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BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank will seek to “enrich” its monetary policy toolbox and will gradually increase buying and selling of treasury bonds in its open market operations, its second-quarter monetary policy implementation report said on Friday. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will also seek to steadily lower companies’ financing and household credit costs, the report said, adding that prudent monetary policy should be “flexible, moderate, precise and effective.” The PBOC will “guide … Read more…

By Gabriel Araujo, Andre Romani and Luana Maria Benedito SAO PAULO (Reuters) -A regional turboprop plane crashed near Sao Paulo in Brazil on Friday, killing all 61 people on board, the airline said. Regional carrier Voepass said the plane, bound for Sao Paulo’s international airport, took off from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, and crashed at around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in the town of Vinhedo, some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao … Read more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Short interest on the Nasdaq declined 2% in late July, the exchange said on Friday. As of July 31, short interest fell to about 14.068 billion shares, compared with 14.356 billion shares as of July 15. Investors who sell securities “short” borrow shares and then sell them, on bets the stock will fall so they can buy the shares back at a lower price, return them to the lender and pocket … Read more…

By Joan Faus BARCELONA (Reuters) – Now you see him, now you really, really don’t. “It was magic,” said former Barcelona mayor Xavier Trias, of how Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont appeared at a rally in central Barcelona on Thursday and then, embarrassingly for authorities, disappeared. Puigdemont, 61, faces an arrest warrant for alleged embezzlement over his role in holding an illegal referendum on independence for Catalonia in 2017. Nonetheless, he returned to Spain as … Read more…

By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Nasdaq surged more than 3% on Thursday as U.S. stocks rallied after U.S. jobless claims fell more than expected in the latest week, soothing worries the labor market was weakening too quickly. The S&P 500 was up more than 2%, with technology-related megacaps giving it the biggest boost. The technology sector rose 3.5%, with communication services sector up 2.5% in afternoon trading. Among the S&P 500’s biggest gainers, … Read more…

(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had agreed to three presidential debates in September and was awaiting a response from Democrat Kamala Harris’ campaign. “We’ve agreed with Fox on a date of September 4th, we’ve agreed with NBC … on September 10th, and we’ve agreed with ABC on September 25th,” Trump told a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I hope she agrees,” Trump added. (Reporting by … Read more…

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK (Reuters) – An options strategy that bets on individual stocks logging larger-than-expected moves after corporate results was winning big this earnings season but is among many that has been derailed by this week’s volatility spike. The strategy involves buying options straddles – which combine a put and a call options purchase – on shares of a company ahead of its earnings report. Data from ORATS showed the strategy worked … Read more…