Asian shares eased Friday, with China's factory activity data and a U.S. jobs report due later in the day making investors cautious as the escalating euro zone debt crisis threatened to further undermine growth worldwide.
A trade credit crunch, driven by trading partners' fears that Greek businesses will soon be refusing to honor their debts in euro, is making it difficult for Greeks to keep their economy running.
On a Friday afternoon in March, the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would pay Janet Robinson, its recently fired CEO and a 28-year veteran of the company, a severance package of around $23.7 million.
With a massive smart grid build-out, Beijing hopes to turn its grid into a competitive advantage.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick is calling for the issuiing of a supranational euro bond that would be backed by credit guarantees from stronger euro zone economies while providing cheaper funding to struggling ones.
Investors flocked into longer-dated U.S. Treasuries for the second day in a row on Thursday, sending the yield on those products to all-time lows. The movement was one of the clearest signals that money managers took into account the crisis in Europe and some weak U.S. economic data figures and decided against moving into riskier assets.
The number of Americans filing for first-time jobless benefits rose by 10,000 last week, the Department of Labor announced Thursday, bringing the number of people filing for unemployment benefits to a one-month high and exceeding analysts' expectations.
The U.S. economy expanded at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That's in line with economists' estimate and slower than the initially reported 2.2 percent pace.
The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday are: The Ryland Group Inc., Zynga Inc., SAP AG, HSBC Holdings plc, Neonode Inc., NCI Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
Futures on major U.S. indices point to a higher opening Thursday, ahead of the ADP National Employment Report and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) report on Initial Jobless Claims.
The Q4 GDP data for India plunged the volatile rupee further in the morning trade Thursday, as the Indian currency hovered near an all-time low of 56.52 against the dollar. The rupee was trading at 56.38/39 at 10 am IST, after testing the 56.52 level in early trade.
Asian markets fell Thursday as concerns over the debt crisis looming over the euro zone increased due to heightened Spanish banking sector woes.
The top after-market NASDAQ gainers Wednesday were: CE Franklin Ltd Inc, Envivio Inc, Zumiez Inc, Datalink Corporation and 21Vianet Group Inc. The top after-market NASDAQ losers were: F5 Networks Inc, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, Tivo Inc, Pacific Biosciences of California Inc and American Superconductor Corporation.
Japanese industrial output rose in April at a slower pace than expected, in a discouraging sign that China's slowing economy and Europe's sovereign debt crisis will weigh on Japan's recovery.
Asian shares, the euro and oil prices fell Thursday as surging borrowing costs in Spain heightened fears of euro zone debt contagion.
While speculation swirls about whether Greece is going to drop the euro, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday that none of the eight countries trying to get in the currency bloc are ready to join.
Crude oil prices slid more than 3 percent Wednesday on fears of a slowdown in global economic growth. U.S. stocks also closed lower, with major indexes all down more than 1 percent and yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury sank to a record 1.64 percent.
Facing what seem to be minute-by-minute rejections of various bailout scenarios, Spanish bank Bankia S.A. -- the country's fourth-largest financial institution, which is currently embroiled in a crisis of insolvency -- is putting its faith in the web-shooting hands of a Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man.
With dark clouds gathering over China's economy, Beijing is feeling greater pressure to introduce stimulus measures to support growth.
Several western celebrities have adopted a child from Africa, and a new report from the African Child Policy Forum shows that many other hopeful parents are following suit. But the inter-country adoption process is rife with complications, and the ACPF explains exactly why it is in need of reform
The situation is so dire, Maliki declared, that states could conceivably go to war over the precious substance.
Industrial commodities and global stocks fell sharply Wednesday as evidence mounted that the global economy's highfliers are dangerously close to stall speed. Yields on 10-year Treasuries tumbled to a record low 1.64 percent.
The European Union recommended Wednesday that the 17 countries of the euro common currency union create and fund a banking union for bailing out insolvent banks, preventing the fiscal and political stresses such moves have on individual national governments. The union would be funded by the European Stability Mechanism, one of the EU's standing bailout funds.
Economic stagnation and continuing debt crisis in the single currency bloc drove the region's business sentiment to 90.6 in May from April's revised 92.9, the European Commission said Wednesday. That was the second big fall in a row and left the index at its lowest level since the back end of the global recession in October 2009.
Italian government borrowing costs rose Wednesday to crisis levels as international investors, spooked by developments in Greece and Spain over the past few days, shied away from lending to that recession-ravaged peripheral European economy.
The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Wednesday are: Delcath Systems Inc., Quicksilver Resources Inc., Research In Motion Limited, Nokia Corp., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Facebook Inc. and Western Digital Corp.
The global headquarters of Dewey & LaBoeuf LLP, a glass-sheathed office tower in midtown Manhattan, has a commanding view of a stretch of Sixth Avenue looking downtown. A pair of statues, designed by artist Jim Dine, rise from the plaza of the stately office, overlooking Rockefeller Center. But now, it will be the law firm's ornate tomb, a reminder of its glory days.
Futures on major U.S. indices point to a lower opening Wednesday ahead of anticipated reports on the Mortgage Applications Index and Pending Home Sales.
Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex and NSE's Nifty opened in red in the morning session Wednesday, weighed down by a slump in the shares of Tata Motors. The choppy trading continued with India's largest automaker being the top loser in the BSE with a 9.03 percent or 24.80 points decline.
Asian markets fell Wednesday amid Spanish banking sector woes and a report that China is not planning further stimulus measures to lift its economic growth.
