The country's total non-financial sector debt, which includes household, corporate and government debt, will surge to nearly 300% of GDP by 2022, up from 242% in 2016. By some estimates, China’s true growth rate after taking the bad debt into account could be just half the official 6.9%. China’s worrisome build-up of corporate and household debt is well-documented, but fears of a financial crisis have receded sharply from the turbulent days of 2015 and 2016, when the country’s stock market crashed on fears that an epic two-decade growth streak might come to an abrupt halt.
Bitcoin was posting modest gains on Monday, holding above the $13,000 level, while Ripple prices were coming under pressure. The bitcoin spot price BTCUSD, +2.46% was at $13,697.90, up 0.6%, according to research site CoinDesk.com. The cryptocurrency moved above $14,000 on Saturday, but has since pared those gains. On Monday, the spot price has traded between a low of $13,401.24 and a high of $13,792.21. In futures, the January bitcoin contract on the CME BTCF8, -2.01% BTCF8, -2.01% was at $13,580, down 2.6% from Friday’s settlement of $13,945. Bitcoin futures on Cboe Global Markets XBTF8, +2.18% was off 1.6% to $13,570. Across other cryptocurrencies, Ripple dropped 4% to $1.84, while Ether
BP Plc expects to book a post-tax non-operating charge of about $1.7 billion in its fourth-quarter results, reflecting the remaining losses and claims from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. “With the claims facility’s work very nearly done, we now have better visibility into the remaining liability,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said Tuesday in a statement. Cash payments related to Deepwater Horizon in 2018 are now anticipated to be about $3 billion, higher than the company’s third-quarter estimate of just over $2 billion.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett won’t be following his CEO rivals in doling out bonus payments to employees on the heels of tax reform, but says his workers will benefit anyway. “Because some of the tax moves are actually enhancing profits … employees will see a benefit, but there’s not a stand-alone distribution, that doesn’t make sense,” Hackett told FOX Business’ Jeff Flock during an interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Currently Ford has a profit sharing plan in place.
Kinder Morgan Inc KMI is expected to post fourth-quarter 2017 earnings on Jan 17.Last quarter, the company delivered an earnings surprise of 7.1%. Moreover, Kinder Morgan delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 1.8% in the last four quarters
Raytheon Company’s RTN Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) business segment recently secured a contract worth $641.6 million to perform Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) test related activities for multiple radar platforms. Work related to this will

Chinese phone maker Xiaomi has begun picking banks to underwrite its public offering, which might value the firm at up to $100 billion, according to Bloomberg. The firm has sunk to fourth place in China behind Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo, but has made strong progress in India where it's one of the top three manufacturers. Xiaomi, one of the biggest smartphone brands in China, is picking banks ahead of an IPO at a possible valuation of $100 billion (£72.3 billion).
Is it possible that suspicious activity from just one person could have caused a 566% surge in the price of bitcoin? In a report titled “Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem,” researchers Neil Gandal, JT Hamrick, Tyler Moore, and Tali Oberman argue that suspicious trades on a popular cryptocurrency exchange are linked to rises in the exchange rate. The research team analyzed activity on the Mt. Gox currency exchange for the purposes of the report.
FBN's Jeff Flock on Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne's comments on the tax reform legislation at the Detroit auto show.
Enterprise Products Partners L.P.’s EPD board of directors has announced an increase of 3.7% on an annual basis in its quarterly cash distribution. Since Enterprise’s initial public offering in 1998, this increase marks the 54th consecutive quarterly increase and the 63rd overall distribution increase. Enterprise has an extensive network of pipeline, spread over almost 50,000 miles.

