U.S. consumers, who flocked to malls at the start of the holiday shopping season, have since backed off, kept out of stores by a Midwest ice storm and the ease of shopping online, data released on Sunday by SpendingPulse showed.
Bribery investigations into U.S. oilfield companies is likely to spur reform in the industry
ABC Inc, the Walt Disney Entertainment division, said on Friday around 250 of its writers will continue to work after agreeing to a new contract that will run through January 2010.
Boeing Co. said on Friday that AWAS, an airplane leasing company, has ordered 31 of its single-aisle 737-800 jets worth about $2.3 billion at list prices.
The holiday shopping home stretch run starts this weekend, and U.S. retailers hope that dilly-dallying shoppers are ready to open up their wallets and get serious about spending. The 10 days before Christmas are the busiest of the season, with as much as 40 percent of total holiday sales coming then, according to analysts from the Telsey Advisory Group.
Mining group BHP Billiton is set for a make-over if it manages to gobble up Rio Tinto, jettisoning a range of mines to focus on core operations.
A number of money managers are up in arms over a plan by several central banks to thaw frozen credit markets because it will stop investors from feeling the pain of failed bets.
New passenger car registrations in the European Union in November fell 1.3 percent to 1.217 million vehicles from a year ago but were up 0.9 percent over the first 11 months, the ACEA European car association said on Friday.
Germany’s Lufthansa said on Thursday that it will buy a 19 percent stake in the low-cost U.S airline, Jet Blue, in a deal worth nearly $300 million.
Dow Jones & Co. shareholders approved the company's $5.6 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Thursday, the company reported.
Countrywide Financial Corp said on Thursday that mortgage loan funding tumbled 40 percent to $23 billion in November, sending its shares down nearly 4 percent before the market opened.
Sales at retailers posted a much stronger-than-expected 1.2 percent rise in November, government data showed on Thursday, as holiday shoppers coped with high energy costs and the fallout from a housing slump. Excluding autos, retail sales gained 1.8 percent, the Commerce Department said. Economists polled forecast retail sales to rise 0.6 percent while sales ex autos were also projected to increase by 0.6 percent, according to Reuters.
In this booming Gulf emirate, home to soaring personal wealth, hundreds of new skyscrapers and a ski slope plugged into a shopping mall, U.S. private equity investors are pouring in to check out potential investments.
Switzerland's Novartis AG will slash 2.5 percent of its global workforce, aiming for annual savings of $1.6 billion in 2010, becoming the latest major drugmaker to undertake a deep restructuring. Novartis said on Thursday it would take a charge of $450 million in the fourth quarter for the measures, which aim to combat price pressures on drugs, higher research costs, tighter regulations and more generic competition.
Reliance Industries (RIL), India's most valuable firm in terms of market capitalisation and owner of world's third largest refinery, will be setting aside up to $15 billion for making world-scale acquisitions in the energy sector besides investing more than $12 billion for development of gas exploration off the country's east coast.
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc raised its 2007 earnings estimate on Wednesday due in part to cost savings and strength in Europe, sending the bottler's shares up 4 percent in morning trade.
Bank of America Corp expects its fourth-quarter results to be disappointing due to write-downs and lower trading revenue, Chief Executive Ken Lewis said on Wednesday.
BHP Billiton Plc/Ltd said on Wednesday it was considering possible next moves in its attempt to open takeover talks with rival mining house Rio Tinto, which has so far rebuffed its overtures.
Wells Fargo & Co Chairman Dick Kovacevich is not against the No. 5 U.S. bank making a major acquisition, but he said on Tuesday the prospect of that happening is unlikely even as large rivals become vulnerable due to shaky subprime lending.
Freddie Mac expects to see credit losses of $10 billion to $12 billion on the book of mortgages it currently owns, the mortgage finance company's chief executive said on Tuesday. Freddie Mac has already recorded many of those losses from recently failing loans and had previously disclosed its expectation of multi-billion dollar write-offs, an analyst said.
The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has told the Treasury Select Committee of MP’s that it expected the troubled mortgage lender, Northern Rock, to release a trading update this month before the end of its financial year.
H&R Block Inc, slammed over the past year by exposure to risky mortgages, on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss after shutting down its Option One Mortgage subprime lender, sending its shares down nearly 7 percent.
Toyota Motor Corp expects to accelerate its cost-cutting efforts next year to save more than $2.7 billion annually, its president said on Tuesday, as the world's biggest carmaker seeks to offset rising commodity and development costs.
Top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc said on Monday it was buying core routers from Cisco Systems Inc to upgrade its Internet backbone network, a major win for Cisco amid competition from rival network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc.
Buyout firm Warburg Pincus has agreed to invest $1 billion in MBIA Inc, bolstering the finances of the world's largest bond insurer amid concern about its ability to pay claims on faltering mortgage-backed bonds. The news lifted the company's sagging shares 16 percent in afternoon trading.
Lloyds TSB said its underlying profits are on track to grow 11 percent this year but the British bank will take a 200 million pound ($405 million) hit from exposure to credit market problems.
TSX Group Inc will buy the Montreal Exchange Inc in a C$1.3 billion ($1.3 billion) deal that will create an integrated exchange group, the TMX Group Inc, the companies said on Monday.
Dutch financial group ING Groep will miss its goal of entering Japan's retail banking market this year with its ING Direct banking service, but remains on track for a launch with final regulatory approval, the company said on Monday.
India's Tata Motors Ltd and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd have submitted revised bids for Ford Motor Co's Jaguar and Land Rover brands, CNBC-TV18 news channel reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
Eisai Co Ltd said on Monday it would buy U.S. biotech firm MGI Pharma Inc for $3.9 billion cash to strengthen its cancer treatment pipeline, marking the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese drug maker.
