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☆ Argentine tattooists swamped by demand for Messi tributes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Magali Druscovich | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Fermin Robilotte, 27, gets a tattoo of Argentina's soccer star Lionel Messi, after Argentina's soccer national team won FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 21, 2022. After a night of revelry, many flocked to the city's tattoo parlors to commission designs depicting Messi, the team's star player who led Argentina to a third World Cup win. The day after Argentina beat France on penalties in a nail-biting final, Arguello said the phone in his studio had been ringing non-stop with questions about tattoos of Messi, the World Cup and Argentina flags. De Winter is preparing a large-scale design of the entire "Scaloneta", as the Lionel Scaloni-coached national team is known. Reporting by Magali Druscovich; Writing by Maximiliano Heath and Sarah Morland; Editing by Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] Drivers wait in line to get gasoline amid repeated outages at refineries operated by state oil company PDVSA and a lack of imports of diesel and gasoline, in Maracay, Venezuela, December 9, 2022. In 2020 and again in 2021, drivers had to line up for days to get gasoline and farmers halted work because of insufficient diesel. Right after midnight, the station ran out of gasoline," said Ramon Blanco, a 32-year-old who filled up the next day at another station. But lines also have reappeared in Falcon state, home of PDVSA's largest oil refineries. "We are trying our best because we are under pressure to restart some plants for producing gasoline," said a worker from Amuay.

☆ Hasbro defends Magic: The Gathering strategy, says 'there is no evidence' cards are overprinted
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Photographer: Mark Abramson/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesHasbro is defending its strategy for its popular Magic: The Gathering game. Williams said the company typically spreads out its tentpole releases of Magic: The Gathering card sets in two-month intervals. She said Hasbro prints and reprints cards based on demand both during presales and once the product has been released. But Cocks said that he doesn't think raising prices on Magic cards is the answer to expanding the business over the long term. Hasbro's most engaged Magic players are those who play both online and in-person at local game shops or with friends.

☆ Samsung, LG plan multi-billion-dollar additional investment in Vietnam
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NO ARCHIVES/File PhotoHANOI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - South Korean electronics giants Samsung (005930.KS) and LG (066570.KS) plan to pour billions of dollars of additional investment into Vietnam, state media reports and the Vietnamese government said on Tuesday. The announcement comes after Samsung cut smartphone production in Vietnam twice this year in response to weaker global demand. Samsung Electronics, the largest single foreign investor in Vietnam, will invest $2 billion more in the Southeast Asian country, raising its total to $20 billion, Vietnamese state media said. The additional investment will further firm up Vietnam as Samsung's key production site, reported Vietnam News Agency, following a meeting on Tuesday in Seoul between Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the company's chief executive Han Jong-hee. The state media report and the government statement did not provide further details on the investment by the two companies.

NO ARCHIVESBEIJING, Dec 1 (Reuters) - China is softening its tone on the severity of COVID-19 and easing some coronavirus restrictions even as its daily case toll hovers near records, after anger over the world's toughest curbs morphed into protests across the country. Health experts warn of widespread illness and death if COVID is let loose before vaccination is ramped up. read moreWhile the recent change in tone over COVID appears to respond to the public discontent with the strictness of the measures, authorities are in parallel seeking out those who were present at the demonstrations. China Dissent Monitor, run by U.S. government-funded Freedom House, estimated at least 27 demonstrations took place across China from Saturday to Monday. Australia's ASPI think tank estimated 43 protests in 22 cities.

☆ U.S. existing home sales plunge; tight inventory keeps prices rising
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Lucia Mutikani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"The combination of rising house prices and mortgage rates have sent housing affordability plummeting," said Daniel Vielhaber, an economist at Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate breached 7% in October for the first time since 2002, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac. "A deteriorating housing market, nagging inflation and an aggressive Fed puts the economy on unsure footing for 2023." Even as demand weakens, housing supply remains tight, limiting the slowdown in house price inflation. The median existing house price increased 6.6% from a year earlier to $379,100 in October.

☆ U.S. existing home sales dive; tight supply keeps prices elevated
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Lucia Mutikani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Higher mortgage rates and still-elevated prices remain key constraints for home sales," said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in White Plains, New York. Existing home sales dropped 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million units last month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home sales would tumble to a rate of 4.38 million units. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate breached 7% in October for the first time since 2002, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac. At October's sales pace, it would take 3.3 months to exhaust the current inventory of existing homes, up from 2.4 months a year ago.

