Alas, it’s not all warm fuzzies in the U.S. retail space, following Walmart and TJX’s recent decisions to increase minimum wages.  Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) announced Tuesday that it will be laying off “several thousand” employees, primarily in United States and Indian locations, as part of its broader plan to save $2 billion between now and 2017.

The budget cut initiatives are an important facet of Target Chief Executive Brian C. Cornell’s plans to go “lean and mean” in business parlance – in specific, he plans to have the company focusing on significantly fewer product lines, particularly those that are of higher quality and/or lower price, as well as spending money on increasing its online presence.  Cornell was also quoted as saying that Target may also be working on agility at a management level, and shifting corporate culture from a process-based one to a consumer-focused one.  Regarding consumers, Cornell wants Target to draw in more Millennial and Hispanic customers, with both sectors vital to driving a potential revival of fortunes.

According to Target, the layoffs will mainly be centered on its Minneapolis and India corporate offices, which employ a combined 26,000 individuals; the retailer added that the layoffs will not affect its 1,800 physical stores in the United States.  With the job cuts and a $1 billion investment in technology and supply chain upgrades, Target hopes that its profit margins remain between 9.5 percent and 10 percent over the coming five years.

Former Walmart and PepsiCo executive Cornell took over from former CEO Gregg W. Steinhafel in August 2014, and has been aggressive in helping rebuild Target’s damaged PR following a massive customer data hack that took place late in 2013. But in his commitment to making Target a more profitable and agile company, he has also made some bold moves, including eating a $5.4 million loss when it decided to leave the Canadian market in January.

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The Independent Na­tional Electoral Commission (INEC) has accredited and trained 134,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to serve as ad hoc staff during this month’s general elections.

Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier-General Johnson Olawunmi, made the disclosure at a press conference held to announce the NYSC President’s Award cer­emony at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.

He said although about 34,000 corps members who passed out recently had been trained and accredited by the electoral body to be on duty during the elections, they would neither wear NYSC uniform nor be under the care of the scheme.

On the number of corps members mobilized for the general elections, he said: “You are all aware that we have an existing MoU with INEC on the participa­tion of corps members on elec­tion duties.”

“However, for this 2015 election, INEC brought a new dimension by asking interested corps members to reg­ister online and as at the close of registration in January this year, we had about 168,000 registered corps members to serve as ad hoc staff”.

Continuing, the D-G stated that “At every period, we have three batches of corps mem­bers, but due to postponement of the elections, the batch A of last year that registered to participate in the elections, passed out February 19 this year.

“Initially, our plan was to use them for both February 14 and 28 elections, but since keeping them due to the post­ponement of the elections will violate the NYSC Act, we had to pass out the corps members totalling about 34,000.

“We wrote to INEC to ex­plain to them that about 34,000 corps members registered and trained for the elections had finished their services with us and will no longer partici­pate in the elections as corps members.

“However, we made it clear that since they had been trained for the elections, INEC can still use them as ad hoc staff on the condition that they will not wear the NYSC uniform or be under our care”.

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European shares dipped on Friday morning, pausing after their best start to the year since regional benchmarks began in late 1986, while Airbus rallied after posting a sharp rise in operating earnings.

Shares in Airbus were up 6.1 percent, representing a gain in market value of 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion), roughly the price of six A380 superjumbos.

Shares in International Airlines Group surged 4.4 percent after the owner of British Airways upgraded its 2015 profit forecast by more than 20 percent, after reporting a 81 percent jump in profit last year as oil prices tumbled.

The 50 percent drop in crude prices since mid-2014 has greatly reduced input costs for airlines overall, as jet fuel accounts for around a third of the sector's operating costs.

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Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched large-scale naval and air defense drills near a strategic Gulf waterway on Wednesday in which dozens of speedboats swarmed a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier.

The drill, named Great Prophet 9, was held near the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world's oil passes. Iran's regular army carried out naval drills near the strait in December.

State TV showed footage of missiles fired from the coast and the fast boats striking the mock U.S. aircraft carrier. The drills, which also included shooting down a drone and planting undersea mines, were the first to involve a replica of a U.S. carrier.

