The Traderszone Network

An index of Asian shares gained on Thursday while the dollar eased slightly after the Federal Reserve signaled that interest rates would rise more slowly than markets had expected. After a closely-watched two-day meeting, the Fed said the economy was likely strong enough to support an interest rate increase by the end of the year. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed about 0.3 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) skidded 0.8 percent to a one-week low as the yen gained against the dollar.

LONDON/MILAN/DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors (GM.N) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) (FCHA.MI) have turned to investment banks for help to deal with a stand-off as FCA seeks to force a merger with its Detroit-based rival, according to sources familiar with the matter. GM is being advised by Goldman Sachs (GS.N), while FCA is working with UBS (UBSG.VX) on the matter, several sources said, with one adding that Morgan Stanley (MS.N) was also working with GM.

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The document, an official draft of a notice to be published in the Federal Register, contains the most strongly worded language to date by regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and expands from 20 to 22 the number of recalls that NHTSA intends to scrutinize at a public hearing on July 2. NHTSA and FCA did not respond to inquiries seeking comment. By April 30, 2015, NHTSA said FCA had completed repairs on only 320,000 of the vehicles, or 21 percent.

Oil prices slipped on Thursday after U.S. government data showed gasoline stocks and distillate inventories rose last week, although the falls were checked by continuing Middle East geopolitical tensions and a weaker U.S. dollar. U.S. July crude (CLc1) lost 42 cents to $59.50 a barrel as of 0219 ET after falling 5 cents in the previous session. Data from the U.S.

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Lee was one of the first bankers to break up big corporate loans into small pieces to sell to other banks, an innovation that helped fuel the leveraged buyout boom of the 1980s. Lee started instead focusing on winning deals of all kinds —advising companies on buying rivals and selling themselves, and on raising money.

Shares of Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Salesforce.com (CRM.N), two of Oracle’s closest rivals, were close to unchanged. “This was an ugly print and speaks to the headwinds Oracle is seeing in the field as their legacy database business is seeing slowing growth,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. The 38-year-old company has had some success with the cloud model, but is not moving fast enough to make up for declines in its traditional software sales.

Bank repossessions rose again last month, driving overall U.S. foreclosure activity to a 19-month high on an annual basis, industry firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday. A total of 126,868 homes across the country were at some point in the foreclosure process in May, up 1 percent from April and up 16 percent from the same time last year, RealtyTrac said. Foreclosure activity includes foreclosure notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.