Elon Musk and other executives are at the White House to meet with Trump

• Danielle Muoio
 

• 1h
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Elon Musk at Trump's tech meeting in New York in December. AP

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is at the White House.

Musk is one of several executives attending President Donald Trump's meeting on manufacturing Monday morning. Reuters' reporter Roberta Rampton snapped a shot of Musk in the White House's Roosevelt Room, along with executives from Lockheed Martin, Whirlpool, Under Armour, and Johnson & Johnson.

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Roberta Rampton 

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Business leaders gather to meet with @realDonaldTrump in Roosevelt Room.

6:01 AM - 23 Jan 2017 · The White House

 
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Although Musk and Trump have diametrically opposing views when it comes to climate change, the two seem to be aligned when it comes to US manufacturing.

Musk is building his massive battery factory, the Gigafactory, in Sparks, Nevada that is slated for completion in 2020. When it's finished, the factory will house 6,500 employees.

Trump said Monday morning that he will cut regulations by 75% to encourage businesses to manufacture their products in the US. He also said he will cut taxes "massively" for businesses, adding that those who move abroad to manufacture their products will face a major border tax.

Although Musk is building his first Gigafactory in Nevada, Musk plans to build a second plant somewhere in Europe, the Tesla CEO said in November. Musk had said Tesla will look at locations for its Europe plant in 2017.

This isn't Musk's first meeting with Trump. In December, Musk, along with tech CEO's like Apple's Tim Cook and Alphabet's Larry Page, met with Trump in New York.

SEE ALSO: Tesla is entering the solar business at a risky time

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Exclusive: Blackstone readies new Asia real estate fund of at least $5 billion: sources

• Reuters

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The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thomson Reuters

By Sumeet Chatterjee and Elzio Barreto

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP is readying a new Asia-focused real estate fund that aims to raise a record $5 billion or more, betting on strong returns from property investments in the region, people familiar with the plans told Reuters.

The world's biggest alternative asset manager will likely launch the fund in the next 12-16 months, the people said. It has invested more than 70 percent of the $5.08 billion it raised in its first Asia-focused property fund, a threshold when buyout firms typically start considering and preparing for follow-up capital raising.

New York-based Blackstone intends to boost investments in assets such as warehouses and shopping malls in China, India, Southeast Asia and Australia, one of the people said.

Global investors have shown robust appetite for shopping malls, warehouses and other property assets in Asia as they have sought the relative safety and stable returns of real estate, buoyed by growing urbanization and rising incomes in its two most populous countries of China and India.

Underscoring this trend, 22 Asia-focused property funds raised a total of $10.6 billion in 2016, data provider Preqin said. There's already $33 billion of unused capital, or dry powder, in such Asia-focused real estate funds, it said.

Blackstone declined to comment on plans for a new Asia-focused real estate fund.

But when commenting on the fundraising outlook for 2017 in the company's third quarter earnings conference call, Blackstone's Chief Financial Officer Michael Chae said there were "significant" fundraises coming up next year, including a possible new Asia fund.

The people declined to be named because details of the new Asia fund aren't yet public.

Blackstone's first Asia-focused property fund, the $5.08 billion Blackstone Real Estate Partners (BREP) Asia that closed in 2014, is the biggest such fund to focus wholly on Asia, Preqin data shows. The new fund could exceed the first one in size.

The first Blackstone fund invested in Japanese residential real estate, office space in Australia and Chinese shopping malls, posting an internal rate of return of 17 percent through September 2016, according to Blackstone's most recent earnings report.

In China, the company has a joint venture with developer China Vanke Co Ltd for logistics investments. Blackstone sold $1.9 billion of commercial property to Vanke last year.

Blackstone is also one of the largest owners of office space in India. Embassy Office Park REIT, which Blackstone co-owns with local developer Embassy Group, is awaiting approval from authorities to launch the country's first ever real estate investment trust (REIT), which Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported could raise $500 million-$1 billion in a 2017 initial public offering.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Elzio Barreto; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2017. Follow Reuters on Twitter.

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The 10 most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2017

• Alison Millington
 
• 3h
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House prices in Los Angeles rose the equivalent of 14 months' household income in only 12 months.Wikipedia/Nserrano

LONDON — The most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2017 have been revealed in the 13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2017.

The study analysed 406 metropolitan housing markets in nine countries — Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States — in the third quarter of 2016.

Using the "mean multiple" approach — the median house price divided by the median household income — the data shows that the most "severely unaffordable major housing markets" are in Australia, New Zealand, Chia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the think tank behind the research, The New Zealand Initiative, said: "The number of severely unaffordable major housing markets rose from 26 to 29. We need to tackle housing affordability urgently because the effects of unaffordable housing on society are becoming more visible by the day... We should not accept extreme price levels in our housing markets. High house prices are not a sign of city's success but a sign of failure to deliver the housing that its citizens need."

Scroll down to see the 10 most expensive cities to live in around the world in 2017.