"American aircraft carriers are very big ammunition depots housing a lot of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and everything else," the Guard's navy chief, Adm. Ali Fadavi, said on state TV, adding that a direct hit by a missile could set off a large secondary explosion. Last month Fadavi said his force is capable of sinking American aircraft carriers in the event of war.

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Janet Yellen will enter the lion's den this week.

For the first time since becoming head of the U.S. central bank last February, Yellen will confront a Congress that's controlled by Republicans in both the House and the Senate.

It's not exactly Yellen's first rodeo -- the 68-year-old Fed chair has had plenty of practice being in the hot seat, having endured numerous hours-long congressional hearings and nationally televised Fed press conferences in her first year on the job.

But her Hill appearances this week comes at a critical juncture for the economic recovery, and her answers to lawmakers' questions -- particularly those that address the issue of when the Fed plans to hike interest rates -- will come under heightened scrutiny.

Her back-to-back testimonies also come as congressional criticism of the Fed -- particularly from Republican lawmakers -- has noticeably intensified in recent years. With Republicans now setting the agenda in both chambers of Congress, Fed watchers are anticipating plenty of sparks to fly.

"Recent criticisms of the Fed have come mainly from Republicans," said Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve board. "With a Republican majority on the Senate Banking Committee, and an even bigger majority in the House, it seems a reasonable guess that Chair Yellen might face some tough questioning."

On Tuesday, Yellen will face members of the Senate Banking Committee led by the panel's new chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby. The veteran Alabama senator has long been a vocal critic of the Fed's policies and voted against Yellen's nomination for Fed chair, citing concerns that the central bank had become the an out-of-control enabler of U.S. debt.

"He is deeply skeptical of the Fed's performance, particularly on regulation and supervision of big financial institutions," said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies the Fed's relationship with Congress.

Things won't get any easier for Yellen later in the week, when she faces a much larger -- and typically more combative -- group of lawmakers in the House Financial Services Committee.

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Greece formally requested a six-month extension to its euro zone loan agreement on Thursday as it races to avoid running out of cash within weeks and overcome resistance from skeptical partners led by Germany.

With its EU/IMF bailout program due to expire in little more than a week, the government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urgently needs to secure a financial lifeline to keep the country afloat beyond late March.

Specifically, Athens asked for an extension to its so-called "Master Financial Assistance Facility Agreement" with the euro zone, the official told Reuters. However, Greece is proposing that the terms are different from its current bailout obligations, the official said.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers of the currency area, confirmed the news, tweeting: "Received Greek request for six-month extension." He gave no further details.

The request boosted hopes for a last minute compromise to avert a Greek bankruptcy and exit from the euro zone however it was not clear if the proposal would be acceptable to euro zone partners who insist Athens comply with all bailout terms.

Senior euro zone officials were due to hold a teleconference later on Thursday to discuss the Greek application. If they are satisfied, then Eurogroup finance ministers will hold a conference call on Friday to conclude an agreement, euro zone sources said.

The wording chosen could help satisfy at least some of the concerns that have held up agreement over the past two weeks, allowing Athens to avoid saying it is extending the current program that it opposes while creditors can avoid accepting a "loan agreement" without strings attached.

However, crucial details remain to be clarified on fiscal targets, labor market reforms, privatizations and other measures due to be implemented under the existing program.

Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis dismissed a German newspaper report that Athens was under pressure to impose capital controls, telling Reuters that such a scenario "had no bearing on reality".

An ECB spokeswoman also denied the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report, saying there had been no discussion of capital controls at a meeting of the central bank's governing council on Wednesday, which slightly raised the limit on emergency lending to Greek banks.

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GERMAN-owned luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce on Wednesday unveiled plans to launch its own sports utility vehicle, mirroring recent moves by fellow upmarket rivals Bentley and Jaguar.

The British brand, which is owned by Germany's BMW, revealed in an open letter from Rolls-Royce chairman Peter Schwarzenbauer and chief executive Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes that it was in the process of developing its first-ever 4x4 car.

