Business Today: Strong U.S. job, wage gains open door to mid-year rate hike

		Click to View in Browser 02/6/2015 Strong U.S. job, wage gains open door to mid-year rate hike WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. job growth rose solidly in January and wages rebounded strongly, a show of underlying strength in the economy that puts a mid-year interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve back on the table. Futures little changed ahead of payrolls report NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Friday ahead of the monthly payrolls report, with the S&P 500 on track for its best week out of seven as investors digested the latest batch of earnings. Oil rally holds, promising second weekly gain LONDON (Reuters) - Brent crude oil traded almost $2 higher on Friday, on track for its second weekly increase, as fighting in Libya and stronger economic signals from the United States helped futures rebound from near-six-year lows. Japan automakers hit production snags as U.S. port dispute drags on TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese automakers are being forced to ship some car parts to U.S. plants by expensive air cargo and tweak production processes as a protracted labor dispute at U.S. West Coast ports shows no signs of letting up. EBay restates quarterly profit to reflect lower income tax (Reuters) - EBay Inc raised its reported fourth-quarter net income by $87 million to reflect a reduction in income tax expense. Low oil prices have yet to rattle North Dakota small businesses WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) - Even as plunging crude oil prices fuel anxiety in North Dakota, small business owners in the No. 2 U.S. oil producing state say they are confident that demand for their products and services will remain strong enough to keep things humming. Exclusive: Recording shows how UBS drove reluctant brokers to sell high-risk Puerto Rico funds (Reuters) - In April 2011, two years before their prices sank, a slew of bond funds that were being sold by UBS's Puerto Rico arm appeared to its brokers to be such risky investments that they balked at promoting them to their clients. Mercedes has record January car sales as core markets jump BERLIN (Reuters) - German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz said on Friday sales jumped 14 percent in January to a record 125,865 models, powered by double-digit gains in Europe, China and the United States. Greece isolated in euro zone, ministers to meet Feb. 11 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greece's new government was isolated at its first meeting with senior euro zone officials but will have a chance to put forward its plans at a special meeting of finance ministers of the currency bloc next week, EU officials said on Friday. Rise in Swiss forex reserves suggests SNB still curbing franc ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high in January, data showed, suggesting its central bank is still actively curbing the franc with interventions one researcher estimated at close to 2 billion francs per day. Related Video Robots to dominate Chinese labor Twitter user growth slows; Stocks positive for 2015 Economic News A daily digest of breaking business news, coverage of the US economy, major corporate news and the financial markets. Register Today   The latest Reuters articles on M&A, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds and regulatory updates delivered to your inbox each day. Register Today   » MORE NEWSLETTERS - 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA © Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters Ensure delivery of Reuters Newsmails, add mail@nl.reuters.com to your address book. Details Subscribe to other Reuters newsletters. Unsubscribe from this newsletter. Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook Forward to a friend