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FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a Swedbank branch in Riga October 21, 2014. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
April 25, 2019
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish bank Swedbank reported first-quarter profit above market expectations on Thursday but admitted to past anti money-laundering shortcomings and said it was cooperating with authorities, including those of the United States.
Operating profit rose to 6.63 billion Swedish crowns ($703 million), from 6.39 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average were expecting operating earnings of 6.09 billion, according to a poll.
Swedbank is the subject of a joint investigation by the Swedish and Baltic financial watchdogs. Broadcaster SVT reported the bank processed gross transactions worth up to 20 billion euros a year from high-risk, non-resident clients, mostly Russian, through its Estonian branch between 2010 and 2016.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander; editing by Niklas Pollard)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A Nokia logo is seen at the company’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
April 25, 2019
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia reported a surprise quarterly loss on Thursday, citing hard competition in its core business, the networks unit.
Having signaled back in January “a particularly weak Q1”, Nokia reported a fall to an operating loss (non-IFRS) of 59 million euros ($66 million) from a profit of 239 million euros in the first quarter a year ago.
That compared with analysts’ profit expectation of 305 million in a Reuters poll.
The networks industry – dominated by Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei – has been battered by years of slowing demand since 4G network sales peaked in the middle of the decade.
It is now readying for a new cycle of network upgrades as operators have started to invest in 5G equipment.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen, Tarmo Virki in Helsinki; editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks at a rally with striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
April 25, 2019
By John Whitesides and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Vice President Joe Biden, a moderate Democrat who has made his appeal to the disaffected working-class voters who deserted the party in 2016 a key part of his political identity, is set to launch his third run for the White House on Thursday.
Biden will announce his bid by video, according to a source familiar with the plans. He then is expected to make his first public appearance as a candidate on Monday at an event in Pittsburgh featuring union members, a key constituency.
Biden, 76, had been wrestling for months over whether to run. His candidacy will face numerous questions, including whether he is too old and too centrist for a Democratic Party yearning for fresh faces and increasingly propelled by its more vocal liberal wing.
Still, he starts as the leader of the pack in opinion polls of a Democratic field that now will total 20 contenders seeking the chance to challenge President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, in November 2020. [nL1N2260LS]
Critics say Biden’s standing in polls is largely a function of name recognition for the former U.S. senator from Delaware, whose more than four decades in public service includes eight years as President Barack Obama’s No. 2 in the White House.
As speculation about his bid mounted, Biden faced new questions about his longtime propensity for touching and kissing strangers at political events, with several women coming forward to say he had made them feel uncomfortable.
Biden struggled in his response to the concerns, at times joking about his behavior. But ultimately, he apologized and said he recognized standards for personal conduct had evolved in the wake of the #MeToo movement. [nL1N21L1HG]
Trump and his allies seized on the flap, attempting to weaken perhaps his top rival before Biden entered the race.
Even so, Biden was determined to push forward, arguing his background, experience and resume best positioned him to take on Trump next year.
In a speech to union members in April, Biden called Trump a “tragedy in two acts.”
“This country can’t afford more years of a president looking to settle personal scores,” he said.
Biden’s candidacy will offer early hints about whether Democrats are more interested in finding a centrist who can win over the white working-class voters who went for Trump in 2016, or someone who can fire up the party’s diverse progressive wing, such as Senators Kamala Harris of California, Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Biden’s long history in the Senate, where he was a leading voice on foreign policy, will give liberal activists plenty to criticize. As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, he angered women’s rights activists with his handling of sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas during the justice’s 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
He also has been criticized for his ties to the financial industry, which is prominent in his home state of Delaware, and for his authorship of the 1994 crime act that led to increased incarceration rates.
Biden has been one of the party’s more aggressive Trump critics. Last year, he said he would “beat the hell” out of Trump if the two were in high school because of the way the president has talked about women. That prompted Trump to call him “Crazy Joe Biden” and claim on Twitter that Biden would “go down fast and hard, crying all the way” if they fought.
Biden later lamented the exchange, saying “I shouldn’t get down in the mosh pit with this guy.”
