Business
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Cyber Monday likely to be busiest online sales day
2012-11-27 09:58:23 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans clicked away on their computers and smartphones for deals on Cyber Monday, which is expected to be the biggest online shopping day in history.
Shoppers are expected to spend $1.5 billion on Cyber Monday, up 20 percent from last year, according to research firm comScor...
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World stocks up after deal over Greek debt reached
2012-11-27 09:46:18 UTC
BANGKOK (AP) — World stock markets rose Tuesday after talks over Greece's financial crisis ended with an agreement on how to reduce its debt load, paving the way for the cash-strapped country to receive the next installment of a bailout loan.
Finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the ...
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White House: Tax hike threat could hurt retailers
2012-11-26 18:25:45 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite early signs of robust sales, White House economists warned Monday that the uncertainty of a potential hike in taxes next year for middle class taxpayers under the looming fiscal cliff could hurt consumer confidence during the crucial holiday shopping season.
In a new ...
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Earlier Black Friday kicks off shopping season
2012-11-23 17:55:12 UTC
This year's Black Friday shoppers were split into two distinct groups: those who wanted to fall into a turkey-induced slumber and those who'd rather shop.
Stores typically open in the wee hours of the morning on the day after Thanksgiving that's called Black Friday because of retail folklore t...
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Survey on China manufacturing lifts Asia stocks
2012-11-22 07:24:41 UTC
BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets rose after a private survey released Thursday showed manufacturing in China at a 13-month high, rare good news for the global economy. Sentiment also benefited from a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
HSBC's Purchasing Managers'...
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Stores try to make holiday shopping cheap and easy
2012-11-22 07:21:51 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — This holiday season, Burger King won't be the only place where you can have it your way.
It used to be enough for stores to promise discounts up to 70 percent to lure shoppers during the busy holiday period. But the ease of ordering online and the sluggish economy changed that....
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Iran starts building gas pipeline to Syria
2012-11-19 09:50:38 UTC
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian semi-official news agency says the country has started building a $10 billion natural gas pipeline to Syria as part of efforts to boost its energy sector that has been battered by international sanctions.
Monday's report by the Fars news agency says the 1,500 kil...
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J.C. Penney CEO tries to change the way we shop
2012-11-17 19:59:55 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson seems unfazed that the department store chain's mounting losses and sales declines have led to growing criticism of his plan to change the way we shop. Perhaps that's because this isn't the first time during Johnson's 30-year career that he's attempted ...
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Archduke Joseph Diamond fetches record $21.5M
2012-11-13 23:08:58 UTC
GENEVA (AP) — Geneva's jewelry auctions, held in five-star hotels along its elegant lakefront, can seem a continent if not a world away from the grim austerity gripping much of Europe. Two out-of-this-world diamonds are being auctioned off this week, joining a long list of other fabulous jewels, ...
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US stocks fall in uneven trading; Home Depot soars
2012-11-13 23:03:07 UTC
U.S. stocks closed lower after uneven trading Tuesday as fears about the "fiscal cliff" and Greece tipped major indexes between gains and losses. A surge in Home Depot's stock prevented a steeper drop for the Dow Jones industrial average.
The Dow closed down closed down 58.90 points, or 0.5 pe...
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Stocks plunge after election; Europe woes deepen
2012-11-07 20:24:55 UTC
Wall Street greeted a second Obama term the way it greeted the first.
Investors dumped stocks Wednesday in one of the sharpest sell-offs of the year. With the election only hours behind them, they focused on big problems ahead in Washington and across the Atlantic Ocean.
American voters ret...
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Facebook stock down after post-IPO lock-up expires
2012-10-31 17:46:13 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook's stock price fell Wednesday, the day employees were eligible to start selling restricted stock in the company.
A lock-up period that had prevented such sales expired on Monday. U.S. stock markets opened on Wednesday for the first time since Superstorm Sandy hit the ...
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All US exchanges shut down before Hurricane Sandy
2012-10-29 10:42:08 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — All major U.S. stock exchanges will remain closed with Hurricane Sandy due to make landfall on the East Coast.
