Along the road to one of China's most famous tourist landmarks - the Great Wall of China - lies the crumbling remains of what was to be the largest amusement park in Asia, Wonderland.
The pace of decline in the euro zone private sector eased unexpectedly in December, but the global toll of the region's sovereign debt crisis became clearer on Thursday with news of falling investment and factory activity in China.
Wall Street stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday as stronger labor market and manufacturing data lifted sentiment after three days of losses, while higher quarterly profit from FedEx also boosted equity futures.
Spain saw solid demand for its bonds on Thursday, paying more than 2 percentage points less to borrow over 5-years than Italy a day earlier as budget cuts helped ease concerns it could be among the next to fall in the euro zone's debt crisis.
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a 3-1/2 year low last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market
China has fired a warning shot with its decision to impose tariffs on imports of sport-utility vehicles and other large cars from the United States as both countries gear up for increased trade friction next year.
The decline in the euro zone's private sector eased a little this month, but a recession still looks inevitable with the region's periphery struggling badly, a key business survey showed on Thursday.
Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.5 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.5 percent at 0906 GMT.
German manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in December and looked unlikely to provide a lift to Europe's largest economy soon as new orders continued to dry up, a survey showed on Thursday.
China's economic growth could be slowing further as data on Thursday showed the first year-on-year drop in foreign direct investment in 28 months and a fresh fall in new orders signaled a further contraction in factory activity.
The euro steadied just off new 11-month lows on Thursday, with eyes fixed on a Swiss National Bank meeting to consider its campaign of currency intervention while a Spanish bond auction will offer more signs on the depth of Europe's debt crisis.
Enforcement staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission may request the commissioners leading the agency that they appeal last month's rejection by a U.S. district judge of a proposed $285 million settlement with Citigroup, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp said Thursday it would consider reinstating its sacked CEO, Michael Woodford, but the gesture failed to erase doubts that it would ever rehire the foreigner who blew the whistle on its crooked accounts.
Foreign direct investment growth in China fell year-on-year for the first time in 28 months, with November's $8.8 billion of commitments down 9.8 percent and hurt by a sharp drop in inflows from the United States, Commerce Ministry data showed Thursday.
Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp said on Thursday it would consider reinstating Michael Woodford, the British chief executive it sacked two months ago and who blew the whistle on a fraud that has left it weakened and in need of fresh capital.
Asian shares fell into bear market territory for the year and commodities and the euro nursed stinging losses Thursday, as fears that Europe's debt crisis is still worsening prompted investors to dump riskier assets and seek shelter in the dollar.
Business sentiment among Asia's top companies slid in the fourth quarter to its lowest in two years, with executives rattled by rising costs and fears over where the global economy is heading.
Fifty-five-million and counting. That's the number of people looking for love, and they're doing so through Are You Interested?, the second-most popular Facebook app, made by the development team at Snap Interactive. Are You Interested? has been one of the most popular apps on Facebook Platform since 2007, when Facebook first released their application platform to developers, and the dating service is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Shares in Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp slumped almost 20 percent on Thursday after it corrected its accounts to reveal a dramatically weakened balance sheet, stoking talk that it might need to merge, sell assets or raise fresh capital.
China's exporters will face very severe conditions in the first quarter of 2012, the Commerce Ministry said on Thursday, with Europe's debt crisis dragging on and dampening demand.
Shares in Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp slumped almost 20 percent on Thursday after it corrected its accounts to reveal a dramatically weakened balance sheet, stoking talk that it might need to merge, sell assets or raise fresh capital.
Buy the rumor, sell the EU summit.Eight times this year, European Union leaders have met to tackle their deepening sovereign debt crisis, raising hopes in financial markets that a solution could be close.
A downgrade of France's AAA credit rating would not be justified and ratings agencies are making decisions based more on politics than economics, European Central Bank policymaker Christian Noyer said on Thursday.
Gazit-Globe and Sanchez Energy opened to a muted response on their trading debut, as companies without the dotcom tag find little favor with investors.
Amazon.com Inc shares dropped to levels not seen since March Wednesday on concern that big spending and aggressive pricing by the No. 1 Internet retailer will hit profit during the crucial holiday season and well into next year.
Former Olympus Corp president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa had said in 2008 that taking over three domestic companies would make hidden investment losses go down by a lot, people familiar with the cover-up told the Nikkei business daily.
Stocks fell for a third day and hit their lowest level in two weeks on Wednesday as widespread risk aversion sank commodity prices, sent the euro to an 11-month low against the dollar and drove Italy's borrowing costs to a euro-era high.
Ford will begin production of the 2012 Focus Electric, the first five-passenger electric car to average more than 100 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) on the fuel efficiency scale.
New York University on Wednesday announced plans to offer an MFA program in game design, and a top game designer told the International Business Times that the new program should have a positive impact on the industry as well as the quality of games sold to the public.
Credit Agricole will make a 2011 loss, write off 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) worth of assets and cut 2,350 jobs in a cull of its investment banking operations, the French bank said on Wednesday in its second profit warning of the year.