Known for his verbal gaffes on the campaign trail, Biden failed to gain traction with voters during his previous runs in 1988 and 2008.
He dropped his 1988 bid amid allegations he plagiarized some of his stump oratory and early academic work. But his experience and strong debate performances in 2008 impressed Obama enough that he tapped Biden as his running mate.
Biden decided against a 2016 presidential bid after a lengthy public period of indecision as he wrestled with doubts about whether he and his family were ready for a grueling campaign while mourning his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in May 2015. His son had urged him to run.
Biden faced some of the same family considerations this time around, as he is still coping with Beau’s death while his other son, Hunter, has gone through a divorce amid a reported relationship with Beau’s widow.
(Reporting by John Whitesides and James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A security guard walks past in front of the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo, Japan January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
April 25, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday and clarified its intention to keep interest rates very low for a prolonged period, committing to do so at least through around the spring of next year.
In a widely expected move, the BOJ maintained its short-term interest rate target at minus 0.1 percent and a pledge to guide 10-year government bond yields around zero percent.
“The BOJ intends to maintain the current extremely low levels of short-term and long-term interest rates for an extended period of time, at least through around spring 2020,” the BOJ said in a statement announcing its policy decision.
Until now, the BOJ did not have a specific time frame on how long it would maintain very low rates.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) to explain the policy decision.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Stanley White and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Tennis – Australian Open – First Round – Melbourne Arena, Melbourne, Australia, January 14, 2019. Britain’s Andy Murray reacts during the match against Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
April 25, 2019
(Reuters) – Andy Murray is “cautiously optimistic” he will be able to play tennis again this season after successfully undergoing hip surgery, his mother Judy has said.
The three-times Grand Slam champion said at this year’s Australian Open that constant pain in his hip had brought him to the verge of quitting tennis but revealed last month that he was pain free after the procedure in January.
Murray posted an Instagram video of himself on an outdoor court earlier this month, describing the footage of him hitting a tennis ball for the first time since the surgery as “a start”.
He followed that up with a video of himself playing a round of golf that reinforced the message that he was on the mend.
“It’s still early days so we will have to wait and see what happens. He is cautiously optimistic about getting back on the match court perhaps at some point over the summer,” Judy was quoted as saying by British media.
“He was told not to do impact work, which basically means running around the garden hitting a ball, for three months but he’s been hitting against a wall from a static position.”
Murray hoped to make his comeback at Wimbledon and said in March that he would consider playing doubles because it would put less stress on his hip.
The 31-year-old twice Wimbledon champion has compared his situation to that of American doubles player Bob Bryan, who returned to competitive tennis 5-1/2 months after undergoing a similar procedure.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, Editing by Simon Jennings)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Panasonic Corp’s logo is pictured at Panasonic Center in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 2, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
April 25, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Panasonic Corp may upgrade one of its battery plants in Japan to produce advanced-format battery cells for Tesla Inc if needed by the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) maker, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Panasonic, currently the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla, produces cells for the EV maker at their joint plant in the U.S. state of Nevada – the so-called Gigafactory – as well as at two plants in Japan.
The Japanese plants handle cylindrical lithium-ion “18650” cells, used to power Tesla’s Model S and Model X vehicles, whereas the Nevada plant produces the newer, higher-energy density “2170” cells for the mass-market Model 3 sedan.
The Japanese production lines would only need minor changes to switch to 2170 cells from the 18650, said the person, who declined to be identified as the matter was private.
Japan’s Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported on Wednesday that the upgrade could take place in this financial year ending March 2020.
Panasonic in a statement said nothing has been decided.
The development comes after Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said Panasonic had been “a constraint on Model 3 output since July”. Panasonic’s Nevada output is 24 gigawatt-hours (GWh), Musk tweeted this month, as opposed to the planned 35 GWh capacity.
Panasonic said it had completed installation of its equipment for a Nevada capacity of 35 GWh by the end of March 2019, but that not all the installed equipment is in full operation.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The logo of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 conference in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato
April 25, 2019
By Paresh Dave
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A SoftBank Corp business seeking to find a way to fly cellphone antennas high in the atmosphere to provide internet in underserved areas said on Wednesday it was investing $125 million in an Alphabet Inc spinoff working on the same problem.
