Swiss president says open to discussions on Britain joining EFTA

Switzerland's president said on Monday his country would consider letting Britain join the European Free Trade Association when it eventually leaves the European Union following June's Brexit referendum.

"I told my colleagues if the U.K. approaches EFTA to explore the possibility of joining EFTA, Switzerland would be open to discussions," Johann Schneider-Ammann told the Geneva Press Club after an EFTA ministerial meeting.

Another solution would be a free trade agreement between Britain and EFTA - the organization which includes Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, Schneider-Ammann said.

A country-to-country arrangement could also be considered, Schneider-Ammann said. "Switzerland has all interest in avoiding a legal void when the UK leaves the EU," he said. "Therefore all possibilities are open."

Source: www.reuters.com

Dollar dips, stocks fall as Trumpflation trade pauses

The dollar edged lower against major currencies and global stocks were on the defensive on Monday as a "Trumpflation"-fuelled rally paused and political risks came to the fore in Europe.

U.S. Treasury yields, which have risen since Republican Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election on a platform seen likely to raise U.S. growth and inflation and lead to higher interest rates, fell from 2016 highs hit on Friday.

The dollar fell 0.3 percent against a basket of six peers .DXY but still held close to its highest levels since early 2003. The Japanese yen rose 0.3 percent to as high as 110.51 per dollar JPY=, having earlier fallen to 111.19 yen, its weakest since early June.

The euro EUR= rose 0.5 percent to $1.0649, with analysts saying the move reflected the abundant political risks facing Europe over the coming year.

A surprisingly strong showing by conservative former premier Francois Fillon in a weekend French presidential primary was expected to heighten uncertainty. Some suggested that his unpopularity among left-wing voters could raise far-right, anti-euro leader Marine Le Pen's chance of victory in an election to be held in April and May.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's announcement on Sunday that she would seek a fourth term in next September's election removed another source of political uncertainty, which has intensified since Britain's vote in June to leave the European Union and Trump's election on Nov. 8.

Yields on lower-rated euro zone government bonds rose while those on German benchmarks edged lower.

In Italy, which faces a referendum on which Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his job, 10-year yields IT10YT=TWEB rose 2.4 basis points to 2.05 percent, while German equivalents DE10YT=TWEB dipped 0.3 bps to 0.28 percent.

"Indirectly, the French primary vote could reinforce concern about an anti-establishment backlash in Europe," said Martin Van Vliet, senior rates strategist at ING. "Even if the sell-off in core bonds is fading, we still see pressure on the periphery."

European shares fell, following most Asian markets lower. The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.7 percent.

For Reuters new Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

MSCI's main Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, stock index .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.1 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX200 index retreated 0.2 percent.

Japanese shares closed up 0.8 percent .N225, lifted by yen weakness against the dollar before the currency turned.

"The markets driven by Trump may be just about to have run their course for now," said Toru Ohara, chief investment officer at Okasan Asset Management.

"A rise in interest rates is, generally speaking, not good thing for stocks, especially for emerging markets. But if you think that U.S. bond yields, which have been falling since 1982, may be bottoming out, that could mean the end of a low-growth/ low-inflation regime," he said.

Oil prices rose on expectations that producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will agree later this month to curb output.

"I think there will be some kind of agreement next week," said Matt Stanley, a fuel broker at Freight Investor Services in Dubai, although he added that a post-agreement rally would be unlikely to last as any cut would probably not be big enough to bring oil production back in line with consumption.

Brent crude LCOxc1 last traded at $47.34 a barrel, up 48 cents, or 1 percent.

Copper prices, which have risen on Trump's promise to spend heavily on infrastructure, were up 2.5 percent CMCU3 at $5,560 a tonne on the prospect of better demand in top consumer China and a smaller growth in supply.

Source: www.reuters.com

S&P 500 losing streak runs to 8 days as Facebook weighs

The S&P 500 fell for an eighth straight session on Thursday, its longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis, as Facebook shares weighed and investors grappled with uncertainty over next week's U.S. presidential election.