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10. Bournemouth & Dorset, UK: A "severely unaffordable" market in previous surveys, the area of Bournemouth & Dorset is the 10th most expensive place to live around the world.

ian woolcock / Shutterstock

9. San Francisco, US: The California city came in 9th, with a median multiple — median house price divided by median household income — of 9.2.

Shutterstock/holbox

8. Los Angeles, US: In LA, house prices rose the equivalent of 14 months in household income in only 12 months, giving it a median multiple of 9.3 and putting it in 8th place.

Wikipedia/Nserrano

7. Honolulu, US: The Hawaiian capital was reclassified as a "major market" this year with a median multiple of 9.4 after proving to be "severely unaffordable" in all 13 previous editions of the survey.

Shutterstock / Fiona Lin

6. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne came in sixth place with a median multiple of 9.5.

Aleksandar Todorovic / Shutterstockwww.shutterstock.com

5. San Jose, CA, US: Another Californian city, San Jose is the fifth most expensive city to live in with a median multiple of 9.6.

stellamc / Shutterstock

4. Auckland, New Zealand: Hitting a median multiple of 10, Auckland is the fourth most expensive city to live in around the world this year.

FLICKR/Loïc Lagarde

3. Vancouver, BC, Canada: House prices in Vancouver rose the equivalent of a full year’s household income in only a year, making it the third least affordable place in the world with a median multiple of 11.8.

Flickr / Kenny Louie

2. Sydney, Australia: Sydney is the second most unaffordable place to live in the world, with a median multiple of 12.2.

Taras Vyshnya/Shutterstock

1. Hong Kong, China: For the seventh year in a row, Hong Kong has the least affordable housing market, with a median multiple of 18.1. This is down from 19 last year, the worst ever ranking on record.

Flickr / Loïc Lagarde

More: Features Cities Expensive Cities Most Expensive Cities 

After a record-breaking start to the year, the FTSE 100 is actually down for 2017

• Will Martin
 
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• 3h
• 224

Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett

LONDON — Britain's benchmark share index, the FTSE 100, slipped into negative territory for the year on Monday, meaning it now stands below where it ended 2016.

The FTSE 100 went on an unmatched run at the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017, closing higher on 14 consecutive trading days and celebrating 12 all-time closing highs in a row.

That record-breaking run was driven by the FTSE's inverse relationship with the pound: when sterling is weak, the FTSE is strong, and vice versa.

About 70% of the revenue earned by FTSE 100 companies is derived abroad, meaning they make more money when sterling is weak, and less when it is strong. That is because the index is full of mining companies, oil firms, and pharmaceutical giants that use the UK as a base but tend to denominate their assets in dollars. Exporters also prefer a weak pound: It makes their goods cheaper than international competitors. That relationship is explained by JP Morgan Asset Management here.

Sterling has rallied in recent weeks thanks to a combination of a weak dollar, driven by market uncertainty surrounding President Trump's policies, and optimism surrounding UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit policy.

The FTSE hit a low of 7,130 points on Monday morning, around 12 points lower than its opening level on 2017's first trading day, January 3. As of 10.10 a.m. GMT (5.10 a.m. ET) the index has pulled a little higher, and is trading at 7,153 points, a fall of 0.64% on the day.

Here's how the Footsie looks:Investing.com

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US regulators are investigating why it took so long for Yahoo to say it was hacked

• Reuters and Rob Price

• 5h
• 73

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File

US regulators are reportedly investigating why it took Yahoo so long to disclose it was hacked.

According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is examining whether the company should have told investors sooner about two huge data breaches.

Yahoo has faced pointed questions about exactly when it knew about a 2014 cyber attack it announced in September 2016 that exposed the email credentials of half a billion accounts.

Then in December, Yahoo said it had uncovered yet another massive cyber attack, saying data from more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013.

The SEC issued requests for documents in December, as it probes whether the technology company's disclosures about the cyber attacks complied with civil securities laws, according to the WSJ.

In a November 2016 quarterly filing, Yahoo said that it was "cooperating with federal, state and foreign" agencies, including the SEC, that were seeking information and documents about a "security incident and related matters."

In the US, securities industry rules require companies to disclose cyber breaches to investors. Although the SEC has long-standing guidance on when publicly traded companies should report hacking incidents, companies that have experienced known breaches often omit those details in regulatory filings, according to a 2012 Reuters investigation.

In September 2016, Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner asked the SEC to investigate whether Yahoo and its senior executives fulfilled obligations to inform investors and the public about the 2014 hacking attack.

The disclosures from Yahoo about both breaches came after the company agreed to sell its main business to Verizon in July, triggering questions about whether the deal would still be viable and, if so, at what price. The deal is expected to close soon, according to The New York Post, and will see what's left of the business renamed as "Altaba."

Other agencies looking into the data breach include the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan and "a number of State Attorneys General," Yahoo said in the November filing.

More: Reuters Company News YAHOO-SEC/PROBE Yahoo Hacking 

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