Aurelia Butler

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain must make a decision this week on whether to extradite tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch to the United States after he failed on Wednesday to have it delayed until the end of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against him.U.S. prosecutors want the 56-year-old to stand trial in the United States on fraud charges connected to the sale of Autonomy, the software company he founded and led, to Hewlett-Packard (HP (NYSE:HPQ)) in an $11 billion deal in 2011.Lynch has tried to stop the extradition process until a decision in a London civil case brought by Hewlett-Packard is made public, something that is expected in the next few weeks.Last year, a judge at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruled Lynch could be extradited, and also rejected his attempt to delay Home Secretary Priti Patel’s decision on whether to agree to his extradition.On Wednesday, the High Court in London rejected his challenge to the Westminster Magistrates ruling.The court’s decision means that Patel, who also wanted to wait until after the verdict was given in the civil trial, must now give her decision in the next few days.Whatever Patel concludes will not be the end of the matter as Lynch is likely to appeal if she approves his extradition.In the meantime, a long-awaited judgement on the multibillion-dollar Autonomy civil case will also finally be made public shortly, some two years after the trial ended.Hewlett-Packard is suing Lynch along with his former finance chief Sushovan Hussain for more than $5 billion, alleging they inflated the value of the British data firm before selling it. Lynch and Hussain have denied the allegations.HP bought Autonomy, whose software searches and sorts data, in 2011 but a year later it wrote down its value by $8.8 billion, saying it had uncovered serious accounting improprieties.The U.S. software giant said Lynch was complicit in a series of fraudulent transactions to drive revenue growth at Autonomy.During a hearing last week over Lynch’s extradition challenge, London’s High Court was told the result of that lawsuit should be publicised in the next two to three weeks. More

Apple has reclaimed the top smartphone seller spot in China for the first time in six years as biting US sanctions throttled shipments from rival Huawei. The California company cornered 23 per cent of the world’s largest phone market in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to research group Counterpoint, which noted it was Apple’s highest ever market share in the country.While Apple’s smartphone shipments in China were up 32 per cent to 50m units from a year earlier, Huawei saw its sales collapse 73 per cent, according to Counterpoint. Apple has gone to great lengths to placate Beijing amid fierce geopolitical tensions with Washington and has so far avoided falling foul of China’s vociferous army of online nationalists, who have taken aim at other western companies including Intel, Walmart, H&M and Adidas. Chief executive Tim Cook has been adept at navigating the concerns of Chinese leaders helping to boost the US company’s growth. Total China smartphone sales were down 9 per cent year on year in the three-month period, with local brand Vivo the second best seller, the data showed.Chinese national champion Huawei has been unable to get chips for its premium smartphones for more than a year due to US export controls intended to deny the company access to essential technology and component supplies.Washington’s sanctions have forced Huawei to sell its budget brand Honor to a government-backed consortium and retool its business away from smartphones, which had once been a key pillar for the company. Huawei’s revenues last year fell to an estimated Rmb634bn ($100bn), down 29 per cent from 2020.“China’s high-end smartphone market was dominated by Huawei for years . . . [and] with Huawei out, Apple doesn’t have a competitor in the segment,” said Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam. Lam noted other Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo were less successful at breaking into the premium market last year.Apple’s fourth-quarter sales bump came on the back of the launch of its more affordable iPhone 13 model. Lam noted Apple has also been more willing to work with Chinese ecommerce sites that add their own discounts to lure customers.China is an increasingly important market for the US group. In the year to September 25, Apple brought in 19 per cent of its revenue from greater China, which includes the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Sales were up 70 per cent over the prior year and operating income in China almost doubled to $29bn. Apple has set up a data centre with a state-owned partner to store Chinese user data. The US group regularly pulls apps at the government’s request and blocks potentially problematic products from running in the country, such as Apple News.Apple has also gradually brought more mainland Chinese companies into its supply chain and its top manufacturer Taiwanese company Foxconn employs tens of thousands of workers in the country.Nian Liu contributed research More