SoftBank’s year-old HAPSMobile and Alphabet’s Loon, which spun out last July from the research incubator of the Google parent, separately have been trying to fly networking equipment at high altitudes to provide high-speed internet where ground-based towers are unreachable.
Loon carries the gear with a large balloon, while HAPSMobile uses a large drone.
Despite internet coverage gaps in rural areas or during natural disasters, mobile network operators, governments and other potential customers have yet to demonstrate much enthusiasm for buying skyborne technologies.
Also in the competition to fill the coverage gaps are several billionaire entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. Each is backing separate early-stage ventures that want to beam internet from satellites in near-Earth orbit.
Loon and HAPSMobile said on Wednesday that collaboration could be the key to adoption. They are discussing the possibility of using each others’ technology, standardizing their airborne and ground networking gear and joining forces in regulatory discussions, they said in a statement.
The companies described their partnership as a “long-term” tie-up of one of Japan’s top three wireless carriers and one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
“I’m confident we can accelerate the path toward the realization of utilizing the stratosphere for global networks by pooling our technologies, insights and experience,” Junichi Miyakawa, SoftBank’s chief technology officer and HAPSMobile’s chief executive, said in the statement.
“Even in this current era of coming 5G services, we cannot ignore the reality that roughly half of the world’s population is without internet access,” Miyakawa added.
Loon has tested balloons for nearly a decade and expects to hold its first commercial trial in Kenya this year.
HAPSMobile emerged from technology developed by dronemaker AeroVironment Inc, which owns 10 percent of the SoftBank subsidiary.
Loon said it has the option to later invest $125 million in HAPSMobile.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: People walk past an LG Electronics logo during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 25, 2016. REUTERS/Albert Gea
April 25, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s LG Electronics on Thursday said it would shift domestic manufacturing of smartphones to Vietnam, to enhance production efficiency during a slump in the global phone market.
On Wednesday, Yonhap News Agency, citing an unidentified source, reported that LG planned to suspend domestic production of its money-losing handsets this year.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Source: OANN
A worker smiles as she shows cannabis plants at the Tilray factory in Cantanhede, Portugal April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante
April 25, 2019
By Catarina Demony and Rafael Marchante
CANTANHEDE, Portugal (Reuters) – Famous for its roasted suckling pig and wines, the Portuguese city of Cantanhede now hosts the country’s first medical cannabis production farm – a budding European hub of efforts to meet growing demand for the flowering herb.
Portugal’s California-like weather caught the eye of Canada-based Tilray as its CEO Brendan Kennedy roved around Europe from 2015 to 2017 in search of the perfect spot for a new production site.
Kennedy said Portugal had the ideal climate for cannabis cultivation and the country’s young, educated workforce and its major agricultural sector were further attractions.
Covering 2.4 hectares (5.9 acres) in a biotechnology park just outside Cantanhede, Tilray’s site was given the green light by Portugal’s regulator Infarmed in 2017. The company then rushed to import its first baby plants and recently reported its first two successful cannabis harvests.Kennedy opened the site to visitors for the first time at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.
“Some of our competitors are located in Denmark and northern Germany, where there isn’t that much sun – so we think we can produce a more environmentally-friendly product here,” he told Reuters.
Portugal also offers tariff-free entry to the rest of the European Union, a market Tilray wants to explore further at a time when an increasing number of governments are legalising medical marijuana.
FROM PROHIBITION TO LEGALISATION
“The paradigm is shifting from prohibition to legalisation,” Kennedy said, with demand for the product growing. “I’m fairly optimistic that over the next two years we will see every country in Europe legalising it.”
Last year Portugal’s parliament approved a bill to legalise marijuana-based medicines, following in the footsteps of EU countries such as Italy and Germany as well as Canada and parts of the United States. Britain made a similar move in July 2018.
