Rallying back: Wall Street rallied more than 3% on Wednesday afternoon as fears about China’s economy gave way to bargain hunters emboldened by expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve might not raise interest rates next month. As Reuters reports, the surge followed a similar strong rise on Tuesday that collapsed late in the session with many traders unwilling to hold stocks overnight. In a sign that a faltering Chinese economy and slumping global financial markets could affect U.S. monetary policy, New York Fed President William Dudley says the prospect of a September rate hike seemed “less compelling” than it was just two weeks ago. Read the full story.
Big deal: Wednesday’s announcement of Schlumberger Ltd.’s blockbuster acquisition of Cameron International Corp. helped make the last year the most active for energy acquisitions and mergers since the late 1990s. Data compiled by Bloomberg shows there has been about $260 billion in deals in the second quarter of 2015. The final two quarters of 2014 each had about $160 billion in deals. Schlumberger acquired the oil gear manufacturing company for about $14.8 billion. See Bloomberg for the full story and chart.
Scaling down: Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, confirmed Wednesday it has been working to phase out sales of assault rifles in its fleet of big-box stores. The Washington Post reports Wal-Mart says it made the decision this spring to start taking modern sporting rifles, or “MSRs,” off its shelves. The company says the move was not made in response to political clashes about gun violence but rather is a reflection waning customer interest in these products. Despite Wal-Mart’s statements, the move is likely to become a talking point in a simmering national debate about gun policy, which heated up earlier this year in the wake of the shooting in Charleston, S.C., at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that left nine dead. The issue may come to the forefront again after a Wednesday shooting in Virginia in which two journalists were killed during a live television broadcast. Read the full story.
