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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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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Shares of China Strategic Holdings soared Wednesday after it announced plans to trade a part of its newly acquired stake in American International Group Inc.’s Taiwan unit for a wider presence in the Taiwanese financial-services sector.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Hong Kong-listed investment company China Strategic said it […]

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BEIJING — It could almost be a snippet from a World of Warcraft game session — two competing titans, plotting against each other, swapping punches, embarked on a quest for a single prize that only the stronger of them will claim.
But this is not virtual reality. The titans are two agencies of the Chinese government. […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Comcast Corp's quarterly profit rose 22 percent, beating expectations, as it sold more phone and Internet subscriptions, helping the top U.S. cable operator fight competition from phone and satellite companies for video subscribers.
Shares of Comcast jumped 5.1 percent in premarket trading as it reported 361,000 new high-speed Internet customers and […]

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Filed at 9:36 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post Co. reported a 69 percent jump in third-quarter profit Friday as its newspapers trimmed their losses and its cable TV and education divisions held steady.
The company, which owns Newsweek magazine, Kaplan education services and television properties along with The Washington Post newspaper, earned $17.1 […]

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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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NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc reported higher third-quarter profit as aggressive cost-cutting helped offset unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates and declining sales of drugs, including those facing competition from cheaper generics.
The world’s biggest drugmaker, which completed its $67.3 billion acquisition of Wyeth last week, posted a net profit of $2.88 billion, or […]

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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) – The dollar edged further away from 14-month lows on Monday as investors trimmed bets against the beleaguered U.S. currency, while South Korean stocks dragged down other Asian markets on worries third-quarter earnings may not live up to expectations.
Activity was limited due to a holiday in Japan and with most U.S. […]

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WASHINGTON — Fissures are developing among policy makers at the Federal Reserve as they debate how and when to start raising the benchmark interest rate from its current level just above zero.
With Fed officials forecasting that unemployment will average 9.8 percent in 2010, nobody appears to be arguing that monetary policy should be tightened anytime […]

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BERLIN — As recently as last year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development seemed like a relic of the post-cold war era. One of the nations providing the bank’s financial backing, Australia, asked for its money back, while one of the new European Union members, the Czech Republic, became the first country to leave […]

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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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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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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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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as strong commodity prices and a weak dollar before a Federal Reserve meeting gave a boost to Wall Street.
Financials also contributed to gains as Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) shares rose after an analyst upgrade while Citigroup Inc (C.N) gained 5.0 percent.
Crude oil futures […]

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WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Reuters) – World leaders will probably agree next week to work together when the time comes to end their massive economic stimulus programs and they were also moving on Friday toward a stiffer line on bankers' pay.
A week ahead of the Sept 24-25 summit of the leaders of Group of 20 nations to […]

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European leaders are set to endorse a call for more government control over bankers’ pay ahead of the Group of 20 summit meeting next week in Pittsburgh.
In a statement expected to be adopted at a European Union meeting in Brussels on Thursday evening, the leaders called on G-20 members to stand by commitments made […]

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PARIS — A feud between public broadcasters in Europe and their private-sector rivals is getting nastier.
The European Commission said last week that it was investigating hundreds of millions of euros worth of state aid to the French public broadcaster, France Télévisions.
The move follows complaints from commercial TV companies about a new tax to help […]

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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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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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