Confident in recent investments, BMO finally unveils a strategy + MORE Jan 30th

Since the financial crisis, the country’s fourth largest lender has reimagined the way it does business at home

TOKYO – Japan’s industrial output edged higher in December, suggesting the world’s third-largest economy may be turning the corner on a recession brought on by a hefty sales tax hike.
Data released Friday showed manufacturing output increased 0.3 per cent in December from a year earlier and by 1 per cent from the month before. However, inflation moderated to 2.5 per cent from a year earlier, compared with 2.7 per cent in November. The core consumer price index, excluding food, fell 0.2 per cent from the month before.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made pushing prices higher the main focus of economic policies aimed at ending years of deflation that have discouraged corporate investment and stymied growth.
Falling energy costs thanks to the plunge in oil prices is countering that trend. But lower oil prices have had a limited effect on the economy so far, since the CPI excluding both food and energy was unchanged from the previous month.
Meanwhile, Japan’s jobless rate dipped to 3…

LUDLOW, Vt. – Seventy-five years ago, the government cut 65-year-old Ida May Fuller a check. It was numbered 00-000-001 — the first Social Security payout.
Fuller, of Ludlow, Vermont, didn’t realize it at the time, but her check helped launch the granddaddy of all entitlement programs. And it secured Fuller, who never married and had no children, a place in American history.
Today, even as its future lies in financial uncertainty, many consider Social Security one of government’s biggest successes. But in its infancy it was hardly a sure thing, and not well understood by many, including Fuller.
“It wasn’t that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I’d been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it,” she’s quoted as saying in a Social Security Administration document.
Fuller, known around Ludlow as “Aunt Ida,” died in 1975 at age 100. By then, she had already become a celebrity of sorts, with a few previous brushes with fame…

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Amazon.com Inc.’s fourth-quarter earnings roundly beat analyst expectations, sending the Seattle e-commerce giant’s stock soaring 14 per cent in aftermarket trading. Here’s a closer look at what investors applauded and hope continues.
SMART SPENDING
Operating expenses rose 15 per cent to $28.74 billion but that was less than some analysts had expected Amazon would spend. Investors have long wanted Amazon to show some restraint as it invests in its business, and this metric seemed to be a sign that Amazon is willing to do that. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the lower-than-expected costs were related to flat fulfilment expenses — what the company spends on its distribution centres and deliveries — during the holiday season even though Amazon shipped 100 million more free items. The company also spent less on marketing expenses since the launch of its new hardware like Fire TV and the Fire Smartphone are behind it.
“They’re getting far more efficient at delivery,” said Pachter…

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co., the Japanese automaker at the centre of an air-bag defect scandal, lowered its annual earnings forecast after quarterly profit slipped 15 per cent.
The poor results announced Friday by the Tokyo-based manufacturer of the Odyssey minivan, Fit subcompact and Asimo robot came despite a perk it got from the cheap yen, a plus for Japanese exporters.
Honda recorded a 136.5 billion yen ($1.16 billion) profit for the three months through December 2014, in line with forecasts by analysts.
Honda says it was hurt by recall expenses, mainly in North America. Honda has been the hardest hit by the quality woes over Takata Corp. air-bags that explode. It relied on that Japanese supplier most heavily.
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