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last updated 8 January 2015

Economy: Yellen testimony buoys markets

Janet Yellen is staying the course, said Jonathan Spicer and Jason Lange in Reuters.com. The new Federal Reserve chairwoman told lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week that the Fed would “keep reducing its stimulus even though the labor market recovery was far from complete.” In December, the central bank decided to scale back its bond-buying stimulus program—which had spurred inflation concerns among -conservatives—in light of “a drop in unemployment and stronger economic growth.” But a “sharp slowdown in job growth” since then has fueled anxiety among investors, who wondered “whether the Fed might put the wind-down of its bond-buying program on hold.”

Yellen’s testimony to the contrary provided “comfort to investors,” said Kaitlyn Kiernan in The Wall Street Journal. Stocks rallied after her appearance, “with the Dow Jones industrial average posting its biggest point and percentage gain this year,” recouping almost all of the market’s recent losses and leaving investors “feeling the worst news was behind them for now.” Traders “want to be assured that Fed policy isn’t going to see a drastic change,” said Chris Gaffney, a senior market strategist with EverBank Wealth Management. “And the markets got what they wanted from Yellen saying we’ll get more of the same from the Fed.”

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Charter Communications is dead serious about taking over Time Warner Cable, said Joe Flint in the Los Angeles Times. “Having failed in its initial effort to buy” TWC outright, Charter said this week that it plans to nominate 13 directors to TWC’s board later this year. Until now, Time Warner has resisted Charter’s unsolicited buyout proposal, which offered $132.50 a share to take over TWC. But if Charter succeeds in its hostile move of wresting control of Time Warner’s board, it could force its larger rival to reconsider and sell.

Barclays, Britain’s third-biggest bank, announced this week it would slash up to 12,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its workforce, “as part of a painful restructuring that began a year ago,” said Chad Bray in NYTimes.com. The lost jobs will include about 7,000 positions in Britain. The announcement coincided with “a steep fourth-quarter loss” of almost $845 million, “driven partly by restructuring costs, an increased levy by the British government related to riskier financing,” and $545 million in litigation and regulation penalties.

What pay gap? asked Tim Higgins in Bloomberg.com. General Motors said Mary Barra, the automaker’s new—and first female—chief executive, would take home a hefty $14.4 million this year, including long-term incentive payments. GM said it decided to disclose Barra’s full compensation “to correct misconceptions” that arose after its announcement last month that Barra would earn just $4.4 million through the company’s short-term incentive plan. That raised alarms that her overall pay would fall far short of that of her predecessor, Dan Akerson, who took home $11.1 million in 2012.

Has the economy lost its “vigor”? asked Christopher S. Rugaber and Paul Wiseman in the Associated Press. For the second month in a row, the Labor Department released a disappointing jobs report, showing “a tepid gain of 113,000 jobs in January,” after a “puny increase of 75,000” in December. Though both figures are well below last year’s average monthly increases, “most economists say they think hiring will strengthen during 2014,” pointing at solid gains in areas like manufacturing and construction and a drop in unemployment.

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