Author: Deep

As recession fears mount in the U.S., Fed Chair Janet Yellen conceded there’s a “chance” of a downturn ahead. She also said the central bank is studying whether negative interest rates would help should conditions worsen. “There is always some chance of recession in any year,” she said. “But the evidence suggests that expansions don’t die of old age.” Asked by Republican Sen. Bob Corker whether the monetary policy-making Federal Open Market Committee would consider going to negative interest rates, which would entail charging banks to store reserves at the Fed, Yellen left the door open. She repeated a statement…

Goodbye Safe Harbor, hello Privacy Shield: that’s the name given by European Union and U.S. negotiators to the deal they struck on Tuesday enabling legal transfers of personal data between the two regions. The EU-US Privacy Shield will “protect the fundamental rights of Europeans where their data is transferred to the United States and ensure legal certainty for businesses,” the European Commission said in a press release announcing the agreement. Reactions were mixed, however, with some arguing the new framework fails to protect the privacy of European citizens. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was among the critics. Designed to replace the…

(Editor’s note: With stocks hovering at new lows for 2016 Thursday, we asked Chris Kimble, founder and CEO of Kimble Charting Solutions for his technical analysis of the market.) Charts say buy gold, bet against stocks [“source -pcworld”]

With bond yields falling across the globe, investors may be tempted to seek yield in high-dividend stocks. The problem? While fixed income investors who hold a bond until maturity will get their payments unless the issuing company or government defaults, equity investors are in a very different boat. A company may simply choose to reduce its dividend or to stop paying one completely. Recently, investors in Anadarko and ConocoPhillips were painfully reminded of that lesson. Other companies that have recently cut their dividends include Noble Energy and Kinder Morgan; Chesapeake Energy suspended the dividend on its preferred shares, and Marathon…

Xiaomi really wants to break into the U.S. mobile market. It would just like to do so on its own terms. So the phone maker wasn’t pleased when the carrier US Mobile began selling some of its phones at the carrier’s own online store. US Mobile likely struck a deal with a third-party distributor to acquire the inventory. But that didn’t sit well with Xiaomi, who through a spokesperson told the International Business Times that the phone maker has “no plans” to sell its devices through carriers or other retailers. After Xiaomi called US Mobile to the carpet, the carrier since backed…

The best-performing hedge fund in 2015 came from an unusual place: London. That’s according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha’s rankings of last year’s best performing firms released Thursday. The analysis put Marshall Wace, a relatively little-known $22 billion firm in which KKR took a 24.9 percent stake last summer. Another U.K.-based fund took second place. The Children’s Investment Fund was “rewarded for several years of hard work revamping its relationship with investors following a year of bad performance and a rash of redemptions,” according to the publication’s analysis. Rounding out the top five receiving “A” grades were Boston-based Adage Capital Management,…

Sorry, Peyton. Both Electronic Arts’ Madden simulation as well as Microsoft’s Bing have picked the Carolina Panthers to top the Denver Broncos this Sunday in the Super Bowl. During the past 12 Super Bowls, Madden has picked the correct winner 9 times. This year, Madden NFL 16 says that the Panthers will top the Broncos, 24-20. Bing has also predicted that the Panthers will win, but didn’t forecast a final score. While Microsoft uses a variety of data to arrive at its final predictions, including betting lines, historical matchups. and social signals, EA attempts to simulate the game with actual players. That means that EA supplied…

Where do you hide during the relentless sell-off in stocks this year? CNBC Pro reached out to the “Halftime Report” traders to find out some of the ways investors can play defense during these turbulent times. Through Thursday, it’s the worst start to a year on record with the S&P 500 down 11 percent in 28 trading days, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Under this kind of selling pressure there are not many places to hide. Here are the traders’ thoughts: [“source -pcworld”]

The potential for the power cords on some Microsoft Surface Pro tablets to cause fire and electric shock has led to a recall. The AC power cords being recalled were sold with the Microsoft Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3 computers before March 15, 2015, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said on its Web site. The recall also covers the power supply units with AC power cords sold as accessories before March 15, 2015. Close to 2.25 million AC power cords in the U.S. are being recalled by Microsoft. The company will issue a free replacement. The…

Shares of Twitter plunged more than 4 percent on Thursday, one day after the company reported a sequential drop in user numbers last quarter. But Adam Bain, Twitter’s chief operating officer, on Thursday sought to highlight the company’s product innovation, revenue growth and business units. In addition to reporting earnings on Wednesday, Twitter introduced an option that allows users to see tweets by relevance, as opposed to the platform’s standard display in reverse chronological order. Reports ahead of the announcement that Twitter would move in that direction set off a tweet storm of criticism this past weekend, but Bain said…