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Prices of Corn Soar To New Highs
Corn futures soared to new highs following an announcement by the U.S. government that the devastating drought in the nation’s farm belt had destroyed over 1/6 of the corn crop in only one month. The Department of Agriculture dramatically... More of this article »
Applications for Unemployment Benefits Decreases
There were less Americans who filed for unemployment benefits last week. Analysts saw this as a sign that the labor major has been improving after hiring increased in July. Jobless claims decreased by 6,000 to 361,000 in the week that... More of this article »
Trade Deficit Shrank In June
The trade deficit in June shrank more that what was expected during June. The largest drop in the price of crude oil, in over three years, helped to lower the import bill for the U.S. The deficit narrowed by 11% to nearly $42.9 billion,... More of this article »
Starbucks Utilizes Mobile Payments Via Square
Starbucks signed with Square Inc. that will have the world’s biggest coffee chain use the 2-year old startup’s technology to process mobile payments. It has won over other established payment processors. The deal was announced... More of this article »
Samsung Investigating Child Labor Allegations
Samsung has decided to investigate recent allegations of child labor at one of its factories. Accusations surfaced recently against HEG Electronics, one of Samsung’s suppliers that said the company was using underage children to... More of this article »
163,000 New Jobs a Sign of a Resilient Economy
The US economy managed to generate 163,000 jobs last month. It is said to be the fastest pace since February and a clear sign that the economy is resilient enough to improve from a midyear slump and grow at a modest rate as the rest... More of this article »
Unemployment Rate Up to 8.3 Percent Even if US Added 163,000 Jobs in July
The unemployment rate in the United States increased to 8.3 percent in July even if 163,000 new jobs were created. Friday’s job report showed that payrolls have an upward trend for the past two years, with an average of around 150,000... More of this article »
Economy in July added 163,000 Jobs
Employers in the U.S. increased their hiring in July. The economy continued its up and down recovery heading towards the fall presidential election. The payrolls in the U.S. were increased by 163,000 during July, said a Labor Department... More of this article »
UBS Hit With Huge Facebook Loss
Shares of UBS plummeted on Tuesday after the giant Swiss bank posted earnings that were worst than expected. Profits for the second quarter fell by 58% because of the huge losses the bank suffered from the initial public offering of... More of this article »
Senate Rebukes HSBC Over Money Laundering (NYSE: HBC)
A 335-page Senate report says that executives at HSBC and regulators at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ignored warning signs and failed to stop illegal behavior by Mexican drug cartels looking to get cash back into... More of this article »
Something in the water at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS)
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) may be sporting a gleaming new headquarters building in lower Manhattan, but not everything there is quite perfect. While the building sports the usual amenities of any high end office building in Manhattan,... More of this article »
Management Shake Up at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is executing a management shake up in follow-up to the London Whale trading debacle. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon reshuffled managers just below him, signaling that the biggest U.S.... More of this article »
Bank Deposit Insurance Near Spotlight Again
Deposit insurance has been a stabilizing force in the US banking industry since the formation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). During the financial crisis of 2008, the increase in FDIC levels helped avert... More of this article »
Sandy Weill of Citigroup (NYSE: C) Fame Now Advocates Breaking Up Big Banks
Sandy Weill, the engineer of supermarket banking through his creation of Citigroup (NYSE: C), has now spurned the notion of massive banks and turning his back on what amounted to his career’s crowning achievement. Weill displayed... More of this article »
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) Buys Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate Building
A fund managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) agreed to buy a building near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate valued at about $184 million from Commerzbank AG (NYSE: CBK), two people with knowledge of the matter said. While... More of this article »
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) Expanding In Asia
In the banking industry, the market potential for Asia remains as hot a topic as ever. While the major US based banks have sought to expand and grow market share, hoping to gain a piece of IPO action and potentially billions of... More of this article »
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Expanding Mobile Banking Services
The Charlotte based banking behemoth Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) seems to be heeding the client demand for mobile banking products. Today, the firm launched new mobile banking products and service enhancements including Mobile... More of this article »
Will Experimental Marketing Work in 2012 and Beyond?
