As It Happens

Banks, looked to as a bright spot for the upcoming earnings season, might not live up to expectations, according to an analysis from Goldman Sachs.

European Union antitrust regulators have asked Luxembourg for information on its tax rulings for McDonald's after labor unions accused the U.S. fast food chain of avoiding taxes, a person involved in the issue said on Tuesday. The move, which neither the EU nor Luxembourg would immediately confirm, falls well short of the proceedings the EU has instigated against other U.S. multinationals in Luxembourg and elsewhere, where Brussels believes unfairly low taxation may have distorted competition. Unions from the United States and Europe and British-based charity War on Want last month urged the European Commission to investigate what they said involved about 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) in tax between 2009 and 2013. "The Commission has sent a letter to Luxembourg asking them to clarify the facts," the source told Reuters.

Investors should sell any equities bought over the past year, hold the proceeds as cash and take a holiday from the market for six months, according to Steen Jakobsen, Saxo Bank A/S’s chief economist.

More than 13,000 Detroit-area property owners have entered into payment plans hoping to avoid losing their homes to tax foreclosure, but another 16,000 living in their homes have yet to take advantage ...

"This is a very dangerous development," with the tail wagging the dog, former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh tells CNBC.

U.S. stocks fell sharply Tuesday on the heels of a big rally in the last session. Still, the broad S&P 500 capped the quarter with a slight advance.

Web hosting company GoDaddy Inc has priced its initial public offering at $20 per share, above its previously indicated $17 to $19 per share range, valuing it at around $4.5 billion, including debt, according to underwriting sources. At this price, the IPO would raise $440 million. A GoDaddy spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shares in GoDaddy are expected to start trading on Wednesday and list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "GDDY." Other tech IPOs this year include online data storage provider Box Inc, whose shares have dropped since the company's market debut in January.

Coal prices have dropped 33% over the past four years to levels that have made most mining companies across the Appalachia mountain region unprofitable.

The disaster at budget airline Germanwings which killed 150 people will not harm the image of low-cost air travel in Europe, easyJet (EZJ.L) chief executive Carolyn McCall said on Tuesday. Germanwings, founded in 2002 as a budget carrier, was acquired by full-service airline Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) in 2009, and the parent company has expanded it into its main short-haul operator to battle competition from low-cost carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair (RYA.I). McCall, in Amsterdam to open a new base for the airline, said the Germanwings crash was a matter for all airlines. "This is not a budget airline issue.

Brent crude oil dropped towards $55 a barrel on Tuesday as Iran and six world powers entered a final day of talks over a nuclear deal that could see the energy-rich country increase oil exports to world markets. With a self-imposed deadline set for the end of the day, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China ramped up the pace of negotiations with Iran in Switzerland over an outline deal on Tehran's nuclear programme. Disagreements on enrichment research and the pace of lifting sanctions remained as hurdles that could scupper a deal to end a 12-year standoff between Iran and the West. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow he believed the talks had a good chance of success.

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U.S. home price increases continued to rise at a steady pace in January, as the housing market deals with affordability problems and few properties listed for sale. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city ...

U.S. stocks retreated on Tuesday from the previous session's rally, while the euro was on track for its biggest quarterly fall as worries about Greece kept the currency under pressure.

The Armonk, New York-based technology company said its services will be based remotely in the cloud, and offer companies ways to make use of the new and multiplying sources of data such as building sensors, smartphones and home appliances to enhance their own products. For its first major partnership, IBM said a unit of the Weather Co will move its weather data services onto IBM's cloud, so that customers can use the data in tandem with IBM's analytics tools. As a result, IBM is hoping that companies will be able to combine live weather forecasting with a range of business data, so companies can quickly adapt to customer buying patterns or supply chain issues connected to the weather. For example, insurance companies could send messages to policyholders in certain areas when hailstorms are approaching and tell them safe places to park, saving money all round.

At least six new hedge funds are on track to start with at least $1 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, after eight firms started with a 10-figure sum last year. Frustrated with the mediocre performance of some of the industry’s old guard, investors hoping for higher returns are writing checks to a handful of new funds, including one run by Brevan Howard Asset Management veteran Chris Rokos and another headed by ex-Elliott Management Corp. star Didric Cederholm. “Most hedge funds aren’t any good, but if you can identify talent early, when they are hungry, you have the potential to generate outsized performance,” said Adam Blitz, chief investment officer at Evanston Capital Management, which invests $5.4 billion in these private partnerships.

Two former federal agents are accused of using their positions and savvy computer skills to siphon more than $1 million in digital currency from the illegal black market Silk Road website while they and ...

U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly rebounded strongly in March, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday. The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes ...

The Federal Reserve will have a "strong" case to hike U.S. interest rates in June, a hawkish Fed official said on Tuesday, dismissing recently weak economic data as transitory and perhaps due to unseasonable weather. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, who has long called for a prompt tightening of monetary policy, said consumer spending, the labor market and other economic conditions have improved significantly over the last year. A voting member this year on Fed policy who made many familiar arguments, Lacker predicted more improvement in the labor market and wages in the months ahead, and 2.0 to 2.5 percent GDP growth for the year. "Given what we know today, a strong case can be made that the federal funds rate should be higher than it is now," Lacker said in prepared remarks to the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce.

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The deal will give Richemont a 50 percent stake in Yoox, which will be renamed Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, the Geneva-based owner of the Cartier and Chloe brands said in a statement Tuesday. Yoox’s founder, Federico Marchetti, will be chief executive officer, while Net-A-Porter founder Natalie Massenet will be chairman.