BUSINESS

Following the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) predictions of the imminent "fiscal cliff" that will send the U.S. economy into a recession after January 1, 2013, analysts are struggling to identity the true extent of the oncoming threat. While the CBO estimates that unemployment will increase to about 9 percent in the fallout from proposed "fiscal tightening" measures, Capital Economics suggested in a U.S. Employment Report published today that the effect on hiring may be more ...

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, is confident that Beijing will step up easing efforts to drive an economic rebound and China's economic growth will probably recover this year.

U.S. consumer spending got off to a fairly firm start in the third quarter, rising by the most in five months and offering hope economic growth could pick up this quarter.

Americans have no idea what cloud computing is, with many believing it relates to the weather, or even pillows, drugs and toilet paper, a new survey commissioned by enterprise software developer Citrix Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) found.

Patent expert Alexander Poltorak, CEO and chairman of General Patent Corporation, advocates multi-tier patent system, specialized patent courts and arbitration forums as the key facilitators for the speedy resolution of increasing number of patent disputes and dubs patents as the new currency in Knowledge-Based Economy.

Pandora Media, Tivo Inc, ING Groep, Molycorp, BHP Billiton, Syngenta, Frontline Ltd and First Solar Inc. are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday.

Can Richard Schulze, the 71-year-old founding CEO of Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) put his money where his mouth is? Can he fork up billions from private eqiuity behemoths like KKR (NYSE: KKR)?

China's credit risk is probably much worse than the official non-performing loan (NPL) data suggests, according to Société Générale's China macro strategist Wei Yao.

The state-controlled Air Koryo has a fleet of about thirty, mostly older Russian-made aircraft, and flies to 14 foreign airports in six countries -- including, of all places, Kuwait.

Japanese toilet company Toto Ltd. (Tokyo: 5332) debuted a poop-powered motorcycle, the Toilet Bike Neo, this week and toured it around the country.

Asian stock markets declined Thursday as the disappointing Japan retail sales data and the fading hopes for fresh measure by the Fed Reserve weighed on the sentiment.

The U.S. stock index futures point to a lower open Thursday as investors continue to have concerns about the weakening global economy and worsening economic growth momentum.

European markets fell Thursday as investor sentiment was weighed down by concerns of economic and financial instability in Spain worsening the euro zone economy.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Wednesday were Pandora Media, LyondellBasell Industries, GenCorp, ING Group and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. The top after-market NYSE losers were Oxford Industries, Rogers Communication, Tim Hortons, Asbury Automotive Group and Bank of Nova Scotia.

Asian markets fell Thursday as investors' concerns about the weakening global economy was revived by the declining Japanese retail sales and disappointing South Korean manufacturers' confidence data.

Asian shares eased and major currencies stayed range-bound Thursday as investors avoided betting on direction before a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with focus on whether there will be any hint about further U.S. stimulus.

Two weeks from the alleged unveiling of the iPhone 5, many Apple fans are concerned about the compatibility of the device with current accessories given the multitude of reports saying it will feature a brand-new, smaller dock connector.

Kim Kardashian has settled a $20 million lawsuit against the clothing retailer Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) over an Old Navy

Citigroup Inc agreed to pay $590 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of hiding tens of billions of dollars of toxic mortgage assets, one of the largest settlements stemming from the global financial crisis.

What do conspiracy theorists and free market ideologues have in common? They both deny climate change, according to a recent psychological study conducted b y the University of Western Australia.

Samsung Electronics (Seoul: 005930) may have lost a $1.05 billion judgment to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, but it’s won a temporary reprieve from the judge on product bans and other retaliatory measures.

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), has sold 103,193 shares of the company worth around $69.3 million, according to Tuesday filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Three weeks after Zynga launched its latest sim-style game "ChefVille" on Facebook -- the social media platform that Zynga itself blamed for most of its current financial woes -- the game developer is slowly crawling its way back to the top of the social gaming food chain, new data shows.

Shares of Yelp Inc. (Nasdaq: YELP), the provider of online reviews of local businesses and restaurants, surged more than 25 percent Wednesday as the lock-up period for insiders expired, allowing them to sell stock in the San Francisco-based company for the first time since its march 1 initial public offering.

Ryanair Holdings (Nasdaq: RYAAY), Europe's largest discount airline company by passengers, is asking for some help from rivals in its third attempt to buy Aer Lingus Group Plc (London: AERL).

America's 50 state governments owe a total of $4.19 trillion, including outstanding bonds, unfunded pension commitments and budget gaps. Here's a look at the top five states with the heaviest debt burdens in the country.

A decision by Chile's top court to temporarily block a massive, coal-fired power generation venture pleased environmentalists but the project's backers, who saw their share price fall, insisted the delay was unnecessary.

A surge in orders for weapons, most of which from developing nations, has turned into a boon for U.S. companies -- and they have the Saudis to thank more than anybody else.

Russia's agricultural ministry will meet Friday to discuss limiting wheat exports as the country's key Black Sea-producing region has been wilted by drought, but few believe it will repeat the total ban on exports it implemented in 2010 during similar drought conditions.