Flat tech spending projected in wake of Brexit

Spending by companies on technology is expected to be flat in 2016, with currency fluctuations and Brexit weighing on some of the growth, according to a new forecast from Gartner. The impact of the British exit from the European Union will “quickly affect” IT spending in the U.K. and Europe, the research company said. It believes the impacts on staffing and hiring will be the biggest near-term issue, with long-term uncertainty in work status making the U.K. less attractive to new foreign workers. Brexit could give U.K. IT departments less access to international talent, Gartner said. Offsetting some of that impact will be the continued growth of software, services and data centers. The largest increases in IT spending this year are expected to come from enterprise software, which is on pace to grow 5.8% year-over-year to $332 billion. Spending on services is projected to accelerate by 3.7% to $898 billion, while spending on data centers is forecast to grow 2% to $175 billion.

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Four ex-Barclays traders sentenced to prison over Libor rigging

Four former traders who worked for Barclays PLC have been sentenced to prison for conspiring to illegally fix global benchmark interest rates, news reports said Thursday. The sentences, ranging from 33 months to six-and-a-half years, were handed down by a judge in London. Jay Merchant, a 45-year-old former derivatives trader, received the longest sentence. The four men will serve half of their sentences in prison and then be released on parole, said Judge Anthony Leonard, according to a Reuters report. The men were accused of trying to fraudulently influence the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. That benchmark is used to set interest rates on trillions of dollars in financial contracts. The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office is seeking a retrial of two former Barclays employees charged alongside three of those sentenced, after a jury earlier failed to reach verdicts for the pair.

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3 more U.K. firms cut the value of their property funds

Three U.K. firms on Thursday slashed the value of their property funds, as the Brexit vote continues to hammer the country’s real-estate sector. Legal & General cut the value of a £2.3 billion fund ($3 billion) by 10%, and Foreign & Colonial took down a £290 million fund by 5%, a Guardian report said. And investment manager CCLA cut the value of three institutional property funds holding a total of £1.3 billion in assets by 4.5%, a Reuters report said. This news comes after Aberdeen Fund Management reduced a property fund’s value by 17% and said it would suspend trading, and six other U.K. property funds also were frozen Wednesday.

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U.S. stocks open slightly higher after upbeat employment data

U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors balanced a pair of stronger-than-expected employment reports against the implications of the U.K.s vote to leave the European Union. Investors are waiting for the official non-farm payrolls report due on Friday. In corporate earnings, PepsiCo Inc. shares rose 2% after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Thursday. The S&P 500 opened 3 points, or 0.2%, higher at 2,102. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 23 points, or 0.1%, to 17,941. The Nasdaq Composite was up 11 points, or 0.2% at 4.871.

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Paychex raises quarterly dividend by 10%, unveils $350 million share buyback program

Paychex Inc. said Thursday it is raising its quarterly dividend by 10% to 46 cents a share. The new payment will be made August 25 to shareholders of record as of August 1. The payroll software company said its board has approved a share buyback program of up to $350 million. Shares were slightly higher in premarket trade and are up 15% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.7%.

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Kellogg’s is updating its Raisin Bran brand

Kellogg’s got a brand new bag — of cereal. The breakfast and snack company on Thursday said it’s updating its classic Raisin Bran with granola. The new Raisin Bran Granola is offered in two flavors: Raisin & Honey Granola and Cranberry Almond Granola. The company said in a news release the updated Raisin Bran cereals, meant to capture adult tastes, are available in stores at a suggested $3.99 retail price. Kellogg’s recently opened a cafe in New York’s Times Square in a move to transform the simple breakfast staple into a dining event and join the fast-casual dining trend.

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KaloBios strikes agreement with Martin Shkreli restricting his actions as shareholder

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. [otc:kbioq] said Thursday it has signed a definitive agreement with biotech investor Martin Shkreli regarding his ownership of the company’s common stock. The company said the agreement includes an option for the company to repurchase his shares, and restricts his action as a shareholder. Shkreli was arrested last December and charged with securities fraud relating to another company. Under the terms of the agreement, for 180 days following June 30, the day the company emerged from bankruptcy protection, Shkreli is not allowed to sell his shares to any third party at a price per share that is less than the greater of (x) $2.50 and (y) a 10% discount to the prior two-week volume-weighted average price, defined as the market discount price, the company said in a statement. KaloBios has the right to purchase any of all of Shkreli’s shares at a purchase price equal to the market discount price for 180 days following the 61st day after June 30. The company also settled class action litigation related to Shkreli’s tenure with the company.

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PepsiCo. second-quarter earnings beats Wall Street forecasts

PepsiCo. Inc. on Thursday posted quarterly adjusted earnings that exceeded analyst expectations, with revenue meeting Wall Street’s target. Second-quarter net earnings at the beverages heavyweight came in at $2.01 billion, or $1.38 a share, up from $1.99 billion, or $1.33 a share, a year ago. Adjusted earnings were $1.35 a share. Revenue was $15.4 billion, down from $15.9 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $1.29 a share, on revenue of $15.4 billion. The Pepsi soda maker also estimated 2016 organic revenue growth of 4%. It expects to return $7 billion to shareholders in 2016 through dividends of $4 billion and share buybacks of $3 billion.

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Attorney general: Hillary Clinton won’t be charged in email probe

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that she does not plan to file any charges against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for Clinton’s email practices as secretary of state. Clinton used a personal email server while dealing with confidential information in her role leading the State Department in President Barack Obama’s administration, which led to an inquiry. FBI Director James Comey blasted Clinton’s email practices Tuesday, but said that the FBI did not feel charges were “appropriate” in the case. In her statement, Lynch said she spoke to Comey at length earlier in the day and came to the same realization. “I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation that the thorough, year-long investigation be closed and that no charges be brought against any individuals within the scope of the investigation” Lynch wrote.

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Oil higher after API data said to show big drop in U.S. crude supplies

The American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday reported that crude supplies fell 6.7 million barrels for the week ended July 1, according to sources who reviewed the report. The closely watched Energy Information Administration report is due Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern time, with data delayed by a day following Monday’s Independence Day holiday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a 2.6 million-barrel decline in crude supplies. Following the API data, August crude was at $47.91 a barrel in electronic trading, up from the $47.43 settlement on Nymex.

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