There had been plans to allow electronic trading to go forward Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, but with all mass transit shut down, getting people in and out o...
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Dow down 205 as weak earnings drag market lower
2012-10-19 21:09:55 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — Poor corporate earnings reports pounded the stock market Friday in a sour end to an otherwise strong week of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points for its worst day in four months.
Disappointing results from three giants of the Dow — Microsoft, Gen...
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First oil nears for Kazakhstan's supergiant field
2012-10-18 08:20:54 UTC
KASHAGAN OILFIELD, Kazakhstan (AP) — The manmade islands that are home to Kazakhstan's mammoth Kashagan oilfield project rise like a mirage to the boats churning through the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea.
Creating them has been a gargantuan feat but the real test is yet to come, as uncerta...
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Myanmar gets its first investment bank
2012-10-02 10:39:49 UTC
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Alisher Ali knew on the morning of his second day in Myanmar that the long-closed country was a risk worth taking. Less than two months later he moved his wife and four children to crumbling, tree-lined Yangon and opened Myanmar's first-ever investment bank with $1 million ...
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Airlines' profit outlook recovering
2012-10-01 11:00:36 UTC
BERLIN (AP) — The outlook for the airline industry is improving, with profits expected to reach $4.1 billion this year and $7.5 billion in 2013, the International Air Transport Association said Monday.
The industry group raised its forecast for 2012 from $3 billion, saying passenger numbers ...
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Stocks seal 3Q gains despite bumpy final days
2012-09-29 13:03:17 UTC
Stocks posted solid gains for the third quarter, although the ride got bumpy at the end.
Stocks fell five days of the last six, including on Friday, the last trading day of the quarter. But the big indexes are still up 4 percent or more for the three months. They're ahead 10 percent or more fo...
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Tempur-Pedic buying Sealy for about $228.6M
2012-09-27 12:37:41 UTC
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Mattress company Tempur-Pedic is buying rival Sealy for about $228.6 million in cash.
Tempur-Pedic International Inc. said Thursday that it will pay $2.20 per Sealy share, which is a 3 percent premium to the company's Wednesday closing price of $2.14.
Sealy, based in...
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US consumer confidence jumps to 7-month high.
2012-09-25 19:38:50 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans' confidence in the economy jumped this month to the highest level since February, bolstered by a brighter outlook for overall business conditions and hiring.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 70.3. That's up from 61.3 in Augu...
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Zara store owner Inditex profit up 32 pct in H1
2012-09-19 09:35:58 UTC
MADRID (AP) — Spanish clothes retailer Inditex, which owns the Zara store chain, has posted a 32 percent increase in first-half net profit as it continued expanding in emerging markets.
Inditex said Wednesday that sales for the first six months of the year were €7.2 billion ($9.4 billion), u...
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Japan businesses in China hit as protests rage
2012-09-18 09:15:27 UTC
TOKYO (AP) — Scores of Japanese-owned factories and stores in China were shuttered Tuesday as anti-Japanese demonstrations raged in dozens of cities.
At stake are billions of dollars in investments and far more in sales and trade between Japan and China, the world's third- and second-largest e...
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Zuckerberg: Time to 'double down' on Facebook
2012-09-12 02:03:00 UTC
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn't enjoyed seeing his company's stock get pummeled on Wall Street this summer, but he is relishing the opportunity to prove his critics wrong.
"I would rather be in a cycle where people underestimate us because I'd rather be underestimated,...
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China's Haier to make offer for Fisher & Paykel
2012-09-10 06:40:08 UTC
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — China's growing economic reach in the South Pacific took another step Monday when home appliance giant Haier indicated it would make a full takeover offer for much smaller New Zealand competitor Fisher & Paykel Appliances.
Haier already owns 20 percent of Fisher ...
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Market milestone: Stocks return to late 2007 level
2012-09-06 23:23:08 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — The last time the stock market was this high, the Great Recession had just started, and stocks were pointed toward a headlong descent.
But on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average hit its highest mark since December 2007, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index soared to its h...