Market Gawk

The dollar’s sharp slide deepened on Monday when it fell to a record low against a basket of major currencies as expectations for more aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate cuts ignited selling of the U.S. currency.

Original post by FeedZilla

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japanese consumer finance firm Takefuji Corp. said Monday it may report up to 30 billion yen ($290 million) in losses from derivative transactions linked to the U.S. mortgage market. The firm, Japan’s third-largest consumer lender by market value, said it may reduce its full-year net profit forecast from 42.3 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March 31 because of the losses. The soured investments involved transactions in May using credit default swaps that were arranged by Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., the Nikkei business daily reported. Shares of Takefuji were down 2.7% in mid-morning trade in Tokyo. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Original post by FeedZilla

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Mitsubishi Electric Corp said Monday it will withdraw from the cellphone business in Japan by the end of March, absorbing a one-off 17 billion yen ($164.9 million) loss from the segment in the current fiscal year. The company said the decision is part of a strategy to focus on its mainstay businesses amid falling cellphone handset shipments and flat demand in the Japanese market. Mitsubishi Electric said its expects the loss from the cellphone division to be offset by improvements in other businesses and retained its earning forecast. In Tokyo, shares of Mitsubishi Electric were down 3.2% at midday Monday.Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Original post by FeedZilla

SEATTLE (MarketWatch) — The clues are piling up: this is not a good year to be investing based on wishful thinking. I’m not a perma-bear, parsing the fine print, but I can read the writing on the wall about chronic economic crises.

Original post by FeedZilla

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Asian markets tumbled Monday, with Japanese stocks suffering heavy losses on exporters such as Honda Motor Co. as the dollar weakened further against the yen. The region’s financials took a dive in the wake of a Wall Street sell-off, led by Mizuho Financial Group in Tokyo and National Australia Bank in Sydney.

Original post by FeedZilla

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — gold finishes a fabulous February, and the gold bugs’ attention is turning to