Report: Google CFO Patrick Pichette plans to retire from company

nvesting.com -- Google Inc . (NASDAQ:GOOGL) chief financial officer Patrick Pichette decided on Tuesday afternoon to retire from the tech giant, CNBC reported.

Pichette joined Google in 2008 after spending seven years at Bell Canada, where he held a variety of positions including chief financial officer from 2002-2003. Prior to working at Bell, Pichette served as a partner at McKinsey & Company where he was a lead member of the company's North American Telecom Practice. Pichette holds a master's degree from Oxford University in politics, philosophy and economics, where he attended as a Rhodes' Scholar.

In January, Pichette expressed pessimism in regards to the future of Google Glass during a fourth quarter earnings call. Google temporarily discontinued the Glass Explorer program on Jan. 19.

“When teams aren’t able to leap hurdles, but we think there’s still a lot of promise, we might ask them to take a pause and take the time to reset their strategy, as we recently did in the case of Glass,” Pichette said. “In those situations where projects don’t have the impact we hope for, we do take the tough calls, we make the decision to cancel them, and you’ve seen us do this time and time again.”

More recently, Pichette blamed a stronger dollar for some of the company's revenue losses. The strengthening of the dollar, Pichette said, was responsible for creating $400 million in losses for Google.

After falling 2.43% or 13.84 to 555.01 on Tuesday, Google was up 3.86 or 0.70% to 558.87 in after hours trading.

EUR/USD slips below 1.07, as forecasts for parity moved up to end of '15

Investing.com -- The euro slipped below 1.07 against the U.S. Dollar on Tuesday reaching an 11-year low, as uncertainty of the euro zone's bond buying program combined with expectations of an imminent interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve pushed investments overseas.

EUR/USD lost 0.13% or 0.014 in late afternoon trading to 1.0682 on Tuesday. The pair continued to weaken, as the U.S. Dollar Index reached a 12-year high at 98.62. The index measures the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies.

For importers in the euro zone, there are mounting fears that the currency will drop even lower. On Tuesday, Deutsche Bank (XETRA:DBKGn), the largest bank in Germany revised its forecast for euro-dollar parity. Deutsche Bank forecast that EUR/USD will reach parity at the end of this year; previously the bank predicted it would occur at the end of 2016. On a long term basis, Deutsche Bank predicts that EUR/USD will reach 85 cents by 2017?down from previous forecasts of 95 cents at that point.

The developments on Tuesday came hours after Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president Richard Fisher's comments in a speech before Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. In his remarks, Fisher warned of a recessionary risk that could ensue if plans to raise interest rates are delayed even further.

"Every time the Fed has tightened policy after achieving full employment it has driven the economy into recession," Fisher said. "It's because of this dynamic and my desire to prolong current expansion that I have argued that we should begin reducing policy accommodation earlier than many of my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee appear to prefer."

Currency traders await further talks between Greece and its euro zone creditors, which are set to resume on Wednesday in Brussels. Negotiations hit a snag between the sides on Monday when the group of the euro zone finance ministers emphatically rejected Greece's proposed reform measures that are seen as a prerequisite to extend its bailout package.

Dollar rally sinks oil; Brent down more than U.S. crude

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rallying dollar sent oil prices sharply lower on Tuesday, withBrent falling more than U.S. crude as players took profits on recent highs in Brent's premium, traders said.

Expectations of a mid-year U.S. interest rate hike pushed the dollar to multi-year highs, making commodities denominated in the greenback costlier for holders of other currencies. [USD/]

Brent, the London-traded global oil benchmark, settled almost 4 percent lower.

In New York, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude closed down more than 3 percent, pressured by the strong dollar and expectations that data would show another record high in U.S. crude inventories last week from supply builds.

WTI fell less than Brent as players bet on a further narrowing of its discount to the London benchmark after forecasts for a modest build last week in the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude versus the rest of the country. [EIA/S]

"The dollar's might is creating unexpected headwinds for oil. Brent particularly is taking it harder than WTI as people unwind and take profit in the spread between the two," said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors in Laurel Hollow, New York.

Brent settled at $58.39 a barrel, down $2.14, and U.S. crude finished the session at $48.29, falling $1.71.

The Brent-U.S. crude differential fell to $7.41, its narrowest in a month, before settling at $8.10, nearer to Monday's settlement.

The spread, which commands one of the biggest volume trades in oil, has narrowed by nearly 40 percent since hitting a 13-month high of $13 in late February.

"Brent is looking increasingly heavy with a decline likely to lowest levels in almost four weeks expected within the next couple of sessions," oil analysts at Jefferies said in a note.

Between June and January, crude prices fell 60 percent on fears of a global oil glut and the refusal of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to cut output. Last month, Brent stabilized at around $60 and U.S. crude at around $50.

Saudi King Salman said on Tuesday his kingdom will continue with oil and gas exploration despite the price drop.

Forecasters surveyed by Reuters expected U.S. data to show crude inventories at a ninth straight week of record highs. [EIA/S]

The industry group American Petroleum Institute reports its weekly stockpile numbers at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT)before official data on Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration.

Crude oil prices fall sharply, as U.S. Dollar reaches 12-year high

Investing.com -- Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday amid upward revisions of domestic production in the U.S. and reports that a potential emergency Opec meeting will not convene.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude oil for April delivery dropped 1.39 or 2.77% to $48.62 a barrel. Prices for oil futures fell more than $1.50 a barrel in U.S. afternoon trading, after reaching a daily-high of $50.32 hours earlier.

The continuing slide transpired as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revised its forecasts for total domestic oil production from 9.3 million barrels a day to 9.35. The upward revision came one day after the EIA found that shale field production nationwide had reached its lowest level in four years. Expectations of increased fourth quarter production in the Gulf of Mexico should outweigh the production decline in shale fields, the EIA added.

Meanwhile, on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), prices for brent oil for April delivery fell 3.32% or 1.96 to 57.12. Prices during U.S. afternoon trading wavered, before rebounding to similar levels from morning trading. When prices for brent futures declined to $56.62 on Tuesday morning, it reached its lowest level since mid-February.

The sharp drops in both WTI and crude underscored a volatile global oil market, where traders have become accustomed to large gains or drops on a daily basis. Oil prices have now moved at least 2% in an up or down direction on 28 trading days in the last six weeks.

In addition, the spread between the international and U.S. benchmark also continues to fall. The spread on Tuesday between brent and WTI edged lower to 8.5. By comparison, the spread reached $13 early last week.

The lower differential accentuates the strength of the U.S. Dollar, which continues to reach record-highs. The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, rose 1.00% to 98.60 on Tuesday to reach a level not seen since 2004. A strengthening dollar affects dollar-denominated commodities like crude oil by making it more expensive for holders of other currencies to purchase the commodity.

Oil traders await the release of the EIA's weekly report on domestic inventory levels of crude oil on Wednesday. Inventory levels for WTI crude in the United States have reached 62% capacity, its highest level in 85 years.