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Equinix Inc. Chief Executive Steve Smith resigned Thursday after what the company called “poor judgment with respect to an employee matter.” Equinix will replace Smith on an interim basis with former CEO Peter Van Camp, who had been serving as executive chairman for the data-center company since handing the reins to Smith in 2007. “The Board gave this matter the deepest consideration and recognizes the many contributions Steve made over the past eleven years to achieve the global scale, reach and market leadership the company enjoys today. He has worked hard to grow and sustain the business, and we greatly appreciate his efforts,” Van Camp said in the announcement, adding that the incident that led to Smith’s resignation “was not related to the company’s operational performance or financial condition.” Equinix shares fell more than 1% in after-hours trading following the announcement.

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George Soros delivered a strident criticism of two of the world’s biggest technology giants: Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., in a Thursday speech. The billionaire investor who runs family office Soros Fund Management said Facebook Inc. and Google are “obstacles to innovation.” He said their businesses and social networks would see marginal returns, during a speech in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. The remarks from the prominent octogenarian come as Facebook is restructuring its newsfeed and social-media platform in the face of criticisms that platforms like Google and Facebook helped to turn the tide of the 2016 U.S. election in favor of Donald Trump, giving a platform to Russians to influence voters. He said the days of dominance of those tech giants are numbered because of taxation and regulation.

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World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Chief Executive Vince McMahon said Thursday he plans to relaunch his XFL professional-football league in 2020, and will not allow players to make political statements on the field. McMahon, whose previous XFL attempt fell apart after two seasons, said he would use $100 million of his own money to start the league apart from the WWE; McMahon sold just under $100 million in WWE stock late last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a news conference announcing the league, which McMahon said would have eight teams, he said that his ownership of all the teams would allow him to have greater control over players than in the National Football League. NFL players were lambasted by President Donald Trump earlier this year for kneeling during the national anthem as a protest against police brutality and racial injustice; McMahon’s wife, Linda, works in the Trump administration as head of the Small Business Association. “People don’t want social and political issues coming into play when they are trying to be entertained,” McMahon said, according to ESPN.com. “We want someone who wants to take a knee to do their version of that on their personal time.” McMahon also said he would not accept any player with a criminal record.

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Billionaire investor George Soros on Thursday warned that President Donald Trump’s administration threatens to put the U.S. and North Korea on a war footing. He described the administration as “a danger to the world” but said he expected a landslide win during the 2018 midterm elections in the U.S. to turn the tide on the presidency. The 87-year-old Hungarian-born investor’s comments came during a speech in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Form. Soros in the past has expressed concerns about Trump and democracy across the globe since Britain voted to exit from the European Union in June of 2016. According to The Wall Street Journal, Soros lost about $1 billion on wrong-way bets following the stock market’s rally after Trump’s election victory. Soros helped pioneer the hedge-fund industry and is best known for an outsize bet against the pound in the early 1990s.

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into “certain market practices” by participants in the municipal bond market, according to Bloomberg News. The California treasurer’s office said the SEC was conducting an investigation into the $3.8 trillion market, after a request for information led to the unexpected disclosure. But the treasurer’s office was vague on the extent of the probe. An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the report.

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Oil prices turned lower in the last few minutes of trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, pressured by a sudden move higher in a key index for the U.S. dollar, which had tapped their lowest levels in three years. CNBC reported that President Donald Trump said the dollar is poised to strengthen, lifting the greenback and putting pressure on dollar-denominated prices of oil just ahead of their settlement. March West Texas Intermediate crude fell 10 cents, or nearly 0.2%, to settle at $65.51 a barrel.

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The U.S. dollar turned positive and retraced its loss against rivals in Thursday afternoon trading after a CNBC interview with President Donald Trump endorsed the strength of the dollar. Trump said the greenback would strengthen along with the U.S. economy, calling for greenback to get “stronger and stronger,” in an excerpt from a previously recorded interview on the network in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. The president’s comments follow remarks from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who said a weaker dollar benefited U.S. trade. A weaker currency can be beneficial for exports and trade, which has been one of the key causes of the Trump administration. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index reclaimed much of its lost territory, which took it to a fresh three-year low, and was last up 0.1% at 89.306.

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From:: Stock Market News

Gold futures rose Thursday to settle at their highest in about year and a half, buoyed by weakness in the U.S. dollar, as a leading index for the greenback continued to touch their lowest levels in more than three years. A weaker dollar tends to boost dollar-denominated prices of gold. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index was down 0.5% at 88.72. February gold rose $6.60, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,362.90 an ounce, marking the highest finish since Aug. 4, 2016 for a most-active futures contract, according to FactSet data.

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he would reconsider U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership if the agreement was much better. “If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP,” Trump told CNBC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump also said the U.S. is trying to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. “I think we have a good chance, but we’ll see what happens,” he said. On Tuesday, negotiators from 11 Pacific nations agreed on a TPP deal. There are no ongoing talks that involve the U.S.

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From:: Stock Market News