The Traderszone Network

A year and a half ago, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) had applied for just eight patents related to auto batteries. Recently, it has hired a bevy of engineers, just one of whom had already filed for 17 in his former career, according to a Thomson Reuters analysis. The recent spate of hires and patent filings reviewed by Reuters shows that Apple is fast building its industrial lithium-ion battery capabilities, adding to evidence the iPhone maker may be developing a car.

read more

United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams, whose union indirectly controls the largest single block of General Motors Co (GM.N) shares, told Reuters an investor group’s proposal that GM buy back $8 billion of its stock is premature, and the amount too high for the company’s long-term health. An investment firm controlled by Harry Wilson, a former member of the U.S. government task force that restructured GM through bankruptcy in 2009, together with four other hedge funds, is urging it to return part of its roughly $25 billion cash trove to shareholders.

read more

McDonald’s and its roughly 3,000 U.S. franchisees are fighting to break a long streak of lackluster sales that has made it virtually impossible to boost prices on its famous hamburgers and french fries to cover higher labor costs. McDonald’s declined comment. McDonald’s Corp says it can increase pay only in the small number of restaurants it operates. Wal-Mart on Thursday said it would increase entry-level pay to $9 an hour, a move it estimated would cost $1 billion and affect some 500,000 employees.

Some of the companies caught up in a massive corruption scandal at state-run oil firm Petrobras are quietly pressing Brazil’s government and judiciary to strike a “grand bargain” to minimize the legal fallout, five sources with knowledge of the talks say. The companies, which prosecutors suspect of paying out billions of dollars in bribes through service contracts they had with Petrobras, are worried the investigation is too far-reaching and could drag on for years, heavily damaging their bottom lines and Brazil’s fragile economy.

read more

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Friday slapped Takata Corp with a $14,000 per-day fine for failing to fully cooperate with a probe of its faulty air bags and revealed that a fraction of the 17 million cars recalled because of the problems have been repaired. The Japanese parts supplier is still struggling to come to terms with the massive recall and investigation related to the air bags, which have been prone to rupture unexpectedly, spraying shrapnel into vehicle occupants. Takata failed to comply with two orders U.S.

read more

We always talk about saving in a 401(k), mostly because defined benefit pension plans are something of a relic for most people. But what if our best option for building retirement savings is actually kind of bad for us?

read more

ChartLab Pro and YChart have devised different ways to evaluate funds. One’s for traders and the other’s for long-term investors. Plus, what’s new at Blooom.