The Traderszone Network

read more

General Motors Co should pay for concealing an ignition switch defect from its customers that has been linked to nearly 400 injuries and deaths, a lawyer for an Oklahoma man injured in a car crash told a Manhattan jury on Tuesday. “This case is not just about an accident that occurred in Oklahoma in 2014,” said Robert Hilliard, who is representing plaintiff Robert Scheuer. Key GM employees knew about the problem for more than 10 years, said Hilliard, adding that evidence would show the automaker’s “cover-up” of a dangerous safety flaw.

MetLife is considering various approaches for splitting off the retail business, including an initial public offering, a spinoff or a sale. The business sells life insurance and other financial products across the United States, generating at least one fifth of MetLife earnings. MetLife is currently in a legal tangle over federal regulators designating it a “systemically important financial institution,” or SIFI, in 2014.

The research chiefs of betrothed drugmakers Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Allergan (AGN.N) say the proposed combination of their experimental drugs deserves more credit, including potential blockbuster treatments for schizophrenia and depression. Pfizer agreed in November to buy Botox-maker Allergan for $160 billion in a transaction meant to slash Pfizer’s tax rate and achieve other cost savings. The tax-inversion deal would shift Pfizer’s headquarters to Dublin and is slated to close in the second half of 2016.

Alphabet Inc’s Google wants to form more partnerships with established automakers and suppliers this year to accelerate its work on self-driving cars, the head of the Google project said on Tuesday. John Krafcik, the newly hired president of the Google self-driving car project, did not mention any automakers by name. Google officials have said previously the internet search company does not want to build vehicles, but instead supply the software and mapping to allow a car to safely navigate busy streets and highways.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said on Tuesday that the economies of the United States and China are linked less than recent volatility in U.S. equity markets seem to imply. “I think our real economies are linked less than you would think from the extent to which our equity markets seem to have moved in parallel with movements in their exchange rate and their equity markets,” Lacker said following remarks to a business group in Columbia, South Carolina.

The state said VW’s proposed fix was “incomplete, substantially deficient and falls far short of meeting the legal requirements.” It also said the proposal could not be implemented soon enough. California sent VW a confidential letter offering a detailed explanation of why its proposed solution, or fix, does not work. The automaker said in a statement that it is in talks to find a solution, and said the rejection addresses the initial recall plans submitted to California in December.