The Other Side of Life 24/7: Daily Investor Briefing: Wall St. rises on oil, M&A...

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Daily Investor Briefing: Wall St. rises on oil, M&A...

Click to View in Browser

02/5/2015

Reuters Election 2012 Daily round-up of the day's top news from the campaign trail, the White House and all the politics in between

Wall St. rises on oil, M&A

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Thursday as energy shares bounced with oil prices, while news Pfizer would buy Hospira in a massive deal also lifted boosted sentiment.

News Corp posts 1.9 percent rise in revenue

(Reuters) - News Corp , which publishes the New York Post, reported a 1.9 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by its book publishing and real estate businesses.

Twitter tops Wall Street revenue target, user growth slows

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc beat Wall Street's revenue target in the fourth quarter but the pace of its user growth weakened, adding pressure on embattled Chief Executive Dick Costolo.

Hiring business drives LinkedIn revenue beat

(Reuters) - Corporate networking site LinkedIn Corp reported a higher-than-expected 44 percent jump in quarterly revenue as more business used its services to assess candidates for employment.

U.S. trade deficit widens; weekly jobless claims up modestly

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit in December widened sharply to its highest level since 2012 as a stronger dollar appeared to suck in imports and weigh on exports, which could see the fourth-quarter economic growth estimate revised lower.

Pfizer to buy Hospira for $15 billion to bolster hospital products

(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said it would buy Hospira Inc for about $15 billion to boost its portfolio of generic injectable drugs and copies of biotech medicines.

Greek, German ministers clash as ECB snub hits Athens' banks

ATHENS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Greece's new leftist finance minister clashed openly with his powerful German counterpart on Thursday as Athens' borrowing costs leapt and bank shares plunged following the European Central Bank's decision to stop funding the country's lenders.

Sprint's revenue beats estimates as price cuts draw subscribers

(Reuters) - Sprint Corp's quarterly revenue fell less than expected as the U.S. mobile provider attracted more subscribers by cutting prices and offering promotions, driving its shares up more than 6 percent on Thursday.

Oil up over 4 percent on Libya raid, China easing; volatility seen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices closed up more than 4 percent on Thursday as rising violence in producer Libya and an expected boost in oil demand from China's central bank easing helped the market rebound from a sharp rout in the previous session.

For blue-collar America, staffing firms see meager wage gains

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's vast staffing industry knows it's time to jack up wages when it becomes difficult to find enough workers. That isn't happening yet for many blue-collar jobs, indicating there's still slack in the labor force, top firms say.