Facebook shares tumbled 5.7 percent as the world's largest online social media network warned that revenue growth would slow this quarter.

The stock was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 as well as on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which also posted its eighth straight day of losses.

Investors have been unnerved by signs the U.S. presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump is tightening, after Clinton had until recently been thought to have a clear lead.

Two polls showed Clinton maintaining a narrow lead nationally ahead of the Nov. 8 election, echoing other polls that have shown Clinton with a slimmer lead since the re-emergence last week of a controversy over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

“The polls have tightened and now the concern is more about what might a Trump presidency look like and the market hasn’t quite priced that in," said Ernie Cecilia, chief investment officer of Bryn Mawr Trust in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. “Given the fact that the election is five days away, that’s what’s driving near-term behavior right now.”

The S&P 500 lost 9.28 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,088.66 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 47.16 points, or 0.92 percent, to 5,058.41.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which does not include Facebook among its components, fell 28.97 points, or 0.16 percent, to 17,930.67.

The CBOE Volatility Index, a gauge of near-term investor anxiety, climbed 14 percent to its highest level in more than four months.

The spike in volatility "tells you people are buying protection, there is a little bit more concern," said Matt Jones, U.S. head of equity strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York. "You just have a buyers' strike right now and people waiting for the results next week to reposition themselves going forward."

In a negative technical sign for the market, the combined number of 52-week lows on the NYSE and the Nasdaq significantly outpaced the number of new highs.

Investors were also digesting Wednesday's policy statement from the Federal Reserve, which firmed expectations for an interest rate hike in December.

With its recent slide, the S&P 500's 2016 gain has been trimmed to 2.2 percent.

"To have a pullback is just natural and normal and healthy for the market," said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner for Meridian Equity Partners in New York.

"Considering the fact that we are talking about a highly publicized presidential election and we’re talking about raising interest rates in December, those are all factors that can lead to this type of activity," Corpina said.

The S&P healthcare sector ended down 1 percent as a report of a U.S. government pricing probe spooked shares of several drugmakers.

In earnings news, Fitbit shares sank 33.6 percent after the wearable fitness device maker's revenue forecast for the holiday shopping quarter fell well below estimates.

Roughly 7.4 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, above the 6.5 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.52-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.91-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 19 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 35 new highs and 208 new lows.

Source: www.reuters.com

Gawker settles with ex-pro wrestler Hulk Hogan for $31 million: court document

Shuttered irreverent news website Gawker Media LLC has reached a $31 million cash settlement with Hulk Hogan, the former professional wrestler who won a $140 million judgment against the site over a leaked sex tape.

Hogan's judgment forced Gawker, known for its sassy tone and gossipy posts, into bankruptcy in June. Its sister websites, including sports site Deadspin and women's site Jezebel, were acquired for $135 million by media company Univision Holdings Inc in a bankruptcy auction last summer.

"As with any negotiation for resolution, all parties have agreed it is time to move on," said Hogan's attorney, David Houston.

The settlement is subject to approval by a bankruptcy judge.

Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel said in May he helped fund the invasion of the privacy lawsuit filed by Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea. The site published an article in 2007 about Thiel's homosexuality.

"It is a great day for Terry Bollea and a great day for everyone's right to privacy," Thiel said.

Gawker founder Nick Denton, who filed for personal bankruptcy to protect himself from Hogan's judgment, has accused Thiel of using his wealth to carry out a vendetta against him and the site.

Denton, in a blog post published Wednesday, said an "all-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people," even though he was confident a court would have reduced or eliminated the judgment.

"There was no end in sight," Denton wrote.

The settlement also calls for Hogan to receive some proceeds from a possible future sale of Gawker.com, which was not included in the sale to Univision.

Source: www.reuters.com

Facebook reports better-than-expected rise in revenue

Facebook Inc (FB.O) reported a 55.8 percent rise in quarterly revenue, beating analysts' estimates, as its mobile-advertising sales soared.

