Top News

The statistics agency Eurostat said the euro-zone unemployment rate rose to 8.9% in March from an upwardly revised 8.7% in February. The number of unemployed rose by 419,000. Eurostat had previously estimated the February unemployment rate at 8.5%.
And labor market pain is likely to increase despite signs the pace of the economic […]

[Read more →]

BERLIN — Blaming a drastic slump in exports, the German government on Wednesday predicted a 6 percent contraction in gross domestic product this year, and warned that a widening competitiveness gap was putting new strain on the euro zone.
Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said that with more than 40 percent of its G.D.P. generated […]

[Read more →]

Filed at 1:22 a.m. ET
PARIS, April 29 (Reuters) - Daniel Bouton, the chairman of Societe Generale (OOTC:SCREF) whose reputation was hit by a trading scandal at the bank, said on Wednesday he would resign in the wake of repeated criticism over his performance.
“I have decided to put an end to my mandate as chairman […]

[Read more →]

European shares fell Tuesday as bank stocks took a hit over capital concerns and travel and tourism firms fell further. Travel-related stocks also declined in Asia on concerns over the impact of swine flu, while broader markets were mixed.
See Global Markets page for Europe, U.K. and Asia markets.
UBS downgraded drinks […]

[Read more →]

General Motors said on Monday that it needed $11.6 billion more in government loans and that it planned to file for bankruptcy protection if a debt exchange with its bondholders was unsuccessful.
G.M. also said that, by 2010, it would phase out its Pontiac brand, eliminate 42 percent of its dealers, close 13 plants and cut […]

[Read more →]

An economist and critic of long-term aid to Africa says she approves of International Monetary Fund support for developing countries – at least to help mitigate fall-out from the global financial crisis. 
The World Bank and IMF are holding their spring meetings April 25-26 in Washington to review annual progress in general, and to determine how […]

[Read more →]

The rest of the nation may be getting back to basics, but on Wall Street, paychecks still come with a golden promise.
Workers at the largest financial institutions are on track to earn as much money this year as they did before the financial crisis began, because of the strong start of the year for […]

[Read more →]

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon has joined Apple among the ranks of technology firms that are still growing robustly despite a shrinking economy.
The online retailer, based in Seattle, posted stronger than expected earnings during what is traditionally the slow winter months for retailers. Amazon’s net profit rose 24 percent to $177 million, or 41 cents a […]

[Read more →]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Earnings disappointments drove Asian stocks lower on Friday, helping to snap the region's longest streak of weekly gains in 18 months, while gold shot to a three-week high above $910 an ounce after China revealed it now has the world's fifth-largest stock pile.
The move away from equities helped Japan's yen, […]

[Read more →]

Citigroup Inc. is winding down its private equity fundraising unit Citi Alternatives Distribution Group, Reuters reported on its Web site Thursday, citing a source familiar with the situation.
Some staff from the group will remain to deal with existing customers, the Web site reported the source as saying.
A statement from Citigroup […]

[Read more →]

Filed at 12:19 a.m. ET
SYDNEY (AP) — Lion Nathan Ltd., the Australian brewer of Tooheys and Hahn beers, said Thursday its biggest shareholder, Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co., has offered to buy the 54 percent of Lion it doesn’t already own.
The price of the offer from Japan’s biggest drinks maker wasn’t disclosed but it would […]

[Read more →]

London’s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX: news , chart , profile ) traded up 0.1% at 3,991.43, Other European shares were higher, while U.S. stock futures pointed lower. See Europe Markets.
Stocks showed little reaction to Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling slashing his 2009 U.K. economic forecast.
Darling predicted a deeper contraction […]

[Read more →]

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP: news , chart , profile ) closed with a rise of 0.1% to 190.20. Earlier in the day it was down as much as 2.2%.
In the food retailing sector, Tesco (UK:TSCO: news , chart , profile ) shares advanced 4.9% after the U.K.’s biggest […]

[Read more →]

We may be about to find out.
John Mack, Morgan Stanley’s chief executive, said late Wednesday he is considering the acquisition of U.S. regional banks in a move to boost the company’s retail banking operations, according to an article in the Nikkei newspaper Tuesday. See full story.
Mack’s ambitions aren’t a total […]

[Read more →]

Shares of Charlotte, N.C. Bank of America lost more than 8% in the first few minutes of trading, however, as some special items added to the profit — and as management painted a bleak outlook for credit quality, adding $13.38 billion in provision for credit losses.
The company said it profited during the […]

[Read more →]

ZURICH/LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - Two European banks on Monday stepped up efforts to raise capital privately and reduce their reliance on state funding.
Switzerland’s UBS AG agreed to sell its Brazilian business for about $2.5 billion while Allied Irish Banks pledged to raise $2 billion possibly through disposals.
Recent asset sales by Britain’s Barclays […]

[Read more →]

NEW YORK — For those of us who cherish the habit of a printed newspaper over coffee each morning, the gloomy harbingers are mounting: the Web-only reconfiguration or total collapse in the United States of hoary nameplates like The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Rocky Mountain News; the $800 million bailout for French newspapers proposed by […]

[Read more →]

BRUSSELS, April 17 (Xinhua) — The eurozone trade deficit shrank to 2.0 billion euros (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) in February, sharply down from the 10.9 billion euros (14.4 billion dollars) for January, the European Union (EU)’s statistics Eurostat said on Friday.
As a comparison, the eurozone trade balance in corresponding period last year was a […]

[Read more →]

YOKOSHIBAHIKARI, Japan — A motley group of unlikely farmers descended on the countryside here one recent Sunday, fresh towels around their necks, shiny boots on their feet.
“This is harder than it looks,” said Tatsunori Kobayashi, a spiky-haired janitor from Tokyo Disney Resort, as he tromped through a mustard spinach patch with a seed planter, […]

[Read more →]

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) — The U.S. federal budget deficit soared to 956.8 billion dollars in the first six months of the current fiscal year, the highest on record for this period, the Treasury Department reported on Friday.
The deficit for October 2008 through March 2009 has already surpassed the imbalance for all of last […]

[Read more →]