ECONOMY & MARKETS

Sales of armored backpacks have spiked in recent days following Friday’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in which 20 children were killed in Newtown, Conn.

China's Foxconn decreased its employees' overtime hours, but employees are saying the restricted hours don't let them make enough money.

China's landscape has changed drastically, and it now contains one-third of the world's tallest buildings. Plans to build even more are underway.

The Reserve Bank of India in an unexpected move decided to keep the key interest rates and cash reserve ratio unchanged in a monetary policy review, citing the fragile global economic situation but said the policy focus was shifting towards growth, indicating monetary easing in the next quarter review.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into China fell in November in comparison to the same period last year, as investors, who are concerned about the global economic condition cut down on spending.

Shinzo Abe, leader of the LDP, will tackle Japan’s long-running deflation, but maybe not in the robust way necessary to succeed.

India’s government lowered the country’s economic growth forecast for the fiscal year 2012 indicating that it is in need of stimulus measures to boost the weakening economy.

Japan’s business conditions in the manufacturing sector continue to falter as the weak global economic situation is affecting its economy.

U.S. consumer prices declined in November for the first time in five months, falling 0.3 percent, as gasoline price declines offset increases in other areas, the U.S. Labor Department announced Friday.

Egypt is at risk of descending into a cycle of economic crisis feeding into political crisis, as it had to delay asking for an IMF loan.

India’s headline inflation declined moderately to 7.24 percent in November from 7.45 percent in October.

Japan’s industrial output rose in November, but less than expected, indicating the world’s third largest-economy continues to weaken.

China's manufacturing activity expanded to a 14-month high in December, according to the HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index released Friday.

Claims are now below pre-Sandy levels and near their lowest point in about four years.

The Bank of Korea Thursday announced its decision to keep the policy rate at 2.75 percent, withstanding the pressure from the market participants for additional stimulus measures to give a boost to the country's weakening economy.

Even in China's red-hot economy, recent graduates aren't securing jobs. But it's not always because they can't find them.

If Congress can strike a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, the U.S. economy could show some meaningful improvements in 2013.

India's industrial output jumped 8.2 percent in October -- its fastest pace in more than a year -- beating the analysts' expectations of a 4.5 percent rise, according to the official data released Wednesday.

South Korea’s unemployment rate in November remained unchanged from that in October but grew at a slower pace than expected.

Japan’s core machinery orders rose to 2.6 percent in October from a 4.3 percent fall in September.

Three surveys show that U.S. confidence in growth clearly has been jarred by the 2012 election and fiscal cliff chatter.

Malaysia's industrial output rose in October compared with its output in the same month last year.

China's rebound continues, but it appears to be losing some strength.

China’s trade surplus dropped in November compared to that in the previous month.

Japan's gross domestic product contracted in the third quarter in comparison to that in the previous quarter.

With South Korea’s economy continuing to falter, market participants have renewed their call for urgent policy easing measures.

Average salaries in developed countries are expected to have risen by no more than inflation in 2012.

U.S. payrolls expanded last month and unemployment fell, but some economists expect November's positive numbers to be revised down.

U.S. employers last month created 146,000 jobs, far more than analysts expected, slashing unemployment to 7.7%.