Mobile ad revenue accounted for 84 percent of Facebook's total advertising revenue of $6.82 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 78 percent a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected total ad revenue of $6.71 billion, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

Facebook, whose shares were up 1 percent at $128.35 in after-hours trading, said about 1.79 billion people were using its site monthly as of Sept. 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier.

More than 90 percent of Facebook's users access the social network through mobile devices. Mobile daily average users rose 22 percent to 1.09 billion.

Total revenue rose to $7.01 billion from $4.50 billion, compared with the average estimate of $6.92 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"We're making progress putting video first across our apps and executing our 10 year technology roadmap," Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

With the company's photo-sharing app Instagram and messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger facing increasing competition from Snapchat, Facebook has been adding features to keep users hooked and attract advertisers.

The company said in September that Instagram's advertising base had more than doubled to more than 500,000 in six months. Instagram had about 500 million users as of June. (bit.ly/2f1SJfP)

Facebook took its attempts to boost user engagement to the workplace last month, launching a subscription-based enterprise version of its mobile app.

The company also launched Marketplace, a feature that allows people to buy and sell items locally, and has been focusing more on video to better compete with Google's (GOOGL.O) Youtube.

Facebook is expected to generate about $22 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2016, according to research firm eMarketer, up about 67 percent from 2015. Total ad revenue is forecast to rise to about $26 billion, an increase of about 52 percent.

However, there are questions about how long Facebook can continue to boost mobile ad revenue, given limits to the number of ads that Facebook can show each user.

Net income attributable to Facebook shareholders jumped to $2.37 billion, or 82 cents per share, in the quarter from $891 million, or 31 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2015.

Excluding items, the company earned $1.09 per share.

Up to Wednesday's close of $127.17, Facebook's shares had risen 21.5 percent since the start of the year.

Source: www.reuters.com

Wall St. lower as Fed sets stage for Dec rate hike

Wall Street stayed weak on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged but signaled it could hike in December, as equities remained pressured by uncertainty over the impending U.S. elections.

The S&P 500 was headed toward its seventh straight session of declines, its longest such streak in about five years.

The U.S. central bank said the economy had gained steam and job gains remained solid, and expressed more optimism that inflation was moving toward its 2 percent target.

It was the last Fed decision before next week's presidential election between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, a race that appears to be increasingly close.

"There’s election uncertainty out there as well as the Fed uncertainty," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial in Boston. "They didn’t say they weren’t going to tighten in December, but they didn’t say they would. They just kind of left it open-ended."

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 52.32 points, or 0.29 percent, to 17,984.78, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 11.29 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,100.43 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 40.60 points, or 0.79 percent, to 5,112.97.

While discounting a hike at this meeting, traders had before the statement placed the likelihood of a rate increase in December at nearly 75 percent, according to the CME Fedwatch website.

In September, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said that a move before year's end was likely as long as U.S. employment and inflation continued to strengthen.

“The Fed continues to inch even closer to a December rate hike as it states that its case for raising rates has strengthened," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

“The market may be wondering if there's enough evidence of a stronger economy to warrant a rate hike versus a belief that Chair Yellen needs to replenish her toolkit in the event of a weakening economic backdrop,” Krosby said.

Among sector laggards were utilities .SPLRCU, real estate .SPLRCR and telecommunications .SPLRCL companies, which are high dividend paying groups thought to be vulnerable in rising rate environments.

Energy .SPNY also lagged, down 1.2 percent, as oil prices fell.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 16 new highs and 134 new lows.

Source: www.reuters.com

Alibaba beats revenue expectations with strong e-commerce, media growth

Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reported a 55 percent rise in second-quarter revenue on Wednesday, beating analyst estimates on the back of core e-commerce sales and strong media and entertainment growth.

It was a second straight quarter of robust results for the company, suggesting it can still generate strong growth even as worries abound about the health of China's economy and its retail sector.

Alibaba's American Depository shares were up around 3 percent in pre-market trading ahead of the New York open.

