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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. home prices fell in April, but overall annual declines are slowing, according to the national Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.
On a month-to-month basis, prices in 20 selected cities fell 0.6% in April, with declines in 11 cities, compared with a decline of 2.2% in March. The overall […]

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WASHINGTON – Risky bank policies that contributed to the financial crisis were as common in neighborhood branches as they were on Wall Street, according to a labor-backed coalition that will propose new reforms Tuesday.
Bank of America Corp. and other large banks encouraged customer service representatives and tellers to burden consumers with debt and enroll them […]

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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Switzerland’s UBS may be close to settling a civil suit with U.S. authorities that could cost the bank as much as $4.6 billion, according to a Swiss media report.
The Department of Justice is seeking information on around 52,000 clients of UBS as part of a probe into possible tax […]

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NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) — Wall Street retreated and closed mixed Friday, after the U.S. government reported consumer savings outpaced spending.
The U.S. Commerce Department says consumer spending rose 0.3 percent in May, in line with expectations. But the savings rate, which was hovering near zero in early 2008, surged to 6.9 percent, the […]

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The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says African countries can boost their economic development by expanding inter-regional trade and strengthening road and telecommunication systems. In its annual report on Economic Development in Africa, UNCTAD says regional integration is essential for sustained development. The U.N. report says new approaches to international development […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Nasdaq rose in choppy trading on Friday on strong demand for Palm's (PALM.O) Pre smartphone, while the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials dipped as financials' gains only partly offset a fall in energy shares.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 34.01 points, or 0.40 percent, to close unofficially […]

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LONDON (AFP) – The London stock market closed lower on Thursday, dragged down by US jobs data, as investors remained anxious about the economic climate.
The FTSE 100 index slipped 27.41 points — or 0.64 percent — to close at 4,252.57.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US rose to a seasonally adjusted 627,000 […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks opened lower on Thursday after data showed the number of new filings for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly, raising fresh uncertainty about the strength of the economic recovery.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dropped 8.31 points, or 0.10 percent, to 8,291.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) fell 1.62 […]

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. government has waded into a case that could determine the future of mutual-fund fees, and told the Supreme Court that it believes a lower court went too far in restricting investors’ ability to successfully sue their funds for charging too much.
The high court is set to […]

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TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s trade surplus slipped further in May, as exports withered in the wake of the global slowdown, according to data released Wednesday.
The surplus for the month fell 12.1% from the year-ago period to 299.8 billion yen ($3.14 billion), the Ministry of Finance said.
Despite evidence that Japanese companies […]

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LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. and Swiss authorities are playing a high-stakes game of poker over details of thousands of wealthy tax cheats.
Reports surfaced Tuesday that U.S. authorities may drop a high-profile suit against Swiss banking giant UBS that seeks to force disclosure of the names of more than 50,000 Americans believed to […]

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SHANGHAI (AFP) – China has been driving up commodities prices by stockpiling to prepare for global recovery, but with inventories overflowing and no end to the crisis in sight, analysts say the rally may soon end.
China has been buying up crude oil, copper, coal and a host of other key raw materials even while […]

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SHANGHAI — Bain Capital, the American private investment firm, said Monday that it had agreed to invest as much as $432 million to acquire a minority stake in Gome Electrical Appliances, one of China’s biggest retailers.
The deal, which had been rumored for weeks, is expected to give a boost to Gome, which has been struggling […]

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BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) — China has reaped 313.18 million mu(20.88 million hectares) of summer wheat by June 20, or 90.2 percent of the total, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said Saturday.
MOA official said the achievement was made after the wheat-growing areas countered the extreme weather including hail, heavy rain and strong winds to […]

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — About 200,000 mortgage modifications have been worked out under the government’s Making Home Affordable program, with 40,000 modification offers completed last week, Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said on Thursday.
“We’ve made substantial progress in a short period of time,” he said, speaking […]

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Gains in technology and health care shares are helping to support a cautious stock market.
Stocks were mixed Friday afternoon, unable to hold on to gains.
Traders had been encouraged by recent economic data, including better news on unemployment. But with the Standard & Poor’s still down 2.8 percent for the week, prospects seemed poor for […]

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WASHINGTON — President Obama’s plan to overhaul the regulatory structure of the nation’s financial system faces formidable obstacles on Capitol Hill, if the reception accorded Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, on Thursday was any indication.
Mr. Geithner went before the Senate banking committee and urged the lawmakers to act quickly on the president’s plan.
“Every […]

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 China is defending its so-called “Buy China” directive that gives Chinese companies first, and nearly exclusive, priority in winning contracts under the country’s nearly $600 billion stimulus program. When the U.S. government debated adding a “Buy American” requirement to its stimulus bill, China protested loudly. Chinese officials called the move toxic and protectionist.China is now […]

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley and several other big U.S. banks said Wednesday that they repaid billions of dollars in government money they got when the industry had to be bailed out in the middle of last year’s financial crisis.
Earlier this month, the […]

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Filed at 1:25 a.m. ET
HONG KONG (AP) — Most Asian stock markets extended their losses Wednesday as the global rally continued to lose steam amid concerns about the pace of any economic recovery.
More signs of economic weakness in the U.S. inspired caution among investors, and softer prices for crude oil and metals in recent days […]

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