In this day and age for your marketing campaign to work you need to have a slightly different approach that people haven’t seen before. People are very skeptical these days and it can be easy to dismiss something that we see being... More of this article »
Growth Slows In U.S. Due to Consumers Spending Less
The largest economy in the world, cooled off during the second quarter due to very little growth in jobs that in turn prompted Americans to cut back spending. Local and state governments also made cutbacks adding to the problem. The... More of this article »
Economy Slows to Tepid Rate of 1.5%
The economy in the U.S. grew by just a tepid 1.5% rate during the second quarter of 2012. It lost the momentum that had appeared during the early part of the year. Holding back the growth of the economy was the lack of purchasing by... More of this article »
US Banks Should Not Be Forced to Breakup
In the United States, banks are starting to separate their commercial and investment banking operations. According to banking analyst Meredith Whitney, there’s no need for any radical breakup as suggested by former Citigroup chairman... More of this article »
Campbell Soup Strikes Deal To Buy Bolthouse Farms (NYSE: CPB)
The Campbell Soup Company announced that it would buy food company Bolthouse Farms from the private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Campbell will pay $1.55 billion in cash to close the deal. Denise M. Morrison, Campbell’s... More of this article »
Rupert Murdoch Resigns from 3 Boards
News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch resigned from three of the company’s boards, which include the News International newspaper division in the United Kingdom. The move was made to prepare for impending... More of this article »
Rupert Murdoch Stepping Down From Boards
Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced he was stepping down from the two News Corp businesses in the United Kingdom. By doing so, he has symbolically put a distance between himself and the vast empire he started 43 years ago... More of this article »
Kayak Goes Public
Kayak is now public. The Connecticut company had its initial public offering on Friday. Behind its successful Kayak.com site the company went public and will trade on Nasdaq. The company saw its initial stock prices jump by 16% as... More of this article »
Yahoo CEO Mayer Gets $100 Million Over Five Years
It looks like Yahoo is confident with its new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer. She will receive up to $100 million in compensation, bonus, stock and retention awards for the next five years. According to the announcement made by the... More of this article »
First Loss As Public Company Posted By Microsoft
Microsoft announced on Thursday it had made an accounting adjustment to reflect that an online advertising company it purchased in 2007 had not lived up to expectations that top executives had hope for. The result led to Microsoft’s... More of this article »
Capital One to Pay $210 Million Fine for Credit Card Add-Ons
Capital One Financial Corp. has to pay $210 million as settlement for its deceptive marketing of credit card add-on products such as payment protection and credit monitoring. This has been the first public enforcement case file by... More of this article »
Bank of America Reports $2.5 Billion Profit (NYSE: BAC)
Bank of America reportedly earned $2.5 billion, or $0.19 a share, compared with analysts’ projections of $0.14 for the quarter. The bank reported revenue of $22.2 billion for the second quarter, slightly less than expected... More of this article »
HSBC Handles Drug Money and other Shady Funds
According to a US Senate report, HSBC Holdings Plc has a pervasively polluted culture that allowed the bank to act as financier to clients looking for a way to route shady funds from the world’s most dangerous regions, such as Mexico,... More of this article »
MSNBC.com Becomes NBCNews.com
NBC News got full control of msnbc.com as well as its digital network from Microsoft. It will undergo a rebranding and will be known as NBCNews.com. Most of the details of the deal are still being worked on and the financial terms... More of this article »
Hollande Says Peugeot Must Renegotiate
The new president of France Francois Hollande said that Peugeot must renegotiate its plan to cut 8,000 jobs. Hollande said the cutback would create a huge social impact. He accused the automaker of lying about its intentions and said... More of this article »
Airbus Building Its First Factory In The United States (PINK: EADSF)
Airbus announced plans to invest $600 million over the next five years in building an assembly line in Mobile, Alabama for its A320 single-aisle jet. This will be the company’s first factory in the United States. Fabrice Brégier,... More of this article »
MasterCard and Visa to Pay $6 Billion Settlement
MasterCard, Visa and several major banks agreed to pay $6 billion to settle a lawsuit involving 7 million merchants that accept both MasterCard and Visa. The deal consists of a little more than $6 billion in cash for damages. Visa... More of this article »
Mastercard, Visa and Banks Forge Retail Settlement
A settlement has been reached by Mastercard Inc, Visa Inc and banks that are issuers of their credit cards for $7.25 billion with retailers in the U.S. over a lawsuit that fixed debit and credit card fees. The agreement could be the... More of this article »
United Airlines Places Order for 150 Boeing 737s
United Airlines is set to buy 150 Boeing 737s to replace its older planes that are not fuel efficient. The order was placed Thursday that includes 100 Boeing 737 Max 9. It is a new version of the airplane that has new engines and other... More of this article »
Mee Healthcare to Launch 100 New Healthcare Facilities in U.K.
