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Mar 3, 2019; Dunedin, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays infielder Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) runs home during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Dunedin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
April 25, 2019
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is getting his long-awaited call-up to the majors.
Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters following Blue Jays’ Wednesday loss to the San Francisco Giants that Guerrero, the top-ranked prospect in all of baseball by most scouting services, will be called up from Triple-A Buffalo to make his major league debut Friday at home against the Oakland A’s.
Guerrero, who plays third base, went 2-for-5 with a home run and a pair of runs scored against Syracuse on Wednesday. In 12 minor league games this season, the 20-year-old is batting .333 (14-for-45) with three home runs, nine RBIs and nine runs.
Guerrero’s father, Vladimir, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year. The elder Guerrero, 44, played 16 seasons in the majors, primarily with the Montreal Expos and Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels. He was a nine-time All-Star and the 2004 American League Most Valuable Player.
The news also comes on a day when the Blue Jays held shortstop Freddy Galvis held out of the game, ending his consecutive-games-played streak at 349. That was the longest active streak in baseball. With Thursday an off day, the club has an extra day to decide whether Galvis, who left the Sunday game in Oakland after trying to field a grounder, will go on the injured list.
–The Milwaukee Brewers agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract with free agent left-hander Gio Gonzalez, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported.
The deal includes $2 million in performance bonuses for the 33-year-old veteran, who was released from his minor league contract with the New York Yankees on Monday.
Last season, Gonzalez joined Milwaukee in an Aug. 31 trade with Washington and went 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA in five regular-season starts. He also allowed two runs on three hits in three innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. The two-time All-Star is 127-97 with a 3.69 ERA in 11 big league campaigns.
–Tampa Bay Rays infielder Joey Wendle suffered a fractured right wrist when he was hit by pitch by Kansas City left-hander Jake Diekman in the sixth inning.
Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters after the contest that there wasn’t yet a timetable for Wendle’s return. Wendle returned to active duty on Sunday after missing 17 games with a hamstring injury.
Wendle is batting .136 in eight games this season. Last year, Wendle batted .300 with seven homers and 61 RBIs in 139 games.
–Infielder Daniel Murphy, out since breaking his left index finger in the second game of the season, was activated from the 20-day injured list by the Colorado Rockies.
He went 1-for-4 with a walk, a strikeout and a run scored in the Rockies’ 9-5 victory over Washington, with whom Murphy played for two-plus seasons. He signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Rockies in December.
Murphy is a .299 career hitter with 122 homers and 641 RBIs over 11 seasons with the New York Mets (2008-15), Nationals (2016-18) and Chicago Cubs (2018).
–The New York Yankees activated catcher Gary Sanchez from the 10-day injured list in time for the team’s game against the Los Angeles Angels. He was placed on the IL with a calf strain April 12.
The club also demoted right-handed reliever Chad Green and catcher Kyle Higashioka to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and promoted left-hander Stephen Tarpley from the same affiliate.
Sanchez is hitting .268 with six home runs and 11 RBIs this season, although he also has four throwing errors. The Yankees’ injured list still includes names such as outfielders Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks, and right-hander Luis Severino.
–The Seattle Mariners acquired right-hander Mike Wright from the Baltimore Orioles for minor league infielder Ryne Ogren.
Wright, 29, was designated for assignment by Baltimore on Sunday after going 0-1 with one save and a 9.45 ERA in 10 relief appearances. In five seasons with the Orioles, Wright compiled a 10-12 record with a 5.95 ERA and 192 strikeouts in 242 innings.
Ogren is batting .146 with one home run and three RBIs in 11 games at Class-A West Virginia.
–Field Level Media
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder
April 25, 2019
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Thursday as record U.S. output and rising crude stockpiles dampened the impact on markets of tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran and producer club OPEC’s continued curbs on supply.
Brent crude futures were at $74.35 per barrel at 0037 GMT, down 22 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $65.60 per barrel, down 29 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their previous settlement.
