The British bank Barclays will buy credit card business in the country of online bank Egg from Citigroup, the amount of the transaction does not state, officials said. The agreement is part of Barclays’ plan to expand its consumer lending. By Barclays reported that the business of Egg credit card in the UK contains 1.15 million accounts. Barclays will integrate the accounts of his division in Egg Credit Card Barclaycard. The deal is expected to be finalized in the first half of this year. Citigroup sold assets of the Egg is part of the program of the U.S. Bank “shedding” of businesses that do not belong to the core business, following a rescue loan from the U.S. authorities during the crisis. From Citigroup acquired by the British Egg insurer Prudential in 2007 to 575 million pounds and for some time trying to sell it.

The Russian group Rusal, which is the largest aluminum producer in the world, announced twice larger than expected profit for the second quarter after commodity prices rose this year due to increased demand from rapidly growing Asian economies. For best quarterly results contribute and increase the market value of the share of Rusal in Russia’s largest mining company Norilsk Nickel. Rusal net profit for the three months ended June 30 amounted to 1.02 billion dollars, or 7 cents a share, compared with a loss of 230 million dollars, or 2 cents a share, a year ago. Market analysts predicted a smaller net profit of 393 million dollars. Profit for first half of the year amounted to 1.27 billion dollars compared with a loss of 868 million dollars a year ago. Moscow-based company that is controlled by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, increase its production this year after aluminum rose by more than 50%. Its price has risen to an average of 2,130 dollars per tonne on the London Metal Exchange in the first half of this year from 1,422 dollars per tonne a year ago, according to Rusal. According to company management demand of aluminum in Russia jumped 50 percent this year and another 30% next.
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The U.S. President Barack Obama signed the bill today for the biggest U.S. financial reform of the years since the Great Depression, which put an end to the year-long debate about how to change regulation of the banking sector. According to the Obama reform will encourage innovation in the financial industry, rather than prevent them, as many fear. During the signing in Washington today, he said that the changes will ensure a level playing field and fair competition among industry representatives. The law is named after its main author – Senators Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank. It gives the government the opportunity to divide into smaller banks that threaten the stability of the financial system and impose restrictions on trade in derivatives. It is also envisaged the creation of an Agency for the Protection of Consumer Rights, which will be part of the Federal Reserve. It will monitor all financial products – from mortgage to credit cards. Under the new Bush rules will provide the strongest financial protection for consumers in U.S. history.
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In a time when governments worldwide are forced to take loans to fill holes in their budgets, it seems the defense industry has benefited more than others, says the BBC. According to data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) funds spent on armaments in the world last year were 1.531 trillion. dollars, an increase of 5.9% from 2008. However, increasing military budgets is not a new phenomenon. Last year, despite the inflated budget deficits in many countries, the world spends almost 50% more for weapons and military operations than in 2000. U.S. remains the country with the largest defense budget, which in 2009 reached 661 billion dollars or 47 billion more than in 2008 compared to 2000 increased U.S. defense spending by 63%. Second only to U.S. defense spending is among China’s 100 billion dollars in 2009, followed by France with 64 billion dollars, Britain with 58 billion dollars, Russia with 53 billion dollars, Japan with 52 billion the $ 46 billion with Germany, Saudi Arabia 41 billion dollars and India and Italy with 36 billion. Rather than reduce military spending, governments appear to have determined that it is dangerous to risk job cuts in the defense sector during the recession.
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The U.S. president Barack Obama said the U.S. economy has overcome the crisis and a growing again. “We see that picked the economy from the crisis and grow again. Companies began to hire people to work, but this does not happen as fast as we want,” the president said in an interview with CBS. Labor market in the U.S. occur recovered somewhat – Unemployment fell to 9,7 percent in January from 10 percent in December. Economy has grown by 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 and during the third growth was 2.2 percent. Barack Obama announced that he had invited leaders of the Republicans and the Democrats for a discussion on health reform on 25 February. The President and the democratic leaders in Congress seeking to push through healthcare reform law, once again the Republicans are able to block bills in the Senate. According to sociological polls Obama and Democrats in Congress are not demanding enough Republican support for health reform. Discussion on 25 February will be attended by leading representatives of the Republican and Democratic party of both houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and Senate. Is optimistic and the Minister of Finance Timothy Гейтнер, who in an interview with ABC News, quoted by the agency Reuters, says that currently the risk of re-recession in the U.S. is very low. However Geytnar acknowledges that recovery will be slow and uneven.
