The Traderszone Network

General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra’s strategy of rebuilding the Cadillac brand has run into twin roadblocks: the carmaker can’t persuade enough American sedan buyers to switch from foreign competitors such as BMW or Mercedes, and it can’t make enough of its Escalade SUVs to satisfy domestic demand. By contrast, its dealers are offering discounts of thousands of dollars on the ATS sedan, intended to compete with the BMW 3 series, and on the CTS sedan, meant to rival the Mercedes E-class.

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In the final stages of a long-running investigation into corruption in the world’s largest financial market, federal prosecutors have recently informed Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup that they must enter guilty pleas to settle the cases, the newspaper reported. The pleas would be likely to carry a symbolic stigma, if limited actual fallout, in handing felony convictions to some of the world’s biggest banks, the newspaper said. Representatives of Citigroup, JP Morgan, RBS and Barclays did not respond to emails seeking comment on the report.

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Brent fell below $58 a barrel on Tuesday after China’s consumer inflation came in at a five-year low for January, raising worries about oil demand in the world’s second-largest economy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) also said the United States will remain the world’s top source of oil supply growth up to 2020, defying expectations of a dramatic slowdown in shale output and keeping fears of a continuing glut at the forefront. Brent crude slipped 64 cents to $57.70 by 0730 GMT (2:30 a.m. EST), ending a three-day rally.

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Microsoft and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd have settled a contract dispute over patent royalties, though terms of the settlement are confidential, Microsoft said in a statement on Monday. Microsoft sued Samsung last year in a federal court in New York, accusing Samsung of breaching a collaboration agreement by initially refusing to make royalty payments after the U.S. company announced its intention to acquire Nokia’s handset business in September 2013. The lawsuit claimed Samsung still owed $6.9 million in interest on more than $1 billion in patent royalties it delayed paying.

China’s Dalian Wanda Group Co signed a 1.05 billion euros ($1.2 billion) deal to buy Swiss sports marketing firm Infront Sports & Media AG, and said it plans to acquire more overseas companies this year to deepen its push into sports and entertainment. The acquisition will see Wanda Group, China’s largest property developer which also controls the country’s largest cinema chain, take a 68.2 percent stake in Infront, which focuses on distributing media rights for broadcasting sports events including the soccer World Cup and several Olympic winter sports.

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ATHENS/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Greece and its euro zone partners engaged in brinkmanship on Monday, with leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisting his country would not extend its reform-linked bailout and Germany saying it would get no more money without such a program. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned Greeks not to expect the euro zone to bow to Tsipras’ demands in a growing confrontation which spooked financial markets and prompted U.S. and Canadian pleas for calm and compromise.

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A Chinese labor center’s sudden closure fuels concerns about industrial relations in the country, reports The Wall Street Journal.
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