Crude futures rose to 2019 highs earlier in the week after the United States said on Monday it would end all exemptions for sanctions against Iran, demanding countries halt oil imports from Tehran from May or face punitive action from Washington.
“Following the U.S. decision to toughen its sanctions on Iran … we have revised up our end-year forecast for Brent crude from $50 to $60 per barrel,” analysts at Capital Economics said in a note.
The U.S. decision try and bring down Iran oil exports to zero comes amid supply cuts led by producer Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) since the start of the year aimed at propping up prices.
As a result, Brent crude oil prices have risen by almost 40 percent since January.
Despite this, Capital Economics said “we still expect oil prices to fall this year as sluggish global growth weighs on oil demand, U.S. shale output grows strongly and investor aversion to risk assets like commodities increases.”
U.S. crude oil production has risen by more than 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since early 2018 to a record of 12.2 million bpd currently, making the United States the world’s biggest oil producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.
In part because of soaring domestic production, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories last week hit a October 2017 high of 460.63 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. That was a rise of 1.3 million barrels.
(GRAPHIC: U.S. oil drilling, production & storage levels link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2DxgF8W).
(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford)
Source: OANN
Former Trump campaign adviser Stephen Moore told The Wall Street Journal he would bow out as the president’s nominee for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board if he becomes a liability for Republicans.
“I want to help make America the most prosperous place in the world,” Moore said Wednesday, adding, “I’m totally committed to it as long as the White House is totally committed to it.”
Since President Donald Trump announced Moore as his pick, several media outlets have reported on Moore’s old columns about women in sports.
CNN published an article quoting four columns Moore wrote in the early 2000s for National Review magazine, which included pithy jokes and commentary about banning female announcers and referees from NCAA basketball games and questioning why ESPN would ever air women’s basketball.
Moore earlier Wednesday accused journalists of pulling a Kavanaugh against me” in reference to sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process last year.
“It’s been one personal assault after another and a kind of character assassination, having nothing to do with economics,” Moore said during an interview with North Dakota radio station WZFG.
But he told the Journal he would back down “if something I said or something I’ve done becomes a political problem. … I don’t want to be a liability. Why should we risk a Senate seat for a Federal Reserve board person, you know? I mean that just doesn’t make any sense.”
Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: The logo of PTT is pictured at the 38th Bangkok International Motor Show in Bangkok, Thailand March 28, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
April 25, 2019
By Chayut Setboonsarng and Anshuman Daga
BANGKOK/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Thailand is set to see the most funds raised from IPOs in Southeast Asia this year, with more than $5 billion expected to be garnered in the second half, sources said, as a tourist boost to the economy trumps jitters stoked by inconclusive elections.
Southeast Asia’s second largest economy is expected to see listings from the retail arm of state-owned oil company PTT Pcl, the hospitality business of tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s empire, and a unit of the country’s largest retailer Central Group, people familiar with the matter said.
First-time share sales from these companies and others could make it the largest haul for the country in six years, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak to the media.
Investors are focusing on the country’s stable economic growth and currency and do not see any big risk from political uncertainty. Preliminary election results show Pheu Thai, the leading anti-junta party, has won the most constituency seats, while the pro-army Palang Pracharat gained the most votes, but each is unable to form a government on its own.
Low interest rates and a hunt for high-yielding assets are driving investors to allocate money for equities, fund managers said.
“People are waiting and IPOs will sell,” said Narongchai Akrasanee, chairman of MFC Asset Management.
Tourism is a strong pillar of Thailand’s growth, with the country expecting visitor arrivals to rise by 7.5 percent this year. Thailand’s finance minister said last week that the country will introduce economic measures worth about 20 billion baht ($624 million) to boost consumption, tourism and help low-income earners.
Last year, Vietnam was the biggest market for IPOs in Southeast Asia, with listings there raising $3.4 billion, according to data from Refinitiv.
