Tribune shares decline after full-year outlook cut

Tribune Publishing Co. shares fell in the extended session Friday after the publisher said it was cutting its outlook for the year. Tribune shares declined 3.8% to $10.19. The company now expects full-year revenue of $1.65 billion to $1.68 billion, rather than its previous forecast of $1.67 billion to $1.7 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated $1.71 billion.

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Moody’s downgrades France to Aa2 from Aa1 on concerns about weak growth

Moody’s Investors Service on Friday downgraded France’s sovereign rating to Aa2 from Aa1, citing the continued weakness in the country’s medium-term growth outlook. “The main driver of Moody’s decision to downgrade France’s government bond rating to Aa2 is the increasing clarity, in Moody’s view, that French economic growth will remain low over the medium term, and the obstacle that this will pose for any material reversal in France’s elevated debt burden in the foreseeable future,” the agency said in a statement. The current economic recovery in France is slower than others in the past few decades, partly because it has lost competitive power and growth potential following the 2008 financial crisis, it said. The country is also grappling with a high unemployment rate, weak corporate profit margins and a loss of global export market share. Moody’s revised its outlook on the rating to stable, which means it does not expect to change it in the next 12 to 18 months.

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Obama presidential library design competition draws 140 entrants

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Some 140 architectural firms have put their names forward as candidates to design the Obama presidential library near the University of Chicago on the city’s South Side, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Nearly 71% of the “request for qualifications” submissions came from U.S. firms, the Sun-Times reports, with “many” said to have come from within Chicago’s highly regarded design community. Overall, according to the report, bidding firms hail from 60 cities in 25 countries. Chicago was picked in May to host the Obama Presidential Center — which is expected to comprise the library, a museum, the Barack Obama Foundation, meeting rooms and outdoor spaces — having outdueled entries from Honolulu and New York City.

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Dow’s nearly 300-point tumble marks second-worst Friday in 2015

U.S. stocks got hammered Friday, but The Dow Jones Industrial Average really took it on the chin. The Dow suffered its second-worst Friday drop in 2015 on a point and percentage basis, according to Dow Jones data. Blue-chips tumbled 289 points, or 1.7%, to finish at 16,384.79, registering their worst close since Aug. 21, when the Dow plunged by 530 points, or 3.1%, to 16,459.75, fueled by worries about China’s sluggish economy. This time around the stock-market rout was inspired by the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave rates unchanged due to concerns about emerging-market economies like China. The other main indexes didn’t fare much better. The S&P 500 lost 32.12 points, or 1.6%, to close at 1,958.08, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 66.72 points, or 1.4%, to end the week at 4,827.23.

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Finland AAA rating affirmed at Fitch, but outlook revised to negative

Fitch Ratings on Friday affirmed its AAA rating on Finland’s sovereign debt, but revised the outlook to negative, which means it could downgrade the rating over the longer term. The Triple A rating reflects the Nordic country’s sound fiscal policy management and economic policies, the agency said in a note. Finland is one of just seven OECD countries to enjoy a government net asset position, and its debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 59% of GDP in 2014, well above the AAA median of 44.5%. However, the Finnish economy is adjusting to shocks in some key industries, including electronics, communications and forestry, at a time when its population is rapidly ageing. The country is also highly exposed to Russia, its neighbor and second-biggest export market. “The combination of cyclical weakness and structural difficulties is adversely affecting the public finances,” Fitch analysts wrote.

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NYSE Arca routing issues resolved after 19 minutes

The NYSE said an issue affection the routing of issues on NYSE Arca, its electronic trading platform, across all symbols, has been resolved after about 19 minutes. “NYSE Arca experienced an issue routing Tape A, B & C symbols,” the NYSE said in an alert statement. “The issue began at 15:15:12 ET and was resolved as of 15:34:01 ET.” The NYSE didn’t give any details on what the issue was.

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Oil ends lower as Fed decision ups worries about energy demand

Oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as the Federal Reserve’s decision not to raise interest rates raised concerns over the U.S. economy and the outlook for energy demand. October crude fell $2.22, or 4.7%, for the session to settle at $44.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices were up a nickel from the week-ago settlement of $44.63.

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Gold futures settle 3.1% higher for the week

Gold futures finished with a sharp gain on Friday, up 3.1% for the week in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged. December gold rose $20.80, or 1.9%, for the session to settle at $1,137.80 an ounce on Comex. That was the highest settlement since Sept. 1.

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Goldman Sachs sees limited impact of Fed rate hike on emerging markets

A Federal Reserve interest-rate hike, when it happens, is likely to have a limited impact on emerging markets given that an eventual tightening of the U.S. monetary policy had been widely anticipated, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “We believe emerging market assets have largely adjusted to the likelihood of modest rate hikes in the US. As a result, we continue to believe emerging market assets will be driven primarily by local fundamentals,” the analysts said in a note. The Fed on Thursday kept interest rates at near zero due to global headwinds but suggested that it could raise rates by the end of the year. Stock markets in some of the largest emerging markets countries rose in the wake of the Fed’s decisions. China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.4%, Korea’s Kospi gained 1%, and India’s benchmark rose 1%. However, Brazil’s Ibovespa closed mostly unchanged on Thursday but fell 1.8% Friday while Russia’s Micex dropped 1.1%.

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Oil drilling rig count falls a third straight week

Oil futures pared losses after data from Baker Hughes released Friday showed that the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs fell 8 to 644 as of Sept. 18. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes natural-gas rigs, was at 842, down 6 rigs. Compared to last year, the total rig count has fallen by 1,089, with the oil rig count down 957. Oct. crude was down $1.39, or 3%, to $45.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was trading at $45.45 just before the data.

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