BUSINESS NEWS APRIL 7TH, 2016
The Dow dropped 174 points on Thursday, the index's worst slump since February 23. The S&P 500 fell 1.3% and returned to negative territory on the year, while the Nasdaq lost 1.5%. Banks helped put the markets in a bad mood, with Citigroup and Goldman Sachs slumping as much as 4% on concerns about profits being squeezed by extremely low interest rates.Up until earlier this week the stock market had been in the midst of a pretty remarkable comeback. Stocks started the year on a terrible note as cheap oil and recession fears caused investors to freak out. But now the Dow is on track for its worst week in two months."The U.S. market was trading in a fantasyland on its own while markets around it were selling off pretty harshly. That was unsustainable," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group.
A pair of the U.S. banking industry’s biggest Senate critics demanded a Treasury Department investigation into offshore banking revelations contained in leaked documents from a Panama-based law firm. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday asking the department to investigate whether U.S. banks, companies and individuals had ties to Mossack Fonseca, the law firm whose leaked records have already prompted the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister and reverberated around the globe.
MOST POWERFUL BUSINESSWOMAN IN ASIA: NITA AMBANI
Reliance Foundation Chairperson Nita Ambani has been named the most powerful businesswoman in Asia by Forbes, leading a list of 50 women leaders from the region that includes eight from India. SBI Chairman and Managing Director Arundhati Bhattacharya has been ranked second on the 2016 'Asia's 50 Power Businesswomen' list that features trailblazing women from China, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand. Describing her as the "first lady of Indian business", Forbes said Ms Ambani, 52, is a "power near the throne" and makes her debut on the list because of her rising profile in Reliance Industries, led by her husband and India's richest man Mukesh Ambani.
GOVT WRONGLY IGNORED COSTS TO METLIFE OF THREAT TAG
A federal judge says the government acted unreasonably by ignoring the costs to MetLife of being targeted for stricter supervision as a potential threat to the financial system. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer says she decided to strike the government’s labeling of MetLife because it was “arbitrary and capricious.” The federal regulators who make up the Financial Stability Oversight Council failed to consider possible financial harm to the insurance giant from the action, backtracking on their own policy, Collyer wrote. Her opinion, which had been kept under seal, was made public Thursday.