Bankers say 2019 is set to be Thailand’s strongest year for IPOs since 2013, when they raised over $6 billion. In 2018, Thai listings raised $2.5 billion after mopping up $3.8 billion in the previous year, Refinitiv data showed.
“One positive in Thailand is that domestic investor liquidity is extremely healthy,” said Ho Cheun Hon, Credit Suisse’s Singapore-based head of Southeast Asia equity capital markets.
“Assuming the final election outcome does not impact consumer and investor sentiment negatively, we are hopeful that market conditions in the second half of the year will be constructive for the strong Thai pipeline to push through,” he said.PTT Oil & Retail, which includes gas stations, coffee shops and convenience stores, is expected to kick off its IPO process after the election results and could raise about $2 billion, sources said.
Mall operator Central Group’s retail arm is also slated for a stock market flotation later this year and could raise $1 billion-$2 billion, sources said.
Asset World Corp, the hospitality arm of TCC Group, which owns office buildings, luxury hotels and shopping arcades, plans to launch a $1 billion-$1.5 billion IPO in the second half of the year, IFR reported in January.
PTT, TCC and Central did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
While there is short-term volatility in markets, Thailand’s benchmark index is trading at close to its five-year historical PE ratio, so IPO plans should go ahead if there is more clarity in politics in the second half of 2019, said Nunmanus Piamthipmanus, SCB Asset Management’s chief investment officer.
Some investors, however, cautioned that issuers had to ensure IPOs were not overpriced.
“Competition and supply in offices, hotels and malls make these sectors challenging,” says Thidasiri Srisamith, chief investment officer at Kasikorn Asset Management.
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK and Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Source: OANN
Nearly 100,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year without access to DACA protections, resulting in limited job opportunities and access to higher education, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Migration Policy Institute.
MPI, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., pulled from census data for its report.
Congress has yet to act on bills that would offer a pathway to legal status for those graduates despite efforts by lawmakers dating back to 2001.
And under President Donald Trump, no new applications are being accepted for DACA, which allows college and work opportunities for children without fear of deportation.
Former President Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012, and as of January, almost 700,000 young immigrants had benefited from it.
“Those two combined factors really opened up opportunities for them to work in more interesting and well-paid, stable jobs and they didn’t have to be watching over their shoulders,” said Jeanne Batalova, who co-authored the Migration Policy Institute report. “It also gave confidence to employers that these are workers that they could confidently hire and invest in because their status is solid.”
In 2017, the Trump administration tried to end DACA but was stopped by federal courts. Current recipients can renew their applications every two years.
Of the 98,000 high school graduates, 44% of them reside in California and Texas. The number of graduates rose from 65,000 in 2003.
Source: NewsMax America
FILE PHOTO – The downtown skyline of Miami, Florida November 5, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
April 24, 2019
(Reuters) – Formula One and local organizers have given up on plans to hold a race in downtown Miami because of the disruption for businesses and residents, the Miami Herald reported on Wednesday.
It said they were now looking into an alternative race location on land next to the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, to the north of the Florida city.
“We want to do something great for Miami,” the paper quoted Tom Garfinkel, vice chairman and CEO of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, as saying.
“Unfortunately when we finally received the detailed report of what it would take to build out a street circuit each year, the multiple weeks of traffic and construction disruption to the port, Bayfront Park and the residents and businesses on Biscayne Boulevard would have been significant.”
Formula One had hoped to add the street race to the calendar for this year but that was pushed back last July until at least 2020 as a result of emerging local opposition to the proposed harborside layout.
The sport’s owners Liberty Media say they want to make sure Miami, which has been offered a 10-year contract, has long-term viability with maximum local support.
The race would be a second grand prix in the United States after the one in Austin, Texas.
Miami Dolphins franchise owner Stephen Ross is supporting the project, with a company owned by the U.S. entrepreneur lined up as the potential promoter.
“A lot would have to happen for us to be able to do it,” said Garfinkel of the new proposal.
