TopNews

There is a question about when policy makers of the Federal Reserve System will raise interest rates. But before that question, it is important to know if the policy makers have figured out how to do that. And the answer is: they haven't quite figured it out.

Since 2008 financial crisis, the United States central bank has been trying to control near-term borrowing costs, but in that case, the central bank has faced troubles. While the bank's main new tool has enabled the Federal Reserve System to exert more influence over money-market rates in the last year, experts at investment banking companies like Barclays to Goldman Sachs said that the bank's program is too small to stop rates from falling.

Cable giant Comcast announced that the closing date for its acquisition of Time Warner Cable will be somewhere around mid of 2015.

Comcast proposed a $45 billion deal to unite the two largest US cable companies 13 months ago. The Merger was proposed to create an internet and TV giant that will serve nearly 30% of cable-TV subscribers and more than half of high-speed Internet subscribers.

After the announcement of transaction in February 2014, government regulators, which include The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Justice Department, would conclude their review by the end of that year or the beginning of 2015.

According to a study released on Thursday, unemployment among African-Americans in Wisconsin last year was the highest of all the 50 US states.

The report released by the center-left Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC, revealed that present employment rate in Wisconsin is 19.9%, which is three times higher than the highest state white unemployment rate.

It is also higher than the national black unemployment rate of 11%. The report also showed that Wisconsin's black unemployment rate is twice the overall national unemployment rate at the peak of the recession.

Shares of Red Hat increased as much as 5% in after-hours trading. The shares of the company soared after it posted strong quarterly results, which beat past Wall Street's expectations.

About 2,971,552 shares were traded during trading session, marking 130% from the earlier session's volume.

Red Hat reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter and with this, it beat the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.02. The company had generated revenue of $464.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus prediction of $456.80 million. It posted $0.39 earnings per share during the same quarter in the previous year.

Red Hat CEO and President Jim Whitehurst said that the company strategy and its movement towards open hybrid cloud technologies led to strong results.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), on Wednesday, has made a formal announcement that it was investigating whether Lumber Liquidators sold products with dangerous levels of formaldehyde. It is one of the nation's largest discount flooring retailers.

Elliot F. Kaye, the commission's chairman, in a call with reporters, said that the company had been cooperating with the agency's inquiry.

The agency looked into the matter following the CBS News program "60 Minutes" report that accused Lumber Liquidators of selling laminate flooring in California and violating the state's regulations on safety levels for formaldehyde products.

The company has disputed the news program's testing methods and has repeatedly insisted that its products are safe.

German sportswear company Adidas has decided to speed up product innovation. According to the sportswear major, which designs and manufactures sports shoes, clothing and accessories, it has planned to prioritize some of globe's biggest cities to accelerate profit growth.

On Thursday, Herbert Hainer, Chief Executive Officer of the company based in Herzogenaurach, said that speed will be one of three key strategies for the company to drive future growth. According to Hainer, speed will help the company to get the latest products to customers more quickly. According to reports, the world's second-biggest sporting-goods maker will also make investment to do good business in cities like New York, London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris and Shanghai.