"Today we confirm that we are developing an all-new Rolls-Royce with exceptional presence, elegance and purpose ... A car that offers the luxury of a Rolls-Royce in a vehicle that can cross any terrain," the letter read.

The automaker added that the new model would be "a high-bodied car, with an all-new aluminium architecture", but gave no indication of price or when production would begin.

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Mobile game maker King Digital Entertainment's quarterly revenue and profit handily beat market estimates as newer games such as Candy Crush Soda Saga more than made up for the declining popularity of older titles.

King Digital, whose shares jumped 18% in extended trading yesterday, also said it would buy Seattle-based game developer Z2Live.

Total gross bookings, an indicator of future revenue, increased 8% to $586 million in the fourth quarter ended 31 December from the third quarter 2014.

Analysts on average had expected bookings of $541.4 million, according to market research firm StreetAccount.

Candy Crush Saga, a free game that makes money by selling virtual items to gamers who move candies to line up at least three of the same color, accounted for about 45% of the bookings.

Bookings from the game, however, declined from a quarter ago.

Candy Crush Soda Saga, a sister title of the original, also follows a similar match-three format.

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Tickets in North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas have matched all six numbers to split a $564.1 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said Thursday.

Sue Dooley, senior drawing manager and production coordinator for the Multi-State Lottery Association, said the Puerto Rico ticket was the first Powerball jackpot winner ever sold outside the continental United States.

Puerto Rico joined Powerball less than a year ago. Besides 44 states and Washington, D.C., the game is also played in the Virgin Islands, but there has never been a jackpot winner there, Dooley said.

The Texas Lottery posted on Twitter early Thursday that one of the winning tickets was sold at Appletree Food Mart in Princeton, Texas. There was no immediate information on the cities or stores that produced the winners in North Carolina or Puerto Rico.

It had been nearly a year since a Powerball prize reached the giant number people have come to expect recently. That was last February, when someone won $425.3 million.

Wednesday's jackpot was the third-largest in Powerball history and the fifth-largest U.S. lottery prize. The last time a Powerball jackpot climbed so high was May 2013 when a Florida ticket won a $590.5 million prize.

Should the winners select the lump sum option, each would get a one-third share of $381,138,450.16 before taxes. The other option is an annuity, under which the lottery would make payments 30 times over 29 years.

The largest payout in U.S. history was to three ticketholders in the Mega Millions game, the other national lottery drawing. That was a $656 million prize won in March 2012 by players in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.

In 2012, state officials who run Powerball and Mega Millions changed ticket prices and lowered the odds of winning jackpots in hopes the moves would increase the number of huge prizes and draw more players. The new rules worked, causing jackpots to repeatedly climb to record levels. More than half of the top 10 US jackpots have been reached in the past couple of years.

The winning numbers in Wednesday's drawing were: 11, 13, 25, 39, 54 and the Powerball 19.

The jackpot now goes back to $40 million for the next drawing on Saturday.

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The company added to its trophy case Tuesday when its value surpassed $700 billion. That wasn't just a record for Apple, it was a new record for any U.S. company.

(Apple briefly touched this valuation in November, but Tuesday marked the first time it closed at that level, a far more significant achievement.)

Apple is in a league of its own. The next largest company, Exxon Mobil, (XOM) is worth $382 billion.

The stock rallied after Apple announced a partnership with First Solar (FSLR) on a nearly 3,000-acre solar energy farm that will funnel electricity to the tech giant's offices in California. That comes on the heels of Apple's best quarterly earnings ever in January and the ongoing expansion of Apple Pay.

Beyond that bright news, the company had a very successful bond sale last week, another indicator of just how excited investors remain about the company.

The stock closed at an all-time high of $122 a share Tuesday, and it's up 64% over the past year. Billionaire hedge fund manager Carl Icahn has predicted the stock could go to $200.

When Steve Jobs passed, there were concerns whether Tim Cook could lead the company. Those concerns seem quelled now.