“But we have over 250 acres of land so adding an F1 race to where Hard Rock Stadium and the Miami Open sit means we can create a world-class racing circuit that is unencumbered by existing infrastructure.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Greg Stutchbury)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A man walks in a park at a business district in Seoul, South Korea, March 23, 2016. Picture taken on March 23, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
April 24, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter, marking its worst performance since the global financial crisis, as government spending failed to keep up the previous quarter’s strong pace and as companies slashed investment.
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter declined a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, the worst contraction since a 3.3 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2008 and sliding from 1 percent growth in Oct-Dec, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday.
None of the economists surveyed in a Reuters poll had expected growth to contract. The median forecast was for a rise of 0.3 percent.
From a year earlier, Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 1.8 percent in the January-March quarter, compared with 2.5 percent growth in the poll and 3.1 percent in the final quarter of 2018.
Exports fell 2.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, a sharper drop than the 1.5 percent decline in the previous three months.
Capital investment tumbled 10.8 percent to a 21-year low, while construction investment inched down 0.1 percent, according to the central bank.
(Reporting by Joori Roh, Cynthia Kim; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Source: OANN
According to a New York Times report, Governor Phil Murphy wants to significantly increase the tax on gun ownership in New Jersey.
New Jersey’s firearm ID currently costs $5, while a permit to own and carry a gun costs $2 and $20 respectively.
Governor Murphy, however, wants to raise those fees to $100 for the ID, $50 to own a firearm, and $400 just to carry a firearm.
And that’s not all.
Murphy wants to tax ammo by 10 percent and guns by 2.5 percent.
These proposals are included in the state budget which has to be passed on the deadline of June 30.
Like universal background checks, these new fees would disproportionately punish the poor and minorities.
John Lott has noted this in his book The War on Guns:
There are real costs of expanding background checks to private transfers. In particular, the fees on private transfers reduce gun ownership, particularly among law-abiding poor blacks who live in high crime urban areas and who benefit the most from protecting themselves; they will be the ones most likely priced out of owning guns for protection.
The New Jersey Governor asserts that he is not waging a “war on responsible gun owners.”
Instead, Murphy says that the funds raised from this gun tax would go towards “anti-violence” programs.
Murphy concluded, “We can support the efforts of the attorney general, state troopers, county and local law enforcement, to do the stuff we need to do: track crime, track gun violence, combat trafficking of illegal guns.”
Cody McLaughlin, the spokesman for the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, pushed back, saying that “This is clear bullying of law-abiding gun owners in the state.”
McLaughlin added, “You’re talking about sportsmen that are already paying hundreds of dollars a year in license fees.”
Lisa Caso, owner of Caso’s Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, stated that “It’s [gun tax} going to affect gun shops tremendously” and will “deter a lot of people from buying permits. In our business, you have people coming in who barely have money to buy the most modestly priced guns, which are around $300.”
In the meantime, Caso alleges that she has heard rumors about people scrambling to buy gun permits “ahead of the potentially higher fees.”
New Jersey is one of the most anti-gun states in America, with Guns & Ammo magazine ranking it in 50th place in 2018.
Since the Parkland shooting, New Jersey has embraced a wide array of gun control measures, which notably included a 3D printable gun ban.
Should these taxes pass, New Jersey will only cement its status as one of the least friendly states for gun owners in America.
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, February 7, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
April 24, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England is likely to keep interest rates on hold until August 2020 because of a slower global economy and prolonged uncertainty about Brexit, a leading think tank said on Thursday.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research pushed back by a year its previous forecast of a BoE rate hike which it made as recently as February.
NIESR economist Garry Young said a weaker global economy, and its knock-in impact on oil prices and other imports, was impacting monetary policy around the world, while in Britain uncertainty about Brexit has also kept the BoE on the sidelines.
“Now we expect the first increase in Bank Rate to be next August rather than this August,” he said.
The weakness in prices of imports would help offset inflation pressure from rising wages at home, Young said.
