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The Morning Ledger: Lawmakers Seek to Counter Administration's ZTE Moves |
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A woman passes by a ZTE building in Beijing, China, May 8, 2018. PHOTO: AP
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Good morning. Executives betting that the US would relax rules banning the sale of ZTE Corp. equipment to American firms might want to hold off a little longer. U.S. lawmakers are moving to thwart efforts by the Trump administration to ease restrictions on ZTE and other technology providers, report the WSJ's Kate O'Keeffe and Bob Davis.
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The Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved legislation on Tuesday that would tighten national-security reviews of Chinese technology deals by the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., strengthen export controls and prohibit the Trump administration from lifting stiff penalties imposed on ZTE.
The U.S. and China recently agreed on the broad outlines of a deal that would allow U.S. companies to once again supply ZTE with components, lifting a ban that threatens to put the company out of business.
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The Federal Reserve will shed more light Wednesday on policy makers’ outlook for the second half of the year when it releases the minutes of its May 1-2 meeting. Officials voted then to hold steady their benchmark federal-funds rate in a range between 1.5% and 1.75%.
Lowe's Companies Inc., Ralph Lauren Corp., Target Corp. and Tiffany & Co. are among the companies slated to report earnings today.
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The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said Tuesday that Martin Baumann, chief auditor and director of professional standards, will leave the U.S. audit regulator at the end of the month after 12 years of service.
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Over 98% of companies listed in major large and mid-cap indices in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands are audited by one of the Big Four accounting firms -- Ernst & Young LLP, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., KPMG LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP -- according to Audit Analytics review of 2017 fiscal year data. The remaining 1% of a total of more than 600 companies were audited either by BDO LLP or Grant Thornton LLP.
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The Apple Campus 2 is seen under construction in this aerial photo taken in Cupertino, Calif., U.S., Jan. 13, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS
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The world’s two most valuable technology companies -- Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. -- are shopping for cities in which to build new corporate campuses.
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday apologized to European Union lawmakers over the fake-news and privacy scandals engulfing the social media platform, but rebuffed suggestions that the company has outsize market power and avoided responding to many difficult questions.
A unit of Taiwan’s contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd. said it plans to raise 27.1 billion yuan, or $4.25 billion, through an initial public offering in Shanghai, potentially marking China’s biggest IPO since 2015.
SoftBank Group Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed to sell its entire stake in India’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt to Walmart Inc., clearing the way for SoftBank to step up investment in a Flipkart rival.
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marvin Ellison is quitting his job to take over leadership of Lowe’s Cos., another retailer in need of a revamp.
U.S. banks reported a record quarterly profit to start 2018, newly released data show, a result of the new tax law, rising interest rates and an improving economy.
Intel Corp. plans to release patches for a new vulnerability affecting its chips, the second time this year it has addressed flaws known as Spectre and Meltdown, and the fix is unlikely to be the last.
Shareholders in Wynn Resorts Ltd. voted overwhelmingly against the company’s executive compensation plan, according to results released Tuesday, a rare public rebuke of the corporation’s leadership in the months since founder Steve Wynn resigned amid sexual-misconduct allegations.
The U.S.'s largest public pension fund is wrestling with more turnover in the executive suite following the abrupt departure of its chief financial officer, Charles Asubonten, less than eight months after he joined the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill is ‘a major step forward in freeing our economy from overregulation.’ PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
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The U.S. Congress on Tuesday took a big step to relax a wave of crisis-era restrictions placed on financial firms as the House voted 258-159 to approve a plan to ease rules for small and midsize banks.
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A Manhattan federal jury on Tuesday found a former executive at Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Gary Tanner, guilty of charges that he defrauded the pharmaceutical giant through a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme.
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The U.S. and the European Union clashed anew in a massive aircraft subsidy dispute when Washington rejected Airbus SE’s claim that it had satisfied World Trade Organization demands with a new European loan agreement.
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Volkswagen Tiguan production inside the company's plant in Puebla, Mexico. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement have reached a stalemate, with Mexico and the U.S. accusing one another of intransigence and inconsistency after missing a key deadline.
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President Donald Trump is weighing trade measures to cut European Union steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. by about 10%, in a sign that the bloc’s concessions to secure tariff exemptions aren’t meeting White House demands, EU officials familiar with the talks said.
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New U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil production are expected to further crimp the country’s output and reduce global supply even more than sanctions on Iran -- a development that could provide another boost to rising crude prices.
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Business activity in the eurozone slowed for the fourth straight month in May and more sharply than expected, a survey of manufacturers and service providers showed, a sign that economic growth has yet to rebound from a surprisingly weak showing in the first quarter. Corporate profits are trailing those in America like never before.
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Six Flags Entertainment Corp., an amusement-park operator based in Grand Prairie, Texas, named Taylor Brooks chief accounting officer, effective June 15. He succeeds Mario Centola, who will become vice president, international operations and business development.
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Mr. Brooks was most recently director of accounting and assistant controller, a position he has held since 2015. Prior to that he held the role of financial reporting manager since joining the company in 2013. Mr. Brooks previously served as financial reporting and technical research senior accountant at DynCorp International LLC.
Mr. Brooks will receive an annual base salary of at least $210,000 and a bonus with a target of $100,000. He will also receive several equity awards under the company’s incentive compensation program, according to a filing.
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Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., the Yokohama, Japan automaker, named Hiroshi Karube its CFO. He succeeds Joseph Peter, who is retiring. Mr. Karube most recently held the role of senior vice president, global controller, accounting, global asset management. He has served as global controller since 2010. Mr. Karube held a variety of accounting roles since he joined Nissan in 1980.
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Tronc Inc., a Chicago-based media company, appointed Michael N. Lavey as controller and chief accounting officer, effective immediately. Mr. Terry Jimenez, who previously served as the company's principal accounting officer, will continue to serve as its executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Mr. Lavey has served as Tronc's senior vice president, corporate controller since May 2015. Prior to that, he worked as vice president and corporate controller of A. H. Belo Corporation, a media company, from January 2010 to May 2015, and as controller of the Dallas Morning News in 2009.
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Follow the WSJ CFO Journal Team on Twitter: @CFOJournal, @MissShumsky, @nina_trentmann, @zekeminaya.
The editor, Kimberly Johnson, can be reached at kimberly.johnson@wsj.com, or on Twitter: @KimberlyReports.
Tatyana Shumsky contributed to today's Ledger.
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