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Jeffry M. Picower, a longtime investor in Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud scheme who died in his Palm Beach swimming pool last month, left an estate with assets far in excess of $1 billion — and that could be a spot of good news for Mr. Madoff’s victims.
Although Mr. Picower’s will, which is expected to be […]

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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International Corp., the largest contract chip maker in China, said Tuesday that its long-serving chief executive had been replaced by another industry veteran, which could pave the way for consolidation in the Chinese chip sector.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 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose on Friday as investors took heart after the government said monthly payroll losses slowed, even as unemployment rose above 10 percent.
General Electric Co (GE.N) shares jumped more than 5 percent after a brokerage upgrade, and helped lead the industrial sector higher. The S&P industrials (.GSPI) gained 1.1 […]

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Stocks showed modest gains on the first day of trading since the market took one of its steepest plunges in months. Signs that manufacturing in the United States was on a path to recovery helped buoy shares.
At the close of the markets on Monday, the skittishness of investors over the health of the economy, […]

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WARREN, Ohio — Bruce Gump and his neighbors feared for their retirement checks when the federal government took over the pension plans at Delphi, the big auto parts maker where they once worked.
But four months later, Mr. Gump finds himself in a far more perilous condition than his neighbors.
On his street, he […]

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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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PARIS — Société Générale, the French bank, said Tuesday it planned to raise €4.8 billion, or $7.02 billion, in a rights offering to repay government bailout funds and pursue acquisitions.
The moves comes just a week after BNP Paribas, the largest bank in France, said that it would raise €4.3 billion from investors to help repay […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – Kraft Foods Inc (KFT.N) is poised to launch a hostile bid for Cadbury Plc (CBRY.L) valuing the British confectionery business at around 11 billion pounds ($17.6 billion), a report in The Observer newspaper said.
In a separate interview with the Sunday Times, Kraft Chairman and Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld said Cadbury CEO […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, with each of the major indexes sliding into negative territory after an unexpected fall in sales of previously owned U.S. homes in August.
* The National Association of Realtors said sales fell 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.10 million units, from 5.24 million units […]

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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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THE HAGUE (AP) — Dutch banks unveiled a new code of conduct Wednesday that includes capping executive bonuses and measures to ensure bonus payments do not encourage bankers to take unnecessary risks.
The new code, which has been agreed by all major Dutch banks, limits bonuses for executive board members to 100 percent of their annual […]

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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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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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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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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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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far less than expected and the least in any month since last August, according to a government report on Friday that provided the clearest evidence yet that the economy was turning around.
With fewer workers being laid off, the unemployment rate eased to 9.4 percent […]

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CHICAGO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange declined slightly for the second session on Thursday as dollar regained strength. Silver and platinum both ended lower.
Gold price for December delivery fell 3.40 U.S. dollars, or 0.4percent, to finish at 962.90 dollars an ounce. Earlier in […]

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AFTER all the turmoil in the markets, after Bernard L. Madoff and a bunch of other financial scandals, investors may well be questioning whether they’ve chosen the right financial adviser.
It may be someone you like and trust, but is it someone competent to manage your money?
A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 238 private banks […]

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