BUSINESS

Chen Lifeng's dress-making company survived the global financial crisis yet may fall victim to today's milder economic slowdown, one that China deems necessary to secure its future growth.

U.S. economic activity kept growing moderately in the late winter months but rising energy prices were beginning to worry manufacturers and retailers across the country, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

The trustee liquidating MF Global's brokerage will ask a bankruptcy court on Thursday to release $685 million to former MF Global customers, a plan already introduced in court filings that has been criticized as neglecting affiliates of the failed firm.

U.S. securities regulators are preparing to announce that Goldman Sachs will pay $22 million to settle allegations the bank did not have adequate policies to prevent research from being passed inappropriately to preferred clients, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Two proxy advisory firms are backing a shareholder proposal to split the roles of chairman and chief executive at Wells Fargo & Co , putting pressure on another U.S. bank to revamp its leadership structure.

The options market is not expecting a wild ride for shares of Google Inc following the results from the Internet search giant on Thursday, but it is leaving investors vulnerable to surprises.

Extell's 1,004-foot tower in Midtown is finally getting its glass.

An encouraging start to earnings season helped stocks rebound on Wednesday from five days of losses that pushed the S&P 500 below a key technical level.

Boeing Co on Wednesday put some finishing touches on a make-over of its popular 737 aircraft as the U.S. planemaker battles with European arch-rival Airbus to deliver fuel savings to airlines hammered by near-record oil prices.

Materials of Nokia's new flagship model smartphone, the Lumia 900, cost $209, some 46 percent of its retail price, with the Finnish firm saving on processor and memory cost, teardown analysis of research firm IHS iSuppli showed on Wednesday.

Lawmakers in Washington state passed supplemental operating and capital budgets on Wednesday that they say will preserve funding for education and launch about $1 billion in construction projects.

The monthly U.S. budget deficit widened to $198.16 billion in March from $188.15 billion in the same month a year earlier, partly because some benefit payments normally made in April were shifted to March, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday after an encouraging start to earnings season helped equities rebound from five days of losses that pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq below key technical levels.

Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. nominee to head the World Bank, on Wednesday told the bank's board of directors that he would not hesitate to question the status quo and do his best to help the world's poorest.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday after the government data showed domestic fuel stocks fell much more than expected last week, while a decline in imports limited a rise in crude inventories.

Nearly a decade ago, Eliot Spitzer, then the New York attorney general, had to force major Wall Street firms to build a Chinese wall between research and investment banking. Now, the same banks are fretting over a breach in that wall.

Shares in Alcoa Inc rose 7 percent on Wednesday, a day after the aluminum company posted a first-quarter profit instead of a loss Wall Street was expecting.

Import prices rose in March by the most in nearly a year on sharply higher petroleum costs, but prices outside food and energy climbed more modestly.

Stocks rose in early trading on Wednesday, bouncing back after five days of heavy losses on the S&P 500 brought the benchmark index down more than 4 percent.

Three of China's largest Internet companies have promised the government they will take steps to banish online rumors, state media said on Tuesday, as the ruling Communist Party fights jitters over a tricky leadership transition.

Stock index futures bounced back on Wednesday after five days of losses on the S&P 500 that brought the benchmark index down more than 4 percent.

Britain's top share index rose around midday on Friday with banks leading the gainers after being boosted by a positive broker comment.

Stock index futures bounced back on Wednesday after five days of losses on the S&P 500 that brought the benchmark index down more than 4 percent.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson said on Wednesday he plans to spend $35 billion on a mini-Las Vegas strip in Spain where he is courting the country's two top urban areas, Barcelona and Madrid, with plans for a casino complex.

Stock futures pointed to a higher opening for equities on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising 0.1 to 0.3 percent.

Carlyle Group LP is eyeing a market valuation of $7.5 billion to $8 billion in an initial public offering, as the U.S. private equity firm prepares to kick off a marketing blitz to investors, perhaps as soon as next week, said a source with knowledge of the situation.

The Bank of Japan will consider easing monetary policy at its next rate review on April 27 by boosting government bond purchases under its asset-buying program, sources familiar with the central bank's thinking said, as it battles to nudge consumer inflation toward its 1 percent target.

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value, dissatisfied with AOL's $1 billion deal to sell the majority of patents to Microsoft Corp , has filed with U.S. regulators for the nomination of three of its candidates to the board of the Internet firm.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson said on Wednesday that he plans to spend $35 billion on a mini-Las Vegas strip in Spain, where he is courting the country's two top urban areas, Barcelona and Madrid, with plans for a casino complex.