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U.S. stock indexes edged higher to hit fresh record highs on Friday on optimism over corporate earnings, economic data and indications of resilience in a Chinese economy battered by a prolonged trade war with the United States. "There's a lot of enthusiasm out there and it is a combination of earnings and strong data that is supporting the market," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:22:12 -0500

Mexican auto parts manufacturers with clients across North America expect a record year after U.S. approval of a trade deal mandating higher regional inputs, but the new rules pose a bigger challenge to carmakers. After months of wrangling, U.S. lawmakers on Thursday ratified the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), brokered at the behest of President Donald Trump to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The accord, which Canada's parliament is expected to approve soon, requires automakers to use more local inputs for their cars to qualify for tariff-free trade within North America.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:16:31 -0500

A former foreign minister and a coca farmer will be the candidates for president and vice president for exiled Bolivian President Evo Morales' political party in the May elections in the South American country, officials said on Friday. Former Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, an Aymara indian, will be the presidential candidate for the Movement to Socialism (MAS) party in the vote, which will serve as a re-run of a disputed October election. Coca farmer Andronico Rodriguez will join the ticket as the vice presidential candidate, MAS official and union leader Theodore Mamani confirmed to Reuters.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:15:42 -0500

Geopolitics overshadowed monetary policy for the first time in many months in early January. Rate-setters in many countries are about to hold their first policy meetings of 2020 - in Japan on Monday and Tuesday, Canada on Wednesday, Norway and the euro zone on Thursday. Japan, Canada, Norway and the European Central Bank (ECB) are not expected to make any changes, while it is unlikely China will act again so soon after its early-January reserve ratio cut for banks.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 10:01:12 -0500

The dream in 2015 prompted her to set up Cheekbone Beauty from her kitchen, a cosmetics brand with products named after successful North American indigenous women that gives 10% of profits to a fund to help educate children on reserves. Harper is one of a rising number of indigenous women in Canada setting up businesses that aim to have a positive social impact, with many focused on aboriginal women who have faced shocking levels of violence for decades. "I am using lipstick as a platform to raise awareness about what is still happening to indigenous young people," Harper, 43, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview, wearing a hot pink lipstick from her Warrior Women range.

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 09:51:10 -0500