Investing.com — The Federal Reserve is expected to lay the groundwork for a March rate hike as it grapples with high inflation, setting aside concerns over the recent bout of market volatility. U.S. equities are attempting a cautious rebound, supported by an upbeat sales forecast from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) are among some of the companies reporting quarterly earnings. Geopolitical tensions are underpinning oil prices ahead of U.S. inventory data and the Bank of Canada is considering its first hike rate since 2018. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, 26th January.The Fed isn’t expected to announce any policy changes at the conclusion of its two-day meeting later Wednesday but is expected to indicate that rate hikes will begin in March.U.S. inflation has surged to a near four-decade high while the unemployment rate has fallen back to 3.9%, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell is facing a communication challenge with markets that have grown used to looser monetary policy.Investors will be looking for clues on the timeline and pace of rate hikes and the central bank’s plans for trimming its almost $9 trillion balance sheet, another way of tightening monetary policy.Powell will need to strike a balance in communicating the Fed’s intentions to keep the economic recovery on track while simultaneously taking measures to curb high inflation.The announcement of the Fed’s policy decision will come at 2 PM EST (1900 GMT) and will be followed half an hour later by a press conference with Powell.U.S. stock markets are set to rebound after another volatile session on Tuesday which saw the three major stock indexes close lower, but above the lowest levels of the day.By 6:25 AM ET, Dow Jones futures were up 0.9%. S&P 500 futures added on 1.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.8%.The S&P 500 came close to correction territory on Tuesday, closing 9.2% below the record high it set on Jan. 3 amid a broad-based selloff triggered by concerns over a more hawkish sounding Fed and heightened geopolitical tensions.Markets were boosted after Microsoft reported earnings and revenue for the second quarter that was ahead of forecasts. The stock initially fell in after-hours trade, before surging higher (NASDAQ:MSFT) after the company also forecast revenue for the current quarter that exceeded forecasts, boosted by solid demand for cloud computing.The report boosted the outlook for upcoming results from competitors Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL).The corporate earnings roster features results from companies including Boeing, AT&T (NYSE:T), Abbott Labs (NYSE:ABT), Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ), Kimberly Clark (NYSE:KMB) and Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) ahead of the open, while Tesla and Intel will report after the close.Tesla’s fourth-quarter revenue is seen at a record $16.88 billion with profit per share coming in at $2.25, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com. Analysts will be listening to what Elon Musk’s company says about the outlook for production, as well as competition from newer EV companies and old-guard auto makers such as General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F).Analysts will be looking to Intel’s earnings report for clues on the supply chain and chip production efforts.Oil prices edged higher underpinned by geopolitical tensions as investors awaited the Fed meeting and the latest U.S. inventory data later in the day.By 6:25 AM ET, U.S. crude futures were up 0.7% at $86.16 a barrel, having risen 2.8% on Tuesday.Brent futures were up 0.7% at $87.83 a barrel after climbing 2.2% in the previous session.Tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine remained to the fore. Russia is insisting it does not plan to invade Ukraine, but the West has threatened severe sanctions if that does happen.Stockpile data released overnight by the American Petroleum Institute showed that U.S. crude and distillate inventories fell in the week ended Jan. 21 while gasoline inventories rose.Energy traders are looking ahead to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) weekly U.S. oil inventories report, due for release at 10.30 AM EST (1530 GMT).The Fed is not the only central bank announcing a policy decision today – The Bank of Canada is also meeting, and it may announce its first rate hike since 2018.Canadian inflation is running at a 30-year high of 4.8% but BoC officials will need to take the economic fallout from the Omicron variant into account when deciding whether to begin a tightening cycle.The BoC decision will be announced at 10 AM EST (1500 GMT).The Canadian dollar was up around 0.5% to 1.2569 versus the dollar by 06.25 AM EST.–Reuters and Investing.com staff contributed to this report. More