Americas

Anxiety and volatility dominated markets last week, and investors responded, displaying a clear preference for fixed-income products and non-domestic stock funds — and a definite aversion to commodities funds. Not long after both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index set new records on April 11, investors began to demonstrate anxiety about [...]

Incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney explains where he differs with the IMF on austerity, central bank inflation targeting and how he was made Bank of England chief even though he’s Canadian. Click here to view this video on Reuters Insider.

Rackspace — a cloud computing provider — faces strong competition from such established players as Amazon. As Rackspace continues to feel intense pricing pressure, analysts are lowering estimates.A Thomson Reuters negative Predicted Surprise points toward the likelihood that Rackspace earnings may miss the consensus for the first fiscal quarter. Cloud computing — computing resources delivered [...]

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Oil and gas drills are revving up around the world and Canadian pipeline supplier Shawcor is looking at a gusher — record order backlogs and increasing revenues. A Thomson Reuters StarMine analysis indicates it may beat the consensus estimates when it reports quarterly earnings next month and record a positive earnings surprise. In North America, [...]

Net inflows into exchange-traded products hit a fresh high of $73.4 billion during the first quarter of 2013, pushing assets invested ETFs and ETPs to a new record of $2.09 trillion, according to data from ETFGI. Large gains in many global equity markets fueled enthusiasm among investors for exchange-traded products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during [...]

After the preseason period fueled hopes of an unbroken pattern of healthy earnings gains and positive surprises, the first reports after Alcoa kicked off the official earnings season seemed to paint a different, more bearish, picture. But there is still plenty of room for the 74 companies scheduled to report their results this week to [...]

US retail sales fell unexpectedly by 0.4% in March. Put together with a disappointing payrolls figure, and a weaker-than-expected reading on the manufacturing ISM, the retail sales data add to concerns that the US economy entered something of a soft patch last month. However, while fiscal consolidation will weigh down on US growth this year, [...]

FLIR Systems’ revenues from the U.S. government are sliding — but the company has also reduced its dependence on government contracts as it’s pursued increased global sales. Commercial clients, such as private security firms, are also placing orders. A Thomson Reuters StarMine analysis points toward the likelihood that FLIR may beat quarterly earnings estimates. In [...]

Disappointing employment data last week didn’t put a halt to investors’ interest in stocks, but it may have helped make inflows into equity mutual funds the weakest they have been so far this year. Investors also continue to demonstrate their enthusiasm for taxable bonds, but not for muni bonds or Treasury securities. Mutual fund investors [...]