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Tomorrow sees two big meetings in Europe, the success or failure of which could have major repercussions for markets, and the European political landscape.

In Minsk, Belarus, the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia are due to meet to try to hammer out a peace agreement.

Failure to reach an agreement will lead to further EU economic sanctions against Russia, which were delayed at yesterday's EU foreign minister's meeting to allow time for the diplomatic offensive tomorrow.

Failure would also make it easier for The United States to step up its plans to send lethal aid to Ukraine - plans that US president Barack Obama has not yet committed to.

If the prospect of all-out war on its eastern border is not enough for Europe to worry about, there is also the real prospect of a major sovereign debt blow-up on its southern border.

Tomorrow evening the finance ministers of the euro area meet to see if a new deal can be done for Greece.

Greece is pushing for a 10 billion euro bridging loan to allow it avoid a funding crunch, while also giving the new Greek government time to come up with a new plan for the sustainability of Greek finances.

So far Greek plans have met with very little support from other euro area finance ministers, with German's Schaeuble saying that Greece must agree to a full plan, rather than a bridging loan, or commit to the existing bailout program.

There are hints this morning that there may be some room to compromise on both sides ahead of the meeting tomorrow, but with both the Greeks and the other euro area finance ministers still seeming so far apart on the details, chances of failure are still high.

The meeting of euro area finance minister starts at 17:30 CET, with the press conference due to start at 21:00 CET. There is no scheduled time for a Minsk press conference yet.

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Nerves over Greece's future in the euro and the conflict in Ukraine dragged on European markets on Tuesday, while bets on the likelihood of a US interest rate hike nudged the dollar higher and oil prices held steady after a rebound.

European stocks fell 0.3 percent and the euro slipped towards $1.13 ahead of what is set to be a tense, Greece-dominated meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Wednesday.

The global disinflation/deflation story was also back on investors' radar as Chinese inflation fell below 1 percent to its lowest in five months, drawing talk of further easing from China's central bank, the PBOC.

That had sent shares in Shanghai up more than 1 percent, though other Asian stocks eased on more generalized risk aversion.

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Yes, you heard right! On Friday we had over 90% winning trades after we successfully predicted the NFP announcement.

Predicting the NFP isn’t a small task, but our analysts got it right. If you missed out on Friday’s trades, don’t worry, the NFP happens every month and you can get it next time!

Below are the results from Friday, enjoy J

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Today is the NFP – Non-Farm Payrolls. This checks the change in the number of employed people during the previous month, excluding the farming industry.

This is by far the most important announcement each month since it’s released monthly, usually on the first Friday after the month ends. The combination of importance and earliness makes for hefty market impacts.

Job creation is an important leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity.

When? February 6^th at 8:30am Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the USD to rise.

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ISIS controls a few small oil fields in the north and some small refineries in Syria, which it uses to finance its operations.

All this money not only finances its terror network but is also used to expand it. ISIS pays better salaries than those paid to the Syrian rebels and the Syrian or Iraqi armies, both of which have witnessed mass desertions.

The organization largely relies not on external funding rather on the production and sale of seized energy assets—Iraq has the fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves in the world.

ISIS also depends on the steady income it extracts from private donors, the heavy taxation and extortion it levies on its captive population, the seizure of bank accounts and private assets in the lands it occupies, ransoms from kidnappings and the plundering of antiquities excavated from ancient palaces and archaeological sites.

It controls parts of Syria and Iraq having a population of almost 8 million people. Apart from the usual methods of extortion from businesses, protection money from minorities and collecting ransoms for releasing hostages, they also control the trade.

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Apple waded into the bond market for the third time in as many years on Monday, raising a larger-than-expected $6.5 billion as part of a $130 billion program to return capital to shareholders.

The deal was just over half the $12 billion Apple issued in April 2014, and much smaller than its $17 billion debut in 2013. At $20 billion, the order book at its peak was about half that seen last time out.

Observers saw the deal as a success, saying the bigger new issue concessions reflected more volatile Treasuries rather than investor weariness with Apple's shareholder-friendly ways.