Cherie Blair and Gail Lese have teamed up under the banner of Allele Funds to create 100 new healthcare facilities in the United Kingdom under the name of Mee Healthcare. The fund is seeking to raise 65 million GBP ($100 million U.S.)... More of this article »
Italy Downgraded by Moody’s
On Friday, Moody’s surprised markets by downgrading the bond rating of Italy’s government by two notches to Baa2. It also warned that it might cut the rating even further. The move placed even more pressure on the country just... More of this article »
US Trade Deficit Dropped in May
The trade deficit in the United States decreased in May from April. This was due to cheaper oil that decreased imports and an increase in exports to China and Europe. Economists warned that the global economy had weakened since May. Economists... More of this article »
US Job Openings Increase after April Drop
Job openings increased in May right after the drop experienced in April. This data eased concerns regarding the job market in the United States. Open positions increased by 195,000 to 3.64 million. The data countered that of the Labor... More of this article »
Penney’s Struggles, Lays off More Workers
Retail giant J.C. Penney has had a hard time trying to transform its business under the helm of new CEO Ron Johnson who came over from Apple. The retailer announced on Tuesday that it was eliminating another 350 jobs at its Plano,... More of this article »
Boeing Gets $7.2 Billion Order for New 737s
Boeing got a good start at the opening of the Farnborough air show. It got a $7.2 billion order from Steven Udvar-Hazy’s Air Lease Corp. for its new fuel-efficient 737 MAX. The 75 plane order is for 60 of the Max 8 model and 15 of... More of this article »
Setbacks Cause Delay In Release Of Research In Motion’s New BlackBerrys (NASDAQ: RIMM)
Research in Motion announced that its new line of BlackBerry phones will be delayed until next year. The company also announced a $518 million loss in the first quarter and plans to cut about 5,000 of its 16,500 employees. Issues... More of this article »
Investors Confident with the United States
Global business confidence has cooled down last month as a result of the euro zone debt crisis. But the investors are still optimistic about the economy of the United States. This is according to a survey made by financial information... More of this article »
Unemployment Holds at 8.2%, 80,000 New Jobs
A jobs report released Friday morning showed weaker than anticipated new jobs and pushed the three major stock indexes in the U.S. down by over 1% each. The jobs report released by the Labor Department showed a net increase in jobs... More of this article »
ADP: 176,000 New Jobs Added in June
Private sector business added 176,000 new jobs to their payrolls during June said ADP, the payroll giant. June’s increase followed a revised upward figure of 136,000 for May. Economists had predicted that just 95,000 new jobs would... More of this article »
Government Demands for Twitter User Data on the Rise
Twitter released its first transparency report Monday and it revealed that the United States leads when it comes to government demands for user data. According to the report, the US government filed 679 requests in the first half of... More of this article »
GlaxoSmithKline Agrees To $3 Billion Settlement
British Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay a settlement of $3 billion and plead guilty to three misdemeanor criminal charges. U.S. government officials are calling the agreement the largest healthcare fraud case... More of this article »