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PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Kraft Foods (KFT.N) may raise its offer for Cadbury Plc (CBRY.L) or offer more cash in its bid if rival takeover offers emerge, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday.
"The Kraft team is figuring out the next move," the source said.
Kraft made a $16.8 billion hostile offer to […]

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TOKYO — The Bank of Japan upgraded its assessment of the nation’s economy Friday, setting itself up for a confrontation with government officials who are worried about a possible return to recession and are pressing for a policy response to deflation.
The Japanese government published a report Friday that pronounced the economy officially in deflation for […]

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Two computer programmers who worked for Bernard L. Madoff’s investment firm were accused Friday of helping to cover-up the giant Ponzi scheme for more than for more than 15 years.
In a statement, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan said the two programmers — Jerome O’Hara, 46, of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez, 43, of […]

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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International Corp., the largest contract chip maker in China, said Tuesday that its long-serving chief executive had been replaced by another industry veteran, which could pave the way for consolidation in the Chinese chip sector.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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NEW YORK – The following stocks were among those that moved substantially or traded heavily Friday on the New York Stock Exchange:
NYSE:
Alcatel-Lucent, down 48 cents at $3.69
The telecommunications equipment maker saw its net loss widen in the third quarter as European phone companies cut back on spending.
Harman International Industries Inc., up $4.61 at $37.61
The company […]

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Norway on Wednesday became the first European country to raise interest rates since the onset of the financial crisis, citing a nascent rebound in the global economy and inflationary pressures in its petroleum-exporting economy.
Inflation has been higher than expected and unemployment is “considerably lower than previously projected,” the Norges Bank governor, Svein Gjedrem, said […]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling in five of the last six weeks, as employers remained reluctant to hire even with the economy showing signs of recovery.
The Labor Department saidThursday that new jobless claims rose to a […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow slipping below the 10,000 mark as industrial companies' weak results overshadowed robust earnings from tech heavy-weights.
The energy and materials sectors suffered as a stronger U.S. dollar hit commodity prices, while an analyst's comments on a major railroad stock hurt the transportation sector.
[…]

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SAN FRANCISCO – In an Oct. 14 story about Clorox Co.’s executive compensation, The Associated Press reported erroneously that CEO Don Knauss received more than $1 million under the company’s mortgage subsidy program over three fiscal years. The amount was slightly less than $1 million and reflected total relocation-related benefits, which included the mortgage subsidy […]

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CHICAGO, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) — The revamped board of directors of U.S. automaker General Motors Co. is spending the next month poring over the automaker’s business plan with CEO and President Fritz Henderson’s management team, the company said Thursday. The General Motors logo is seen outside its headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan […]

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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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Stocks posted modest losses Friday after a disappointing monthly jobs report renewed concerns that a recovery in the troubled labor market might be a long way off.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell for a fourth day, losing 22 points a day after tumbling 203 points on Thursday.
The latest weak economic report came from the Labor […]

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The nation’s drive toward computerized medical records is getting a push from big hospitals, which hope not only to improve patient care but to gain an edge on competitors.
And an effort to be announced on Monday by a big New York regional hospital group may be the most ambitious effort of this type yet […]

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HONG KONG — The yen spiked to an eight-month high against the dollar on Monday, weighing on the stock market and casting a spotlight on the tricky economic policy decisions facing the new government in Tokyo.
As investors fretted about the pain that a strong currency means for export behemoths like Sony, Canon and Toyota, the […]

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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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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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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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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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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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