A look at some of the key business events and economic indicators upcoming this week: HEALTHY RUN Wall Street expects the nation's largest health insurer capped 2017 with another strong quarter.
U.S. automakers are driving into the New Year with renewed optimism, thanks in part to President Donald Trump’s tax reform bill that drastically cuts the corporate tax rate.Car stocks are seeing gains since Jan. 2, the first trading day in 2018.Fiat Chrysler
Looking for a stock that might be in a good position to beat earnings at its next report? Consider Caterpillar Inc. CAT, a firm in the Manufacturing - Construction and Mining, which could be a great candidate for another beat.This company has seen a nice
Shares of Prothena Corporation PRTA lost 18.1% over a year as against the industry’ gain of 3.1%. The company suffered a setback in 2017 when the company decided not to continue with the development of psoriasis candidate, PRX003. Although the primary
(Note: The author of this fundamental analysis is a financial writer and portfolio manager.) After a rough finish to 2017, chipmaker stocks have come back to life as measured by the iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), which has jumped by nearly 5.5%, while the S&P 500 has climbed by 4.2%. The SOXX ETF looks to be nearing a technical breakout, and that could mean big moves lie ahead for companies like Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP), Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM) and Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT). The chart below shows how the ETF is nearing its previous peak around $182, and with the ETF trading at roughly $179, a breakout is very near. Should the ETF rise above $182, it would signal
Bruderman Brothers chief market strategist Oliver Pursche and Benchmark Investments managing partner Kevin Kelly discuss whether investors should keep their money in the U.S. or invest it abroad.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets were mostly higher Tuesday following a holiday for U.S. markets as investorsed look ahead to American corporate earnings.KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 3,425.03 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225
Illumina, Inc. ILMN has signed a commercial agreement to distribute Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s TMO Ion AmpliSeq technology to researchers who conduct studies on Illumina’s next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform.As per the terms of the agreement
To make your task a little less exhaustive, we try to bring your focus on one stock that deserves to be part and parcel of your kitty, Skechers U.S.A., Inc. SKX. Skechers offer a diversified portfolio of brands that includes a wide range of fashion, athletic, non-athletic, and work footwear at compelling prices. Skechers’ e-commerce business has also contributed towards sales growth.
Employees on their way out are often tempted to be frank about long-standing corporate problems or to settle scores. Airbus chief salesman John Leahy, who's retiring this year, delivered a humdinger on Monday, saying that unless Emirates bought more A380 superjumbos, Airbus would have "no choice but to shut down the program". His intervention looks less like negotiation and more like corporate emotional blackmail, and Emirates has every right to be furious. Yet Leahy's no fool. He knows the Dubai-based carrier has backed itself into a corner on the A380 and has just as much to lose from the program's termination. Doubtless Leahy's still smarting from November's Dubai airshow, when Emirates failed
India will break up its debt-burdened flag carrier into four separate companies and offer to sell at least 51 percent in each of them as part of a disinvestment proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The core airline business comprising Air India and Air India Express -- the low-cost overseas arm -- will be offered as one company, and the process will be completed by the end of 2018, Junior Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha said in an interview Monday. A successful sale of Air India -- with $7.9 billion in debt, five subsidiaries and a joint venture, and a combined workforce of 27,000 -- is crucial for Modi, who wants to showcase his credentials as a reformist attempting to steer the state away from running businesses. The airline, which is surviving on a taxpayer-funded bailout, has strained government finances for decades, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said last year that money spent on Air India could have been used for education.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) shares could be headed much higher, and it will have rising oil prices to thank. Shares have the potential to increase by nearly 20% over the longer-term from its current price around $87.50, to $105. That is because the stock is nearing a technical breakout from a multi-year downtrend, on the strength of surging oil prices. (For more, see also: Exxon, Chevron and Oil Are Breaking Out.) WTI Crude oil could see its price climb by nearly 18% to roughly $76, from its current price around $64.50. The rise in oil is being triggered by improving global economics, tightening supply, and weak a U.S. Dollar. In fact, a recent article in Barron's is calling for oil to rise to $80,

Oil prices took a breather in early trading on Friday, raising questions over what will happen next. Inventories continue to fall, with the EIA reporting another strong drawdown in crude stocks for the week ending on January 5. At 419 million barrels and falling, U.S. crude inventories have not been this low since early 2015.
Roche Holdings RHHBY announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization for multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Ocrevus.The drug is approved for patients suffering from active relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis defined by clinical
Stocks in the airline space are flying high lately on the back of improved unit revenue projections provided by the key sector players like JetBlue Airways JBLU, American Airlines Group AAL and United Continental Holdings UAL. The bullish projections bode well for the sector with a deluge of fourth-quarter earnings reports, scheduled to be released in the next few days/weeks. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company also performed well on the unit revenue front.