Finance news you need to know today

AUSTRALIAN red light camera company Redflex has agreed to pay $26 million to the City of Chicago to settle a bribery scandal.

HERE are eight things making news in business and finance today.
1. SYDNEY — The Australian dollar is lower against its US counterpart The local currency was trading at 76,57 US cents at 0700 AEDT on Tuesday, from 76.64 on Monday.

2. SYDNEY — Meanwhile, the Australian market looks set to follow Monday’s local and US equities trend and open lower. At 0700 AEDT on Tuesday, the share price futures index was down 10 points at 5,555.

3. BERLIN — Higher demand for capital goods at home and abroad have driven the biggest monthly increase in German industrial orders in two-and-a-half years in December, suggesting factories will support growth in Europe’s biggest economy in the coming months.

4. BRUSSELS — The European Union will keep sanctions on Russia until Moscow drops its support for the separatist rebellion in Ukraine, foreign ministers said.

5. LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned MPs not to obstruct the will of the British people with a series of amendments to her Brexit legislation.

6. LOS ANGELES — Australian red light camera company Redflex has agreed to pay $US20 million to the City of Chicago to settle a bribery scandal that led to the jailing of the company’s former North American chief executive and battered its reputation and share price.

7. TOKYO — Toyota’s operating profit for the October-to-December period dropped 39.3 per cent from a year earlier to 438.5 billion yen ($A5.1 billion) due to the rising yen and weak sales in North America.

8. DUBAI — Qatar Airways has launched the world’s longest scheduled commercial airline route with the arrival of its flight from Doha to Auckland, New Zealand.