Britain is facing more uncertainty about its future relationship with the European Union after a deadline for Brexit was delayed from April 12 until the end of October this month.
Last week, a Reuters poll showed most economists now expect the BoE to raise borrowing costs early next year.
The British central bank has raised rates twice to 0.75 percent from an all-time low of 0.25 percent but Governor Mark Carney said the outlook for the economy is now shrouded in the “fog of Brexit.”
NIESR trimmed its expectation for British economic growth this year to 1.4 percent from its February forecast of 1.5 percent. It expected growth to pick up to 1.6 percent in 2020.
The forecast was based on the assumption of a “soft” Brexit which avoids disruption at the Irish border and maintains a high degree of access to EU markets.
The growth outlook would be slower if Britain ends up in a customs union with the EU, as favored by the opposition Labour Party, or if the country leaves the EU without a transition deal, NIESR said.
(Writing by William Schomberg)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A Ghanian woman poses while holding her family’s passports with a U.S. visa in Accra, Ghana February 1, 2019. Reuters/Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
April 24, 2019
By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A merit-based immigration proposal being put together by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner could lead to an increase in U.S. visas for highly skilled workers, sources familiar with the effort said on Wednesday.
Kushner is expected to present the comprehensive plan next week to President Donald Trump, who will decide whether to adopt it as his official position or send it back for changes, the sources said.
The plan does not propose ways to address young people who came to the United States illegally as children who were protected by President Barack Obama in the 2014 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or those people who have Temporary Protected Status, the sources said.
Democrats, whose support the White House would need to advance any kind of immigration legislation through Congress, have insisted that the DACA recipients be protected.
Kushner has held about 50 listening sessions with conservative groups on immigration, a senior administration official said. He has been working with White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and policy adviser Stephen Miller on the plan and the sources said there has been some intense behind-the-scenes jockeying about the plan.
At a Time magazine forum in New York on Tuesday, Kushner said he was working well with Miller, an immigration hawk, on the topic. The two men are both long-time Trump advisers.
“Stephen and I haven’t had any fights,” he said with a smile.
That drew skepticism from immigration advocate Marshall Fitz of the Emerson Collective, who gave Kushner credit for advancing criminal justice reform but said immigration was a dramatically different issue that Miller was dominating at the White House.
“It’s impossible to see how Kushner could navigate an issue this freighted with history and central to the president’s re-election strategy in a way that would actually move the ball forward,” Fitz said.
As a White House candidate in 2016 and throughout his presidency, Trump has advocated a hard-line policy on immigration, pushing for a wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border and using bruising rhetoric to describe people who have fled Central American countries to enter the United States.
Republicans have largely supported his immigration proposals, but the latest White House plan aims to bring them together on a broader basis.
Some in the U.S. business community have asked that the number of highly skilled visas be raised to attract more employees from abroad for specialized jobs amid a booming U.S. economy. Trump himself has talked of the need to bring in more skilled workers.
The immigration plan would either leave the number of highly skilled visas each year at the same level or raise it slightly, the sources said.
The overall goal is to reshape the visa program into a more merit-based system, a key Trump goal. Officials working on the plan have been reviewing the systems used by Canada and Australia as possible models for the Trump effort.
The group has been working on a guest-worker program as part of the proposal to address the U.S. agriculture community’s need for seasonal labor while not hurting American workers, but nothing has been finalized, the sources said. Trump has sought to court farmers in key battleground states to boost his chances of re-election in 2020.
The proposal will include recommendations for modernizing ports of entry along the U.S. border to ensure safe trade while preventing illegal activity. It will also address asylum laws to take account of Trump’s desire to reduce the number of people who overstay their visas, the sources said.
Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, is also a main architect of a Middle East peace proposal that the president is expected to unveil this summer.
His objective on the immigration plan at the very least is to have a document that represents the president’s immigration policy and provide something that Republicans can rally around.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Tom Brown)
Source: OANN
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