The Traderszone Network

Following the December interest rate hike, markets will be more focused on the pace, not timing, of tightening, argues Todd Elmer, currency strategist at Citi,

Asian shares struggled on Tuesday after a healthcare mega merger failed to impress Wall Street, while the dollar took a breather from its run to eight month highs on rising convictions that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan wavered in and out of positive territory, and was last down 0.2 percent.

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The billionaire revealed a 7.13 percent stake in Xerox in a securities filing on Monday, making him the second-largest shareholder of the 109-year-old company. Icahn, who recently took stakes in American International Group (AIG.N) and Freeport-McMoran Inc (FCX.N), said he would look at getting representation on Xerox’s board, as well as pursuing strategic alternatives. “We are aware that Carl Icahn has made an investment in the company,” Sean Collins, a Xerox spokesman said.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office is investigating the posting of false bids and offers in the foreign exchange options market for emerging market currencies, a person familiar with …

U.S. home resales fell in October as a persistent shortage of properties limited choice for potential buyers and pushed up prices, suggesting some softening in the pace of the housing market recovery after strong gains early this year. “The housing market is in decent shape but could be a lot better if people decided they were ready to move and listed their homes,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. The National Association of Realtors said on Mondayexisting home sales declined 3.4 percent to an annual rate of5.36 million units.

For the nine months ending on Sept. 30, the ValueAct Capital Master Fund was down 0.9 percent, ValueAact said in a letter to investors which was seen by Reuters on Monday. ValueAct also said it is launching a new offering for investors that would lock up their money for five years. This new investment tranche will allow ValueAct to draw down capital over a period of three years rather than receive it up front.

In a letter to Nader, the Fed chair repeated recent statements that the central bank should only gradually raise interest rates. “An overly aggressive increase in rates … would at undercut the economic expansion, necessitating a lasting return to low interest rates,” Yellen said in the letter. Nader published an open letter to Yellen on Oct. 30 that asked her to consider the “humble savers” with money in banks and money market accounts who were “frustrated by the Fed’s low rates and melodramatic debate about when to move higher”.