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The saga between Volkswagen and Porsche SE kinship company is about to end. The acquisition of 49.9% of the capital of the manufacturer of sports cars from Volkswagen should be finalized with the signing of the deal. This, according to Reuters agency needs to happen next week, citing information from VW. The company did not specify the exact day and time. The manufacturer of cars people buy shares of the company Porsche AG, which belongs to the holding of Porsche The car Holding SE, which is controlled by the families Porsche and I drank. VW will pay 3,9 billion euros for 49.9 percent of shares Porsche AG. Now Volkswagen is one of the most successful owners of well-marketed brands of cars with a Porsche will make a decisive step towards the top, “said Chairman of the Board of Directors of Martin Vinterkorn VW. The new group will own the rights to 10 brands, among them also VW and Porsche, are world famous Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Skoda, Seat and Lamborghini. Although not a majority shareholder, VW will expand its supplies Porsche. Currently hull of Panamera and Cayenne models are produced by Volkswagen. For years the situation has undergone radical reversal. A year and a half Porsche sought to obtain full control over Volkswagen, to have unrestricted access to key components and technologies of models for which VW is copyrighted and patent rights. Ultimately, Porsche managed to get just under half the shares in Volkswagen.
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China should take advantage of the shock waves created by the crisis in Dubai to buy gold and oil. Such is the opinion of a senior Chinese official, who cares for the supervision of some of the biggest companies in the Asian country. According to Syaonan Ji, who is chairman of the supervisory board of large companies in the committee for the supervision and administration of state assets (State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission – SASAC), purchases may be effected by means of foreign exchange reserves of China, transmit Market Watch. “Although it is unclear to what extent the crisis in Dubai will affect local and global economy, it will continue for some time and this may give China investment opportunity to use part of their reserves to buy gold and oil,” said Syaonan today. The Commission, headed Syaonan which is directly subordinate to the State Council of China and is responsible for management of state companies. Therefore, his opinion may be regarded as a signal that such intentions truly are discussed. Commentary is consistent with China’s overall strategy to increase physical stocks of key raw materials such as gold, copper and other commodities.
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Over 134 million Americans planned to enter the market or buy from the Internet during this long weekend that begins with days to Thanksgiving, which is today and will reach its peak tomorrow in the so-called Black Friday. Last Friday of November has no official status of the holiday, but many employers allow their employees to not come to work that day. Most shops open at 5 am, and some even earlier, and already have a full Christmas decorations and the doors of their rank the most eager buyers to take advantage of huge discounts. Aforementioned numbers exceed that of last year, but far less than the stated expectations before Black Friday of 2007 writes Reuters. Only a few months, the attitude of the retailers had been so optimistic. Recent studies show that though the desire to please his family led the Americans to open their wallets wider, since in recent months, residents of the United States were significantly diminished costs. More than one-third of the citizens surveyed by Deloitte said they expect to spend more money in the last days of the year, and 86% of them declare that they will raise the cost of gifts.
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Sales of existing homes in the United States reached an annual rate of 6.1 million pcs. in October, or 10.1 percent more than the pace reached in September. These forward Bloomberg, citing data from the National Association of Realtors real estate. The pace is well above expectations of analysts who forecast it to reach 5.7 million pcs., The agency adds. From there, considering that the results are largely due to a tax credit that families receive in the purchase of first homes, which amount to 8 thousand dollars. Compared with the same period last year house prices in October fell by 7.1%, the smallest drop of more years, it. Data was taken positively by the market, S & P 500 rose by 1.9% to 1111.53 points. Meanwhile it became clear that Americans will spend an average of 390 dollars on holiday gifts this year.
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MasterCard, which is the second largest global network payment (after Visa), reported higher profit than analysts’ unlikely because of the increased number of citizens using non-cash payments. The positive financial result of the Company for the period July-September was 452.2 million dollars or 3.45 dollars per share, which is quite good compared with the reported loss of 1.93.6 million for the same period of 2008. Excluding one-time costs, the profit of the company has 456 mln dollars or 3.48 dollars in market expectations of 2.93 dollars per share. Transactions processed by the company during the third quarter amounted to EUR 5.8 billion and compared with the same period last year grew by 7.6%. Revenue amounted to 1.36 billion dollars. Results announced after the company’s shares jumped 3.63 dollars or 1.7 percent to 222.65 dollars after grew by 56 percent this year.
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