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Filed at 9:24 p.m. ET
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s factory output rose for the fifth straight month in July as manufacturers gained confidence in the country’s nascent recovery.
Industrial production in the world’s second largest economy climbed 1.9 percent from the previous month and “continues to show an upward movement,” the Ministry of Economy, Trade and […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he plans legislation to restrict the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers and subject the central bank to a "complete audit."
At a recent town hall meeting, Frank said the House would pass a bill to use an […]

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Iceland’s Parliament, the Althing, passed legislation on Friday enabling the government to repay Britain and the Netherlands about $6 billion that they had given depositors who lost money in Icelandic savings accounts during the financial crisis.
The government hopes the move will start of the end of a troubling period for the island nation, ravaged by […]

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As it did for most of the week, Wall Street spent Thursday searching for direction.
The main indexes spent Thursday morning in the red but climbed into positive territory after an afternoon rebound in oil prices and the energy sector.
Encouraging pieces of economic data on employment and gross domestic product failed to impress investors, as they […]

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PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on Tuesday announced steps, agreed to by bankers, to curb excessive compensation in the industry as he pledged to push for tighter international rules at a meeting of global leaders next month.
“It’s too easy to say we’ll do nothing because others aren’t,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “France must lead […]

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OAK BLUFFS, Massachusetts (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, seeking to keep him in place to steer the world's largest economy out of its deepest downturn since the Great Depression.
Obama will interrupt his vacation on the Massachusetts island […]

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FRANKFURT — The bankruptcy filing of the Arcandor retail and mail-order group has left its former chairman and chief executive, Thomas Middelhoff, defending himself in two inquiries related to his four years at the company.
German prosecutors are investigating Mr. Middelhoff, who once led the media giant Bertelsmann, over real estate deals between a business associate […]

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Almost 48 years after it was first published, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child is finally topping the best-seller list, bringing with it all the butter, salt and goose fat that home chefs had largely abandoned in the age of Lipitor.
The book, given a huge lift from the recently released movie “Julie […]

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JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet warned policy-makers from around the world on Saturday not to forget the lessons of the devastating financial crisis now that the worst has passed.
"Now that we see some signs confirming that the real economy is starting to get out of the period of […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes notched their fastest pace in nearly two years in July, an industry survey showed on Friday, the strongest sign yet that housing was pulling out of a three-year slump.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales jumped 7.2 percent to an annual rate of 5.24 […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil rose nearly $1 toward $74 a barrel on Friday, after earlier hitting 2009 highs, as data in the United States promised economic recovery and a potential revival in energy demand.
Home sales data for July showed recovery in the U.S. housing market, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that […]

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Wall Street rose on Thursday, even as signs of continuing weakness in the job market sapped some of the momentum from big gains in overseas trading.
Financial shares led the way higher on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 70.89 points, or 0.76 percent, to close at 9,350.05, and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock […]

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Filed at 10:06 a.m. ET
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - Sears Holding Corp <SHLD.O> reported a surprise quarterly loss that dimmed investors’ hopes that Chairman Eddie Lampert could succeed in turning around the struggling retailer.
The company’s cost cuts, its main focus, failed to keep pace with declining revenue, sending it to a loss of 17 cents per […]

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The Macquarie Group, the Australian bank, and China Everbright, a financial services group, said Wednesday that they were forming two funds that would seek a total of $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects.
It is the fourth such pairing involving major new plans for mainland China this month.
Macquarie and Everbright said they would contribute $100 million […]

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BRUSSELS, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) — The European Commission said on Tuesday it had launched an investigation after a series of alleged cases of exploding iPhones and iPod music players.
Commission spokeswoman Helen Kearns told reporters that the commission, which is responsible for safety of consumer products across the European Union (EU), had asked the U.S. […]

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Travelers passing through Heathrow Airport in London this week may be surprised to encounter, in the middle of bustling Terminal 5, the writer Alain de Botton, author of popular books including “How Proust Can Change Your Life” and “The Art of Travel,” seated at a desk and tapping away at his laptop computer. His typing […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Consumers, the cornerstone of U.S. economic activity, are still in disarray, data and central bank measures signaled on Monday, as households struggle amid the worst recession since the Great Depression.
The Federal Reserve announced the extension of programs to boost consumer lending, while credit-card issuers showed that people are increasingly having […]

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PARIS — Swedbank, one of the largest Nordic lenders, announced Monday that it is issuing preferred stock to raise about $2.1 billion to shore up its core business as loan losses continue in the eastern Baltic.
“The aim is to strengthen our competitive position in our four home markets; that is, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” […]

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BRUSSELS, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) — Industrial production in the euro zone dropped 0.6 percent in June from the previous month and declined 17.0 percent year on year, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said Wednesday.
On a monthly basis, production of capital goods in June fell by 0.3 percent in the 16-nation euro zone, intermediate goods […]

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Berhanuddin Rabbani (File photo)Former Afghan President Berhanuddin Rabbani survived an assassination attempt Thursday in the country’s northern Kunduz province.Local officials said Taliban fighters attacked Mr. Rabbani’s convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire.  They said no one in the convoy was hurt, but that three attackers were killed in a battle with bodyguards and police.Mr. Rabbani […]

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