Madagascar Development

Sears, the 125-year-old icon, has 24 hours to survive. The employer of more than 68,000 filed for bankruptcy in October. Its last shot at survival is a $4.6 billion proposal put forward by its chairman, Eddie Lampert, to buy the company out of bankruptcy through his hedge fund, ESL Investments. ESL is the only party offering to buy Sears as a whole, people familiar with the situation tell CNBC. Without that bid or another like it, liquidators will break the company up into pieces. But as Lampert stares down a deadline of Dec. 28 to submit his offer, he is quickly running out of time. As of Thursday afternoon, Lampert had neither submitted his bid, nor rounded up financing, the people familiar said. Should Lampert submit a bid, Sears' advisors would have until Jan. 4 to decide whether he is a "qualified bidder." Only then, could ESL take part in an auction against liquidation bids on Jan. 14. It is possible Lampert, Sears' largest investor, secures financing in

Two major stock indexes headed toward their worst Christmas Eve of trading ever on Monday, as the S&P 500 pushed to the cusp of a bear market. Markets responded to turmoil in Washington. Multiple reports said President Donald Trump is discussing how to remove Jerome Powell from his position as chairman of the Federal Reserve. That discussion, as well as the recent market volatility, spurred Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to call the leaders of the six largest U.S. banks over the weekend. Additionally, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced he would step down at the end of February, saying his  views do not align with the president's . Trump resumed his attack on the Fed on Monday, tweeting that the central bank is "the only problem" with the U.S. economy. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars

U.S. stocks plunged Friday, extending a crushing week of declines for the major equity indices. The S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) fell 2.06%, or 50.76 points, as of market close and is down 7% this week. This was the worst week for the S&P 500 since August 2011. The Dow ( ^DJI ) slid 1.82%, or 417.11 points. The index fell 6.75% for the week, posting its worst weekly decline since October 2008.  The Nasdaq ( ^IXIC ) tumbled 2.99%, or 195.41 points, to 6,332.99 points. The index is now solidly in a bear market, or more than 20% off its August 29 high of 8,109.69 points. The Nasdaq fell 8.29% this week, marking the worst weekly performance for the index since November 2008.  Equities initially jumped and then reversed course following comments from a key Federal Reserve official suggesting that the central bank is open to shifting its views on rate hikes for next year. John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in  an interview with CNBC  that the  Fed is

The Fed just raised interest rates — Here are three big takeaways   36 Mins Ago | 02:05 The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter-point but lowered its projections for future hikes. As markets had expected, the central bank took the target range for its benchmark funds rate to 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. The move marked the fourth increase this year and the ninth since it began normalizing rates in December 2015. It came despite President Donald Trump's tweets against rate hikes. On Monday, he said  "it is incredible"  that "the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike." Officials, though, now project two hikes next year, which is a reduction but still ahead of current market pricing of no additional moves next year. The language in the post-meeting statement was not entirely dovish, or easy on its outlook for rates. The committee continued to include a statement that more rate hikes would be