China's biggest e-commerce firm is currently gearing up for its Nov. 11 Singles' Day shopping festival.

The event is a yardstick for both the company and the health of the Chinese retail sector, although the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is currently investigating the accounting methods and system Alibaba uses to report its Single's Day figures.

On Thursday, Alibaba said the investigation would not interfere with its performance on Singles' Day.

The company has also been looking to increase cross-border sales volumes as the Chinese market becomes increasingly saturated. It is has been expanding its footprint abroad, buying Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada Group SA for roughly $1 billion in May.

Alibaba generated revenue of 34.3 billion yuan ($5 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30, beating an average estimate of 33.9 billion yuan in a Thomson Reuters poll of 24 analysts.

Revenues at the company's core commerce business jumped 41 percent from the previous year to 28.49 billion yuan, dominated by sales within China.

The company's media and digital entertainment business, which was united under a new entity on Monday, saw revenues rise 302 percent from the same period a year earlier, due mostly to the consolidation of Youku Tudou.

Net income attributable to shareholders fell to 2.97 yuan per share, a 67 percent drop from 8.87 yuan a share in the same quarter a year ago.

Alibaba attributed that drop to a one-off revaluation gain of 18.6 billion yuan ($2.75 billion) a year earlier from its equity interest in Alibaba Health.

Non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net income was 9.25 billion yuan, up 36 percent from a year earlier.

($1 = 6.7600 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Source: www.reuters.com

U.S. election, rate uncertainty rattle Wall Street

Wall Street sold off on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 closing at the lowest level since July 7, amid growing concern over the impending U.S. presidential election and prospects for higher U.S. interest rates.

Stocks pared losses after falling steeply in early afternoon trading as the S&P 500 breached a key technical level.

The tumultuous presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump has appeared to tighten in the past week after news that the FBI was investigating more emails as part of a probe into Clinton's use of a private email system.

"There is concern over Trump being unexpected, because the market has really priced in a Clinton win and it hasn’t priced in a Trump win at all," said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.

The selloff in equities comes as the Federal Reserve holds its two-day policy meeting, with its statement due on Wednesday. While traders do not expect the central bank to raise interest rates just a week ahead of the presidential election, they are looking for signs confirming that the Fed is set to hike rates in December.

Real estate .SPLRCR, telecommunications .SPLRCL and utilities .SPLRCU stocks - sectors that tend to perform poorly in rising rate environments - sold off especially sharply.

"It’s really hitting the dividend-yielding names harder than anything else...," said Stephen Massocca, chief investment officer at Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco. "I don’t know if there is a new 'taper tantrum' sort of building here on concerns the Fed will act in December and the whole low interest rate environment is about to change."

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. October 31, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

"Taper tantrum" refers to the period in 2013 when markets were rattled by the prospect of the Fed gradually reducing its stimulus program.

The S&P 500 .SPX lost 14.43 points, or 0.68 percent, to 2,111.72, its biggest single-day percentage drop since Oct. 11.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 105.32 points, or 0.58 percent, to 18,037.1, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 35.56 points, or 0.69 percent, to 5,153.58.

The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX, a gauge of near-term investor anxiety, jumped to almost a two-month high.

Investors also pointed to the S&P 500 breaching an important technical level as reason for stocks steepening their slide in afternoon trading.

"It started with Trump and the election uncertainty, and with the decline you broke through some important levels," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, citing the 2,120 level on the S&P 500 that had been the lower boundary of a four-month trading range.

That level was tested in mid-September and mid-October, which underscored its importance as a technical support for the index.

With Tuesday's decline, the S&P 500 is up only 3.3 percent for the year.

Tronc (TRNC.O) dropped 12.4 percent after Gannett (GCI.N), the publisher of USA Today, abandoned plans to buy the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Gannett fell 2.3 percent.

U.S.-listed shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX.N)(VRX.TO) soared 33.7 percent after a report that the drugmaker is in talks to sell its stomach-drug business.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.21-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.29-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 30 new highs and 152 new lows.

