介绍:
China's industrial profit up 9.4 pct
Official data shows Chinese industry saw profits rise 9.4 percent year on year in the first two months of 2014.
The National Bureau of Statistics says the total profits of industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan reached 779.3 billion yuan in the Jan-Feb period.
The growth rate is lower than that for the whole of 2013, which stood at 12.2 percent.
But it is notably higher than that of December, when profits rose only 6 percent year on year.
In the first two months, the performance of these firms is uneven.
The data shows state-owned and state-holding industrial enterprises have achieved total profits of 216.9 billion yuan, down by 0.2 percent year on year.
Profits of private firms rose the fastest at 16.4 percent to reach over 260 billion yuan in the first two months.
Upper house of Swiss parliament ratifies FTA with China
The upper house of the Swiss parliament has approved a free trade agreement with China.
The agreement was approved by the lower house, or the Swiss National Council, in December.
The FTA is the first free trade pact inked between China and a country in continental Europe.
It was signed in Beijing on July after nine rounds of negotiations over more than two years.
China is Switzerland's largest trading partner in Asia, while Switzerland is China's eighth-largest trading partner in Europe.
Bilateral trade reached 21.81 billion U.S. dollars in 2013.
The CDB and Barclays sign a new memorandum
Anchor
British bank Barclays and the China Development Bank have signed a new strategic memorandum.
The move is said to be part of CDB's broader goal of becoming a commercial lender.
China Development Bank became a shareholder in Barclays in 2007.
The two firms' existing cooperation has been focused mainly on staff training and banking opportunities within China.
For more on this, CRI's Paul James spoke earlier with Cao Can, CRI's Financial Commentator.
…
That was Cao Can, CRI's Financial Commentator.
Bank of America to pay 9.5 billion USD to settle mortgage allegation
Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, has agreed to pay about 9.5 billion U.S. dollars to settle all litigation over mortgage-backed securities sold to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The settlement resolves around four lawsuits by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) filed against the bank and its affiliates Countrywide and Merrill Lynch.
The lawsuits allege the Bank of America group falsely represented that the loans complied with certain standards.
The bank says the deal covers 57.5 billion dollars of private-label residential mortgage-backed securities bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 2005 and 2007.
Bank of America says that the settlement will reduce the bank's pre-tax earnings in the first quarter by about 3.7 billion dollars.
In return, the FHFA's pending lawsuits against Bank of America and its affiliates will be dismissed.
Intel buys wearable technology firm Basis Science
US chipmaker Intel has stepped up its investment in wearable technology with the acquisition of Basis Science.
The start-up from San Francisco will be merged with Intel's New Devices Group.
Intel has not disclosed the value of the deal.
However, industry analysts say the deal is probably worth around 100 million US dollars.
Basis Science is known for its health-tracking device, the Basis band, which monitors a user's heart rate and calorie-burning, among other things.
The Basis band will continue to be sold and supported through existing channels.
Industry research is suggesting the value of the wearable technology market crossed the 4-billion US dollar threshold this past year, and is expected to more than double by 2018.
Lachlan Murdoch resigns as Ten chairman to take co-chairman role at News Corp
Lachlan Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been appointed co-chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox.
The elder Murdoch made the announcement himself.
42-year-old Lachlan Murdoch returns to a leadership role at News Corp after resigning from a senior role at the company almost a decade ago.
On Wednesday, Lachlan Murdoch announced his decision to retire as Australia's Ten Network Chairman because of his new appointment.
There is speculation that Ten Network may be a potential takeover target for News Corp.
However, News Corp has declined to comment on whether it is interested in acquiring Ten.
Nissan recalling over one million vehicles for airbag issue
Nissan Motors is recalling over a million vehicles globally, mostly in the United States, to fix software.
A software defect could deactivate the front passenger airbag.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, says the car company has identified two accidents possibly linked to the problem.
The passenger airbag did not deploy in those crashes.
But a Nissan spokesman says his company can not *conclude* that the failure of the airbags is related to the software issue.
