The Traderszone Network

Some long-term investors are betting the market’s nasty shakeout has probably past.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are not as divided as it may appear and are generally operating under the same framework for determining when to raise interest rates, one Fed official said on Thursday, while another said the differences of opinion reflect the countervailing economic data. Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other officials have said they expect a rate hike will be needed by the end of this year, but two Fed governors this week urged caution.

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U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest drop in eight months in September as the cost of gasoline fell, but a steady pick-up in the prices of other goods and services suggested inflation was poised to rise. The very low level of layoffs and gradually firming underlying inflation could keep the door open to an interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve this year. “Today’s reports strengthen our view that the U.S. economy remains on the right track and should help to bolster the Fed’s confidence that it is getting ever closer to meeting both of its mandates.

The U.S. budget deficit narrowed to $439 billion in fiscal 2015, the lowest level since 2008, as the economy continued to recover from the financial crisis and revenue growth outpaced a rise in spending, the Treasury Department said on Thursday. The 2015 deficit fell to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, the lowest since 2007 and less than the average of the last 40 years.

Wall Street bankers and traders are likely to get smaller bonuses for 2015 as trading revenue plunges. Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that it set aside 16 percent less money for compensation in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2014. The fourth quarter, when banks determine how much they will pay for bonuses, may bring little relief for employees.

U.S.-listed shares of Valeant, which said it would cooperate with the investigations, closed down 4.7 percent at $168.87. The Canadian company, which was rapped by Democratic lawmakers in late September over those price increases, said late Wednesday it was reviewing subpoenas from the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the District of Massachusetts and the Southern District of New York. Valeant tripled the price of its drug Isuprel and raised the price six-fold for another heart drug, Nitropress, after buying them in February.

HAMBURG/BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) can bounce back from the scandal over its rigging of diesel emissions tests in two to three years, its new CEO predicted on Thursday, as the carmaker outlined plans to recall 8.5 million affected vehicles in the European Union. Matthias Mueller, who took the helm last month after Europe’s biggest automaker admitted to cheating U.S. diesel emissions tests, said the German company needed to give more power to its brands and regional operations while working to get to the bottom of the biggest business scandal in its history.

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