"The bigger new issue concessions at the long end are completely a function of the market," said one syndicate manager not directly involved with the transaction.

"The $6.5 billion deal was $1.5 billion bigger than expected -- and at concessions that were flat to, say, 8bp across the tranches. (That) is a nice outcome for them, when you compare it to the 10-15bp concessions borrowers were paying at the beginning of January."

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The Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen is by far the richest in the league. The Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) co-founder is worth about $17 billion, according to various estimates.

Allen helped Bill Gates start Microsoft when both were students at Harvard, and left the company with a chunk of its then privately-held stock in 1983 which translated in to the bulk of his wealth. Allen also made about $2 billion from the appreciation in value of the Seahawks and the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, both of which he bought decades ago.

By contrast, Patriots owner Robert Kraft made most of his $4 billion fortune in football. He bought his team for a reported $172 million in 1994, and today it's worth an estimated $2.6 billion.

There's only one NFL team with owners that aren't worth billions. The Green Bay Packers is actually publicly owned by its fans, who hold a special issue of stock in the team that cannot be sold or traded.

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Facebook Inc's (FB.O) revenue grew 49 percent in the fourth quarter, as mobile advertising growth helped the world's largest Internet social network beat Wall Street's targets for earnings and sales.

But revenue growth was the weakest since the start of 2013, and spending rose faster. Facebook shares fell about 2.6 percent in after-hours trade after vacillating above and below the closing price.

Facebook's business has boomed thanks to its mobile ads for smartphones and tablets. Its success contrasts with other established Internet companies such as Google Inc (GOOGL.O) and Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O), which have struggled as advertisers shift more and more to mobile devices from personal computers.

"They are taking share of advertising dollars online. They are taking share of overall advertising budgets," said Ronald Josey, a JMP Securities analyst, noting the strong quarter.

The company said on Wednesday it ended 2014 with 1.39 billion monthly users, with 86 percent of them accessing its service on smartphones and other mobile devices.

Mobile ads accounted for 69 percent of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, or $2.48 billion.

Many investors are betting that video ads, which Facebook began offering last year, will provide the company's next leg of growth.

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IBM dismissed on Monday a Forbes magazine report claiming the technology firm is preparing to cut about 26 percent of its workforce, which would represent its biggest-ever layoffs.

IBM is cutting jobs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report last week, but those reductions will affect "several thousand" employees, a "small fraction" of what Forbes reported, according to an emailed statement from IBM to Reuters. Forbes had said as many as 112,000 employees could be laid off.

The technology giant has been steadily reshaping its 400,000-plus staff for several years, laying off workers in some areas and hiring in new growth businesses.

A report last Thursday on Forbes' website by pseudonymous Silicon Valley technology gossip columnist Robert Cringely said IBM planned to break with that gradual approach and suddenly lay off 26 percent of its global workforce.

IBM did not issue a categorical denial of the report, but strongly suggested it was inaccurate.

"IBM does not comment on rumors, even ridiculous or baseless ones," the company said in the email. "If anyone had checked information readily available from our public earnings statements, or had simply asked us, they would know that IBM has already announced the company has just taken a $600 million charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what's been reported."

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Asian buyers are paying more to secure crude oil, supported by higher refining margins on the back of tumbling crude prices and the possibility of storing excess cargoes on tankers for later sale.

The stronger Asian demand is bringing some relief to oil producers, whose profits have slumped in line with a near 60 per cent plunge in oil prices since June to below $50 a barrel.

"We think that, led by Asia, global oil demand has (already) started to pick up," Energy Aspects analyst Virendra Chauhan told Reuters Global Oil Forum.

Traders had expected demand for March-loading cargoes in Asia to be weaker than the previous month, as the region enters its peak refinery maintenance season in the second quarter.

However, Asian refiners have been willing to pay more for crude relative to the Brent and Dubai benchmarks as the profit from processing a barrel of crude into oil products has risen in line with a weaker oil price.

Abu Dhabi's main export grade Murban last week flipped into a premium of more than 50 cents a barrel after earlier deals at parity to its official selling price (OSP). 

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