Source: www.reuters.com

Dollar stands tall against yen ahead of U.S. GDP data

The dollar stood tall against the yen in Asian trading on Friday, on track for weekly gains against most rivals, as investors waited for U.S. third quarter growth data later in the day.

Positive growth numbers would reinforce expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve is gearing up to hike interest rates.

The dollar got an overnight lift from yields on U.S. Treasuries, which climbed to roughly five-month peaks tracking gains in German and British bond yields as investors speculated that the Bank of England and the European Central Bank would both hold off on further easing measures. [US/]

Strong growth data in Britain prompted investors to trim their bets that the Bank of England will cut interest rates at its policy meeting next week.

"The UK GDP was higher than expected, which boosted yields, and then higher U.S. yields in turn helped lift the dollar," said Kaneo Ogino, director at foreign exchange research firm Global-info Co in Tokyo.

The dollar notched a three-month high against the yen of 105.34 yen JPY= on Thursday. It was last down 0.1 percent on the day at 105.22 yen, up 1.4 percent for the week.

"105 was both a psychological and technical point, and it broke ahead of U.S. GDP later today," Ogino said. "Some people did not want to be short ahead of that, also with the Bank of Japan and Fed meetings next week, and U.S. nonfarm payrolls data one week from today."

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told parliament last week that he saw no need to ease at the bank's Oct. 31-Nov. 1 policy meeting, suggesting there will be no further monetary stimulus except in response to a big external shock.

Data released earlier on Friday showed Japan's core consumer prices fell 0.5 percent in September from a year earlier to mark the seventh straight month of declines, adding to a recent run of gloomy indicators.

The dollar also traded around a 7 1/2 year high against the Swedish crown after Sweden's Riksbank said the chances of another interest rate cut had increased and it was ready to expand its quantitative easing programme.

The greenback last stood at 9.0776 crowns SEK= after climbing to 9.0890 crowns on Thursday, its 

The euro EUR= edged up 0.1 percent to $1.0901, up 0.2 percent for the week.

Against a basket of six major currencies, the dollar edged up to 98.929 .DXY, on track to rise 0.2 percent for the week in which it touched a nearly nine-month high of 99.119.

Sterling was up 0.1 percent at $1.2169 GBP=D4, on track to end a choppy week down 0.5 percent.

Source: www.reuters.com

U.S. eyes long prison term for Wall Street scion's fraud

U.S. prosecutors on Thursday said Andrew Caspersen, the scion of a wealthy Wall Street family, should spend as long as 15-2/3 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to defrauding friends, family and a charity out of more than $38 million.

In papers filed with the federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said Caspersen, 40, who had worked at a unit of investment banker Paul Taubman's PJT Partners Inc, abused the trust of his victims through his "long-running, significant and elaborate" fraud.

Prosecutors said the son of late Wall Street financier Finn M.W. Caspersen ran a Ponzi-like scheme from November 2014 to March 2016 to defraud more than one dozen investors, claiming he would use their funds to make loans to private equity firms.

Instead, prosecutors said Andrew Caspersen used money he raised to trade in his own accounts and pay earlier investors.

Though lawyers for Caspersen have said a "pathological" gambling disorder and mental health issues fueled their client's crimes, prosecutors said the 151- to 188-month prison term recommended under federal guidelines was justified.

The sentencing request came six days after Caspersen's lawyers said the Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate's gambling addiction and efforts to rehabilitate himself were among the "powerful mitigating circumstances" justifying leniency.

Caspersen is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan on Nov. 4 by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, a prominent critic of federal sentencing guidelines.

The judge told Caspersen at his July 6 plea hearing that he would consider the guidelines when imposing punishment, but that they "border on the irrational, and I like a sentence to be rational."

Caspersen has agreed not to appeal any prison term longer than 15-2/3 years. He also agreed to forfeit more than $45 million, though his lawyer has said he cannot afford that sum.

The case is U.S. v. Caspersen, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00414.

Source: www.reuters.com