rid of it – just to clean the place up.”

(Reporting by Tom Polansek in Malvern, Iowa. Additional reporting by Mark Weinraub in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Brian Thevenot)

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Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont are taking aim at latest entry into the 2020 nomination race – Joe Biden.

Campaigning in Iowa hours after the former vice president officially announced his candidacy, Warren contrasted on Thursday her longtime record of taking on Wall Street with that of Biden.

JOE BIDEN OFFCIALLY LAUNCHES LONG AWAITED 2020 BID

“At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country were trying to put the squeeze on millions of hard-working families who were in bankruptcy because of medical problems, job losses, divorce and death in the family, there was nobody to stand up for them,” said the populist senator who’s producing progressive policy proposal after another as she runs for the White House.

“I got in that fight because they just didn’t have anyone,” she said. “And Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies.”

The comments reignited a nearly two decades old fight between the two over the country’s bankruptcy laws.

Fox News reached out to the Biden campaign for reaction to Warren’s words but had yet to receive a response at the time this article was published.

WARREN NOT WORRIED ABOUT POLLS: ‘IT’S EARLY.. I’M RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN ITHAT I WANT TO RUN’

It’s not just Warren. The head of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – which has backed the senator from Massachusetts – also took aim at Biden, who enters the race as the front runner in most national polls and early primary and caucus voting state surveys, slightly atop of Sanders and well ahead of the rest of the large field of 20 contenders.

“With billionaires deciding not to run, progressive candidates have been in need of a foil. If Joe Biden positions himself as the political insider from yesteryear who says big ideas like universal child care, student debt relief, and a wealth tax on ultra-millionaires are not possible, he would be an easy foil, Adam Green, the co-founder of PCCC, told Fox News.

BIDEN LAUNCH SETS UP 2020 NOMINATION FIGHT WITH FELLOW FRONT-RUNNER SANDERS

Sanders’ campaign also jabbed at Biden.

The former vice president spent Thursday evening raising campaign cash at the suburban Philadelphia home of David Cohen, a senior executive of the Comcast Corp. and a former Democratic operative.

In a fundraising email to supporters around the same time, Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir wrote that “it’s a big day in the Democratic primary and we’re hoping to end it strong. Not with a fundraiser in the home of a corporate lobbyist, but with an overwhelming number of individual donations in response to today’s news.”

Earlier in the day, a rising progressive group called Justice Democrats that has championed Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called Biden “out of touch” and stressed that “we can’t let a so-called ‘centrist’ like Joe Biden divide the Democratic Party and turn it into the party of ‘No, we can’t.’”

Biden, of course, is considered to be more moderate than many of the current contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, especially Warren and Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.

These kind of jabs from the candidates, their campaigns and outside groups could be foreshadow a building clash between the progressive and establishment sings of the party.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

Former President Barack Obama, Biden’s boss for eight years, remains extremely popular with Democrats.

BIDEN SAYS HE ASKED OBAMA NOT TO ENDORSE HIM

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Highlighting his early public push for same-sex marriage, he said, “I’m not sure when everybody else came out and said they’re for gay marriage.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.

“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong)

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FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Sims

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.

The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.

And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.

Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.

German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.

For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.

Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.

At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.

“MARKET PLAY”

Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.

“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.

Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.

“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.

“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.

Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.

If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.

“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.

(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)

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Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli yells to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano

April 26, 2019

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.

“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”

Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.

Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.

A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)

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FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City
FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Shares of Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers fell on Friday as Amazon.com Inc unveiled a one-day delivery plan for its Prime members in a move to further disrupt the fiercely competitive retail landscape.

The e-commerce giant’s announcement on Thursday could cause other brands, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies to have to invest more aggressively to compete with Amazon and its delivery, analysts said.

Retailers in recent years have poured billions into ecommerce and faster shipping options and are trying to close the gap with Amazon.

“This is about making it more expensive to catch up and affirms our world view that only the largest and smartest will survive,” Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher said.

The move is expected to heighten consumer expectations on e-commerce delivery just like Amazon did with its two-day shipping option for members of its loyalty club Prime, noted analysts.

“The faster you ship, the more people buy,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said.

The challenge for non-Amazon players was that very few of the existing logistics and parcel delivery players now have the ability to do nationwide one-day delivery, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.

“And even fewer can do it at the vast scale and reasonable cost that AMZN would need for Prime delivery,” Nowak said in a note.

Walmart Inc’s shares fell about 3 percent, while Target Corp dropped about 5 percent in morning trade.

Shares of Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc fell about 1 percent. Grocer Kroger Co was nearly 3 percent lower, while consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc dropped 2.1 percent.

(Reporting by Soundarya J and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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