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LONDON – World stock markets pushed higher Monday after figures showed U.S. retail sales — which are crucial for the global economic recovery — rose more strongly than anticipated in October.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 90.71 points, or 1.7 percent, at 5,387.09. Germany’s DAX rose 116.96 points, or […]

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Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, back to camera, gives welcome address to APEC leaders, in Singapore, 14 Nov 2009Leaders of Pacific Rim nations have agreed to work toward a new pattern of regional growth.
In a statement released Sunday, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in Singapore acknowledged the leading role Asia Pacific nations have taken […]

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(Reuters) – Unhappy over constraints imposed by U.S. government overseers, American International Group Inc (AIG.N) Chief Executive Robert Benmosche told the company's board last week that he is considering stepping down, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The giant insurer's chief executive is particularly unhappy over a recent compensation review […]

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HONG KONG — Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., the largest contract chip maker in China, said Tuesday that its long-serving chief executive had been replaced by another industry veteran, which could pave the way for consolidation in the Chinese chip sector.
David Wang has replaced S.M.I.C.’s founder, Richard Chang, as C.E.O., the company said in a statement […]

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Newspaper sales moved sharply lower this year, falling about 10 percent in the six months ended Sept. 30 compared to the same period last year, according to figures released on Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
Circulation has been sliding since the early 1990s, but in the last few years, the pace of the decline […]

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Stocks fluctuated in early trading Thursday as investors sorted through a disappointing reading on the labor market and another pile of earnings reports.
The market is trying to rebound a day after a late-session sell off pushed major indexes lower. Lingering concerns over whether investors had been overly optimistic about an economic rebound in pushing the […]

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PARIS — Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beverage company, said Thursday that it would sell its operations in Eastern and Central Europe to a private equity firm in a deal that may be worth more than $3 billion.
The sale is the latest in a series of divestments that the company, based in Leuven, Belgium, set […]

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HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian shares rose to 14-month highs on Thursday as upbeat retail sales and surprisingly bullish earnings reports in the United States buoyed risk appetite, pushing the U.S. dollar to a 14-month low.
Shares in Japan jumped more than 2 percent as investors bought exporters who might benefit from rising U.S. demand […]

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HONG KONG — American International Group, the U.S. insurance giant that received a massive government bailout to avert a collapse last year, announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to sell its Taiwan life insurance unit to a Hong Kong investor group for $2.15 billion.
The sale of Nan Shan is the largest so far […]

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QUITO, Ecuador — The multibillion-dollar legal case between Amazon peasants and Chevron over oil pollution in Ecuador’s rain forest keeps unfolding more like a mystery thriller than a battle of briefs.
Ever since the oil giant released videos in August that were secretly taped by two businessmen who seemed to have the ambition of feasting […]

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Gold received a lukewarm reception a day after racing to a record high, with consumers in Asia more likely to be cashing in than panic buying.
Profit taking — read selling — replaced gold purchases that in New York and across Europe on Tuesday had swept spot bullion through the March 2008 […]

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WASHINGTON — The inspector general who oversees the government’s bailout of the banking system is criticizing the Treasury Department for some misleading public statements last fall and raising the possibility that it had unfairly disbursed money to the biggest banks.
A Treasury official made incorrect statements about the health of the nation’s biggest banks even as […]

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LONDON (AFP) – Tidjane Thiam began his role as head of insurance group Prudential on Thursday, becoming the first black chief executive of a company listed on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index.
Frenchman Thiam, who was handed the job in March, replaced Mark Tucker. Born in the Ivory Coast, but with French nationality, Thiam was […]

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NEW YORK – A surprise drop in consumer confidence tripped up investors Tuesday, a day after a round of corporate takeovers set off a steep market rally.
Stocks slid after the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell in September. Economists had been expecting a reading of 57; instead it came in at 53.1.
The private […]

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NEW YORK — Last Tuesday, Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader of the U.S. Senate, was asked by a reporter to appraise the odds that Congress, in the throes of debating health care changes, would manage to pass climate legislation in 2009 — including provisions for an emissions cap-and-trade plan.
“So, you know, […]

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World trade and climate change are the two most prominent issues at the summit talks in Pittsburgh Thursday and Friday of the G-20, the influential group that brings together key members of the developing world and the big economic powers. Agreements on trade and global warming have been out of reach so far, at least […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shares of FedEx Corp (FDX.N) rose 4.5 percent to $75.90 in premarket trading on Friday, after the company said its first-quarter earnings would exceed guidance.
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica)

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President Barack Obama (file photo)U.S. President Barack Obama has announced new initiatives designed to make it easier for Americans to save for retirement. In his weekly national radio and Internet address, Mr. Obama noted the “painful toll” the global economic downturn has had on “retirement security.”He said the government will make it easier for small […]

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BEIJING — Chinese officials said on Thursday that they would not entirely ban exports of two minerals vital to manufacturing hybrid cars, cellphones, large wind turbines, missiles and computer monitors, although they would tightly regulate production.
China produces more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of dysprosium and terbium, two rare minerals essential to […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Major exchanges differed on how far U.S. securities and futures regulators should align their rules, with the world's largest - the Chicago Mercantile Exchange - arguing against a one-size-fits-all rule.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission were holding an unprecedented joint meeting on Wednesday in an effort […]

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