Feb 8 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the
Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and
does not vouch for their accuracy.
- Turkey's growing hostility towards Syrian Kurdish fighters
on charges of professed smuggling of weapons to members of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party in Syria, has strained U.S.-Turkish
relations.
- North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket triggered
condemnation and prompted Washington and Seoul to formalize
talks over deploying an advanced missile shield to South Korea,
a move China strongly opposes.
- National Bank of Canada warned that its regulatory-capital
level would take a hit after Germany's financial watchdog BaFin
effectively shuttered one of its foreign investments, the German
unit of Maple Financial Group.
- After a tough end to 2015, big companies like Johnson &
Johnson JNJ.N and Yahoo Inc YHOO.O are starting the new year
with a tight rein on capital spending including layoffs, as they
seek to cope with sluggish industrial demand and uncertainties
about the continued resilience of the American consumer.
- China's foreign-exchange reserves fell to the lowest level
in more than three years in January, raising questions about how
long Beijing can keep burning through the rainy-day funds to
defend the yuan without triggering a huge flight of capital.
- Hedge funds are betting the next bond sector to crack will
be the $4.5 trillion market for the safest U.S. corporate debt
and it won't be confined only to energy and junk bonds.