British PM Minister May Survives No-Confidence Vote

News Team

6 years ago

British Prime Minister Theresa May has won a confidence vote by Conservative Party lawmakers that could have brought her leadership to an abrupt end, and more in Wednesday’s Markets In Brief.

In secret ballot on Wednesday, 200 lawmakers backed May and 117 voted against her.

The result means May can keep her positions as party leader and prime minister while continuing an uphill battle to win parliamentary approval for her Brexit plan.

Her victory means fellow Conservatives cannot challenge her for another year.

May could still face a challenge in Parliament if the opposition Labour Party seeks a confidence vote in the House of Commons over the EU divorce plan.

She plans to lobby European Union leaders for changes to the proposed divorce deal, which is unpopular with many lawmakers.

MARKETS IN BRIEF

US Consumer Prices Flat in November as Energy Plunges

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in November, the best performance since prices actually fell eight months ago. The docile inflation reading reflected a big drop in the cost of gasoline and other energy products.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the unchanged inflation reading last month followed a 0.3 percent jump in prices in October. It was the lowest reading since consumer prices actually fell 0.1 percent in March. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.2 percent in November.

Over the past 12 months, consumer prices have risen 2.2 percent and core prices are also up 2.2 percent. That performance is close to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for annual price gains and indicates that inflation remains well-behaved.

Verizon Slips On $4.6B Charge Related to Oath Media Business

Shares of Verizon are falling before the opening bell after the company said it would take a $4.6 billion hit for what’s become an expensive internet foray that’s never panned out.

In a regulatory filing late Tuesday, Verizon Communications Inc. says that it will take the charge in the fourth quarter to cover weak revenue and earnings from its Oath media business. Verizon expects Oath to face continued competitive pressure and says that the benefits from integrating Yahoo and AOL with the enterprise were less than expected.

Verizon this week said that 10,400 U.S. managers have accepted voluntary buyout offers. The New York company is making $10 billion in cost cuts, money that will be used to ramp up 5G technology investments.

Shares are down more than 1 percent Wednesday.

Report: ‘High-Tech’ Robot On Russian TV Was Man In Suit

Russian media say a contraption presented by Russian state television as a high-tech robot was in fact a man in a commercially available robot costume.

The footage was shot at a high-tech show in the city of Yaroslavl that opened Tuesday, featuring “Boris the Robot.” Forum organizers used Boris to enliven the event, having him dance to a pop song.But a crew for Russian state television apparently thought Boris was real, and used footage of him dancing and speaking as an example of Russian technological prowess.Online TJournal noted the lack of sensors, human-like movements and other discrepancies, and revealed that Boris was in fact a human clad in a costume sold under the name Alyosha by the Russian company Show Robots.