Tilray’s 20-million-euro ($22.29 million) facility includes indoor, outdoor and greenhouse cultivation sites, as well as research labs, processing, packaging and distribution sites for medical cannabis and cannabinoid-derived products.
Tilray supplies medical cannabis products with CBD and THC to patients in a number of countries, through subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Germany and Latin American, and through agreements with pharmaceutical distributors.
Earlier this year, the European Parliament called for an EU-wide policy on medical cannabis and properly funded scientific research.
“We are at point where almost every doctor around the world recognises the medical benefits of cannabis,” Kennedy said.
The World Health Organization has stated that several studies have demonstrated cannabinoids provide therapeutic effects for nausea and vomiting in the advanced stages of illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.
Moreover, a handful of regulated pharmaceuticals use chemicals derived from cannabis, such as GW Pharmaceuticals’ Sativex which is approved for treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
BOOST EXPORTS
From Canada, where Tilray has six facilities, the company already sells medical cannabis products to 13 countries. Portugal will help Tilray boost exports further, Kennedy said.
“Our business plan for this facility is focused on exporting products from Portugal to other countries around the world.”
In Europe, Tilray products are already available in Germany, Croatia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic but it expects to start exporting to the United Kingdom – and potentially to France, Italy and Greece – in the next 12 months.
Kennedy said Tilray hopes this summer to expand exports to countries such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
According to analysis firm Prohibition Partners, the EU cannabis market will be worth 123 billion euros by 2028.
Kennedy did not confirm how much medical marijuana Tilray plans to produce.
($1 = 0.8973 euros)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Rafael Marchante; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Dollar and Euro notes are seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
April 25, 2019
By Daniel Leussink
TOKYO (Reuters) – The euro nursed losses against the dollar on Thursday after dipping to a 22-month low on a surprise drop in a leading indicator for economic activity in Germany, amplifying worries of a growth slowdown in Europe’s largest economy.
German business morale deteriorated in April, bucking expectations for a small improvement, a business index by the Munich-based Ifo economic institute showed on Wednesday, as trade tensions weighed on the German economy, leaving domestic demand to support slowing growth.
The greenback rallied to a 23-month high of 98.189 against a basket of key rivals overnight after gaining more than half a percent, largely propelled by the euro’s weakness. The index last traded slightly lower at 98.096.
“Yesterday’s strength of the dollar was exaggerated by the weakness in countries other than the U.S.,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities.
“A big question is if the weakness in Australia and the euro area are temporary or not,” he said. “The main scenario is (for) a recovery in the second half of this year in the euro area and other regions.”
The euro sat at $1.1153, having suffered its biggest one-day loss against the dollar since early March when the European Central Bank pushed back plans for its first post-crisis interest rate hike.
The single currency also shed nearly 0.4 percent against the yen overnight and was last trading at 125.125 yen.
The Japanese currency slipped to a 2019 low of 112.40 yen per dollar on its own during the previous session, with traders eyeing a Bank of Japan policy decision later on Thursday for trading cues.
The BOJ is expected to keep monetary policy steady on Thursday and predict that inflation will fall short of its 2 percent target for three more years, signaling that its massive stimulus will stay in place for the foreseeable future.
The dollar was last a shade lower on the yen, changing hands at 112.12 yen.
The Australian dollar was largely unchanged at $0.7017.
The Aussie had given up nearly 1.3 percent during the previous session after weaker-than-expected Australian inflation numbers heightened the prospect of an interest rate cut.
The Canadian dollar was flat at $1.3495 after hitting a four-month low overnight, as investors raised bets on a Bank of Canada interest rate cut this year after the central bank slashed its economic growth outlook.
Market participants awaited policy decisions by the Swedish and Turkish central banks later on Thursday.
Sweden’s Riksbank is likely to keep its benchmark rate unchanged and may be forced to delay plans to tighten policy later in 2019, a Reuters poll of analysts published on Tuesday showed.
“The Riksbank may push further out the timing of the next rate hike, and also the market may speculate it’s too early for a rate cut by the Turkish central bank,” said Mizuho’s Yamamoto.
“That could be a negative for these currencies and positive for the dollar.”
(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Source: OANN
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