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The Morning Ledger: Trump CFO Could Testify Before Lawmakers |
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Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, during the hearing in which ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified. PHOTO: JEFF MALET/ZUMA PRESS
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Good morning. A long-serving chief financial officer is often a trusted adviser to a company head, with a hand in the most sensitive of matters. By most accounts Allen Weisselberg, a longtime accountant of President Trump and CFO of the Trump Organization, is one such executive.
In the spotlight. House Democrats signaled Thursday that they would seek testimony from Trump Organization officials who Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for President Trump, alleged were involved in hush-money payments to a porn star. Lawmakers were especially keen to hear from Mr. Weisselberg.
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U.K. Companies Risk Ratings Downgrades in Case of No-Deal Brexit |
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A disruptive Brexit could trigger ratings downgrades for more than a dozen mainly U.K. companies, potentially driving up their financing costs and denting investor confidence, CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann reports.
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The U.K. plans to leave the European Union on March 29. So far, the government hasn’t won parliamentary approval for its withdrawal agreement, opening the way for a number of scenarios, including a no-deal Brexit. In that case, the U.K. would exit without an agreement with the EU, resulting in a potentially chaotic overnight transition to World Trade Organization rules.
Negative rating actions could force companies to offer higher interest payments when they sell debt, or mean that certain financial instruments requiring high credit ratings are no longer available to them.
Companies with short supply chains, such as car makers, are particularly vulnerable in case of a no-deal Brexit. But those with a strong overall exposure to the U.K. economy also face credit risks, said Paul Watters, head of corporate research for Europe at S&P Global Ratings. “A slowdown in the economy will have an impact on ratings,” he said.
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Party City CFO to Leave for Edgewell Personal Care |
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Daniel Sullivan will resign as CFO of the Elmsford, N.Y., company on March 22. He had served in that role since August 2016. Edgewell Personal Care Co., the Shelton, Conn.-based maker of Schick razors and Playtex feminine-care products, said Thursday in a separate press release that Mr. Sullivan would join its ranks as CFO on or before April 1.
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U.S. consumer spending data for December and January are due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal predict consumer spending fell 0.3% in December and rose 0.3% in January.
The final reading of U.S. consumer sentiment for February is expected at 10 a.m. ET. Economists predict the index will remain steady at 95.5.
U.S. auto makers are expected to release sales figures for February throughout the day. Analysts predict the annualized auto sales rate rose to 16.8 million from 16.7 million a month earlier.
E. W. Scripps Co. and Foot Locker Inc. are among the companies scheduled to report earnings today.
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Richard Plepler, chairman and chief executive officer of HBO, during an interview in New York in 2017 PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER GOODNEY/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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HBO Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Plepler said he is stepping down, a move that comes as new owner AT&T Inc. is looking to put its own stamp on the premium cable channel that was part of its $80 billion acquisition of Time Warner.
Gap Inc. plans to split itself into two independent publicly traded companies. The planned breakup is an acknowledgment of the two chains’ diverging fortunes and indicates how much Gap has lost its once-powerful grip on American consumers.
Tesla Inc. said it would begin shutting stores and move to selling vehicles only over the internet, an extraordinary step aimed at cutting costs so the company can offer its Model 3 compact at a long-awaited starting price of $35,000.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that he has been in contact with Amazon.com Inc. executives, urging them to rethink their decision to abandon plans for a headquarters campus in Queens.
PG&E Corp. said Thursday it is probable that its equipment sparked the deadliest wildfire in Californian history, as it recorded a $10.5 billion charge in the fourth quarter related to the Camp Fire and an additional $1 billion in charges related to fires in 2017.
General Motors Co. announced the pending departures of two executives who report directly to Chief Executive Mary Barra, the latest in a series of executive shifts at the Detroit car maker.
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Kraft Heinz’s annual report was due on Wednesday. PHOTO: TIFFANY HAGLER-GEARD/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Kraft Heinz Co. said Thursday it would be late in filing its annual report with U.S. securities regulators as it concludes an internal investigation into its procurement department.
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Dutch prosecutors are readying criminal charges against Royal Dutch Shell PLC over its $1.3 billion acquisition of a Nigerian offshore oilfield in 2011, Reuters reports.
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said Gabriel Benincasa would become the regulator’s first chief risk officer.
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With a mandate to bring sharper focus to antitrust issues in the tech world, a new U.S. Federal Trade Commission task force could emerge as a powerful brake on the nation’s internet giants.
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The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to confirm Andrew Wheeler as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, ratifying President Trump’s choice of a former advocate for business interests to lead the agency.
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Facebook Inc. faces 10 investigations by Ireland’s privacy regulator into whether the company or its subsidiaries have violated European Union privacy law, making the social network the biggest target for one of the bloc’s most important data watchdogs.
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U.S. consumer spending was robust in 2018 thanks to a strong job market, tax cuts and household income gains. PHOTO: JOHANNES EISELE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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The U.S. economy completed one of the best years of a nearly decadelong expansion, growing at a modest pace in the fourth quarter despite slowdowns elsewhere in the world, turbulent financial markets, trade disputes with China and a partial government shutdown.
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The White House is confident economic growth will top 3% this year, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday
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Ten years after the recession, many U.S. states have revenue surpluses and some are sending that bounty back to taxpayers with boosted spending or tax cuts.
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British manufacturers are cutting jobs at the fastest pace in six years as confidence in the sector is hit by Brexit uncertainty, the BBC reports.
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Douglas Emmett Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based real-estate investment trust, appointed Peter Seymour as finance chief. He succeeds Mona Gisler, who remains with the company as chief accounting officer.
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Mr. Seymour has been chief strategic officer for nearly two years, according to a company press release. Previously, Mr. Seymour spent two decades with Walt Disney Co. Ms. Gisler requested the change of assignment to allow more flexibility for her family and philanthropic commitments. Compensation details weren’t released.
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Every weekend we select a handful of in-depth articles we think are worth a bit of your time, either because they peel back the layers on a compelling business story, or somehow make us look at business in a different light.
Recent advances including aquatic robots, ultraprecise sonar beacons and GPS systems are now giving scientists the chance to view the ocean floor and better predict how—and where—the biggest earthquakes might occur.
The sheer scale of North Carolina entrepreneur Greg Lindberg’s use of insurance assets to invest in his own businesses has little precedent in recent decades, industry experts say, and exposes hundreds of thousands of policyholders to a potentially risky strategy.
Auto sales are on the decline in the U.S., with some analysts warning that they may never recover. As transportation options proliferate in the U.S., the love affair with the car may be ending, Bloomberg reports.
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