 | | | | Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday said Congress would oppose U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and challenged the credibility of President Donald Trump's special envoy, Elliott Abrams, over his past embrace of American covert action. | | | | | | Executives from T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp faced tough questions from lawmakers on Wednesday about how the companies' planned merger would affect prices and jobs, especially in rural America. | | | | | | Wall Street closed higher on Wednesday as investor optimism was stoked over hopes the United States and China could iron out a trade deal, and benign inflation data suggested the Federal Reserve would hold interest rates steady in the near term. | | | | | | Oil prices rose almost 2 percent on Wednesday after top exporter Saudi Arabia said it would cut crude exports and deliver an even deeper cut to its production, but swelling U.S. crude inventories limited the day's gains. | | | | | | The U.S. federal government ran a $14 billion budget deficit in December as revenues sagged following last year's tax cuts even as the economy appeared strong, Treasury Department data showed on Wednesday. | | | | | | Hopes for a resolution in a prolonged trade spat between the United States and China helped extend a week-long rally in world stock markets on Wednesday, and bond yields also climbed. | | | | | | The FBI is investigating energy trading firm Vitol's top two executives in the Americas in connection with a Brazil bribery case, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, deepening the U.S. role in a probe of foreign oil firms' dealings with state-controlled Petrobras. | | | | | | Cisco Systems Inc reported second-quarter revenue and profit above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as the network gear maker benefited from strong growth in its newer businesses such as application software and cyber security. | | | | | | American International Group Inc on Wednesday reported a quarterly loss as the insurer was hit with catastrophe losses and made a lower return on investments in a volatile market. | | | | | | A key supplier of talc used in Johnson & Johnson's baby powder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday in the wake of multibillion-dollar lawsuits alleging its products caused ovarian cancer and asbestos-related mesothelioma. | | | | | |