☆ Tennessee AG investigating Ticketmaster after Taylor Swift ticket chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Chantal Da Silva Is A Breaking News Editor For Nbc News Digital Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

"Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about consumer complaints related to @Ticketmaster. He and his Consumer Protection team will use every available tool to ensure that no consumer protection laws were violated," Skrmetti's office said in a tweet Wednesday. “If it’s a consumer protection violation and we can find exactly where the problems are, we can get a court order that makes the company do better. The attorney general said he also had concerns about Ticketmaster profiting twice off ticket sales, with the website also facilitating ticket resales. “There is an incentive there for the company to profit twice off the sale of these ticket,” he said, according to WSMV.

☆ Australians rescued from rooftops as torrential rain ravages rural towns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Renju Jose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Emergency crews deployed more than a dozen helicopters to rescue trapped people from rooftops in the worst-hit towns in New South Wales (NSW) state, officials said. More than 200 flood rescue operations were conducted in the state over the past 24 hours to Tuesday morning, while 24 emergency warnings remained. A damaged road is seen following flooding in the town of Canowindra, in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, November 15, 2022. Heavy rain smashed parts of southwest New South Wales and northeast Victoria over the weekend. Flooded highways near several inland towns are hampering rescue operations as emergency services said they were undertaking what would be the biggest flood rescue operations in New South Wales' history.

☆ U.S., Allies Set Parameters for Price Cap on Russian Oil
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Andrew Duehren | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Oil refineries such as this one in Moscow are a key cog in the Russian economy. WASHINGTON—The U.S. and its allies have reached agreement on which sales of Russian oil will be subject to a price cap, racing to flesh out the details of the major new sanctions program before it begins on Dec. 5. Each load of seaborne Russian oil will only be subject to the price cap when it is first sold to a buyer on land, the U.S. and its allies have determined, meaning resales of the same oil won’t have to fall under the cap, according to people familiar with the matter.

☆ U.S. existing home sales slide again in September; jobless claims fall
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Dan Burns | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

SELLERS' MARKET NO MOREExisting home sales fell 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.71 million units last month, the NAR said. Outside of the short-lived plunge during the spring of 2020, when the economy was reeling from the first wave of COVID-19, this was the lowest sales level since September 2012. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales would decrease to a rate of 4.70 million units. As a result, he expects the sales rate to decline further in the months ahead, perhaps to as low as 4.5 million annually, which would be roughly 4% to 5% lower than the current sales pace. "We don't look for claims to fall much below current levels, but we don't look for a significant rise in claims or unemployment either until we enter a recession in 2023."

☆ U.S. existing home sales slide again in September
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 20 (Reuters) - U.S. existing home sales dropped for an eighth straight month in September as surging mortgage rates and still-elevated selling prices push affordability beyond the reach of many prospective buyers. Existing home sales fell 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.71 million units last month, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales would decrease to a rate of 4.70 million units. On a regional basis, sales fell in the Northeast, Midwest and South and were unchanged in the West. At September's sales pace, it would take 3.2 months to exhaust the current inventory of existing homes, up from 2.4 months a year ago.

☆ U.S. mortgage interest rates rise to highest level since 2006
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 12 (Reuters) - The average interest rate on the most popular U.S. home loan rose to its highest level since 2006 as the housing sector continued to bear the brunt of tightening financial conditions, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) showed on Wednesday. Mortgage rates have more than doubled since the beginning of the year as the Federal Reserve pursues an aggressive path of interest rate hikes to bring down stubbornly high inflation. The yield on the 10-year note acts as a benchmark for mortgage rates. Homebuilding and sales have weakened significantly in recent months, with home resales posting seven straight months of declines. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Erdogan says Turkey will keep cutting interest rates, mocks British pound
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey May 18, 2022. MANDATORY CREDITTurkey will keep cutting interest rates, its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, despite soaring inflation at over 80%. Faced with deepening economic problems, Erdogan also took the time to throw some barbs at the U.K., saying that the British pound has "blown up." The currency has lost roughly 28% of its value against the dollar this year and 80% in the last 5 years as markets shunned Erdogan's unorthodox monetary policy of cutting interest rates despite high inflation. "Turkey has 80% inflation and I guess the worst performing currency over the past decade.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Lennar, Coinbase, Array Technologies and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday Monday:D.R. Horton, Lennar, PulteGroup — Homebuilder stocks moved higher on Monday after KeyBanc double upgraded the sector to overweight from underweight. Array Technologies — The solar stock jumped over 3% after Piper Sandler upgraded Array Technologies to overweight from neutral, saying the company has more upside ahead on an improved forward outlook. AutoZone — AutoZone shares fell more than 2% as traders pored over a mixed quarterly earnings report. Wix — Shares of Wix soared 11% after activist investor Starboard Value revealed a 9% stake in the web development platform company.

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