Briefcase: Fed officials in June wary of looming economic risks

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve minutes of the June 16-17 discussions released Wednesday showed that while one Fed official was ready to begin hiking rates at the meeting, “most participants” believed that conditions were not yet ripe for an interest rate increase.

The minutes revealed that many Fed officials expressed concern about the impact a failure to reach a deal on Greek debt might have on financial markets. They also mentioned concerns about future growth in China and other emerging markets.

While private economists had expected the Fed’s first rate hike to occur in September, the recent standoff on Greek debt and the sharp plunge in Chinese stock prices – which emerged after the Fed’s June gathering – have prompted many analysts to expect a delay until the end of the year.

“Since the June meeting, much has changed on the world stage, none of it particularly good for the U.S. economy,” said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

The minutes of the June meeting were released with the customary three-week lag after the meeting. The Fed took note in its policy statement of the rebound that had occurred in the U.S. economy since it stalled in the first quarter.

Microsoft cuts Nokia jobs

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft is cutting 7,800 jobs and writing off $7.6 billion in connection with its purchase of Nokia’s phone business as the giant software maker tries to narrow its focus and pull back from a series of ill-fated forays onto rival tech companies’ turf.

The cuts announced Wednesday come on top of 18,000 jobs that Microsoft trimmed last year, just months after the company paid $7.3 billion for Nokia in the hope of expanding its footprint in the smartphone hardware business where Apple and Samsung are market leaders.

But Microsoft’s new boss, Satya Nadella, has been pulling back from phone hardware and digital advertising after seeing weak returns on those ventures. Last month, he announced a deal to hand over most of Microsoft’s remaining display advertising business to AOL Inc.

After seeing a slight rise in the morning, Microsoft shares closed Wednesday at $44.24, down 6 cents on a day when a number of tech stocks saw declines.

Analysts say Nadella is making a big bet that people will use new versions of Microsoft’s software on a wide variety of computing devices – including tablets, videogame consoles and even holographic headsets.

Nadella said the latest cuts will primarily affect the Nokia phone business, which has several thousand workers in Finland.

Chase to settle, pay $136M

WASHINGTON – JPMorgan Chase will pay $136 million to settle charges that it used illegal tactics to go after delinquent credit card borrowers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Wednesday.

The bureau alleged the bank illegally relied on robo-signing – signing mass quantities of documents without verifying the data in those accounts – and provided inaccurate information to third-party debt collectors when it sold the accounts.

The bureau also said that Chase filed misleading lawsuits using inaccurate information to obtain debt collection judgments – on accounts that were paid off, discharged in bankruptcy, or otherwise were uncollectable.