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NEW YORK, July 24 (Xinhua) — Oil prices ended above 68 U.S. dollars a barrel on Friday and gained for the second straight week as investors felt more confident about the global economy.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 89 cents to settle at 68.05 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks were set to open slightly higher on Thursday as quarterly results, including a brighter outlook and a forecast-beating profit from 3M Co (MMM.N), gave investors confidence, ahead of key housing market data, that the earnings season will remain strong.
Earlier on Thursday, U.S. government data showed claims for jobless benefits […]

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Securities regulators on Thursday sued the head of a Kuwaiti investment firm seeking the return of millions of dollars in profit made after false takeover rumors pushed up shares of two American companies.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed the civil lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan, said in a statement that Hazem […]

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STUTTGART (Reuters) – Sportscar maker Porsche conceded a months-long power struggle to mass-market rival Volkswagen by axing its chief executive and said it would raise at least 5 billion euros in equity as the two prepared for a merger.
After an all-night meeting of its board of directors, Porsche said Wendelin Wiedeking, Germany's best-paid executive […]

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The chief executive of the Boeing Company said Wednesday that the aircraft maker was making “solid progress” toward fixing a structural weakness that was discovered last month on its new jet, the 787 Dreamliner.
But the executive, W. James McNerney Jr., said it was too early to say when the plane would make its first […]

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WASHINGTON — With some of his political capital on the line, President Obama won a crucial victory on Tuesday when the Senate voted to strip out $1.75 billion in financing for seven more F-22 jet fighters from a military authorization bill.
The president had repeatedly threatened to veto the $679.8 billion bill if it included any […]

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It took until the end of the day for the Dow to regain any sort of momentum.
Stocks had been higher in the early going after strong profits at industrial company Caterpillar and reassuring words from the Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke.
But weakness in stocks of small banks tugged at the market, leaving it […]

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(Reuters) – Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes are down 0.1-0.2 percent, pointing to a lower start on Wall Street on Tuesday.
At 7.45 a.m. ET, ICSC/Goldman Sachs release chain store sales for the week ended July 18 versus the prior week. In the previous […]

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After four days of tense negotiations, the CIT Group has found investors willing to throw the foundering lender a financial lifeline.
Now comes the hard part.
CIT, one of the nation’s biggest lenders to small and midsize businesses, confirmed late Monday that it had secured a multibillion-dollar package of emergency financing. But analysts expressed doubt that the […]

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Iceland on Monday took a major step toward rebuilding its tattered finances, announcing a deal to recapitalize three failed banks and give control of them to creditors.
Along with Parliament’s vote last week to formally seek membership in the European Union, the bank agreements were another milestone for Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and her 5-month-old […]

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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity firm, announced early Monday that it had reached a deal to merge with a European affiliate, giving it an Amsterdam listing and the option to later pursue a public listing in New York.
The independent directors of the affiliate, KKR Private Equity Investors, also known as K.P.E., approved the proposal, […]

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JAMES WATT, who invented the first practical steam engine in 1765, worried that high-pressure steam could lead to major explosions. So he avoided high pressure and ended up with an inefficient engine.
It wasn’t until 1799 that Richard Trevithick, who apprenticed with an associate of Watt, created a high-pressure engine that opened a new age […]

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Participants of the Nabucco Gas Pipeline signing ceremony in Ankara, 13 Jul, 2009U.S. lawmakers are taking a closer look at how the control of energy supplies influences global affairs. At a hearing in Washington, Senators were especially interested in the planned Nabucco gas pipeline running from Turkey to Europe.   The chairman of the Senate Foreign […]

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WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, acknowledged in a speech on Friday that unemployment and job losses were higher than the administration projected and would rise further this year even as the economy showed signs of recovery.
“This is obviously a major area of concern,” he said. But Mr. Summers, defending the […]

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A fiscal plan for the second half of this year unveiled this week by Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti can only deliver results if parties to the Global Political Agreement on which the unity government is based address outstanding issues, economic analysts said Friday. Adherence to the terms of the power-sharing agreement will bolster […]

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SAN FRANCISCO — As General Motors emerged from bankruptcy protection on Friday, it appeared to get its signals crossed with the e-commerce giant eBay.
In a statement heralding its new corporate structure and revitalized outlook, the automaker said it was working on new ways to make buying a car more convenient, including forging a partnership with […]

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Oil prices briefly fell under $60 a barrel on Thursday after nearly two weeks of uninterrupted declines, as traders and investors acknowledged that a global economic recovery would take longer than hoped.
At the end of a volatile trading session, crude oil futures pared their losses, settling at $60.41 a barrel, up 27 cents, […]

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Four employees of Australian miner Rio Tinto have been arrested in China on charges of stealing state secrets, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing Shanghai state security authorities.
The suspects included Stern Hu, an Australian national and general manager of the company's Shanghai office, who was also in charge […]

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BEIJING, July 8 — China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China Construction), the country’s largest home builder, has completed transferring 1.2 billion shares to the national pension fund and will be listed in Shanghai next month, in what would be the country’s biggest IPO this year, people familiar with the matter said.
“China Construction is one […]

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The service sectors of the U.S. economy contracted again during June but at a slower pace, according to a survey of companies released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management.
The ISM nonmanufacturing index rose to 47.0% from 44.0% in May. This is the highest level since last September.
[…]

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