China to Balance
December 31st, 2011
Hot Business Topics
Companies cranked out more goods in December and pending sales of existing homes jumped in November for a second month, pointing to a pickup in U.S. economic growth as 2011 comes to a close.
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer (CHPMINDX) was little changed at 62.5 from a seven- month […]
Filed under: management, technology by Forest
Comments Off
AT&T Inc. and the Justice Department have agreed to put off their upcoming antitrust trial over the phone company’s proposed acquisition of smaller rival T-Mobile USA while the wireless carriers determine the fate of the deal.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle quickly approved their motion Monday to cancel their February trial and set a Jan. […]
Filed under: loans, technology by Forest
Comments Off
Americans stepped up their borrowing in October to buy cars and attend college, and they also charged a little more to their credit cards. The second straight monthly gain in overall borrowing suggests consumers are growing more confident in the economy ahead of the crucial holiday buying season.
Total consumer borrowing rose by $7.3 billion, the […]
Filed under: finance, technology by Forest
Comments Off
Stocks slid ahead of a confidence vote for Greece’s embattled prime minister Friday. Investors are worried that the country might not go through with an austerity program needed to prevent a messy default on its debt. The Dow Jones industrial average was down almost 170 points in morning trading.
Groupon Inc. jumped 39 percent to $27.89 […]
Filed under: management, technology by Forest
Comments Off
A year and a half after beginning its pursuit of Macarthur Coal Ltd., St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. has gained control of the Australian mining company.
Peabody, which teamed with one of Macarthur’s largest shareholders, steelmaker ArcelorMittal, to buy the coal producer, said Monday that they control almost 60 percent of the company and plan to […]
Filed under: money, technology by Forest
Comments Off
Fixed mortgage rates hovered at record lows for a third straight week and are likely to fall further in the coming weeks.
Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was unchanged at 4.09 percent this week. That’s the lowest rate seen since 1951.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage ticked down to […]
Filed under: business, technology by Forest
Comments Off
London police say the UBS trader accused of losing the Swiss banking giant $2 billion in rogue trading has been charged with fraud and false accounting.
The City of London police department said in a statement that 31-year-old Kweku Adoboli has been charged on Friday with two offenses.
Police said that Adoboli would appear at City of […]
Filed under: management, technology by Forest
Comments Off
France’s finance minister says that French banks are solid and do not need to be recapitalized despite being heavily exposed to Greece’s debts.
Francois Baroin said on France-Info radio Thursday that leading French banks brought in billions in profits this year and “are companies that do no need recapitalization.”
He says the banks aren’t having difficulty with […]
Filed under: technology, term by Forest
Comments Off
Pfizer Inc.’s just-approved drug Xalkori, the first new medicine in more than six years for deadly lung cancer, proves the value of precisely targeting rare diseases linked to gene variants, cancer specialists and Pfizer executives said Tuesday.
The drug was approved Friday in the U.S. along with a companion diagnostic test for just a small subset […]
Filed under: finance, technology by Forest
Comments Off