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Stocks rose in the first week of 2012, even though news that the U.S. jobless rate neared a three-year low did not whet interest in equities on Friday. The U.S. market came into the new year revisiting familiar themes, with signs the U.S. economic recovery was gathering speed taking some of the focus off of [...]
Democratic and Republican lawmakersskirmished on Friday over plans to extend a payroll tax cut seen as crucial to a fragile U.S. economic recovery, but aides predicted a last-minute deal. While independent economists say extending the tax cut would boost the economy at a critical time, both parties have been struggling to agree on a compromise deal in a [...]
Gov. Bill Haslam says he doesn’t plan to eliminate Tennessee’s estate tax and Hall income tax despite efforts by several Republican lawmakers to kill the measures because they believe they’re hurting the state’s economic development. The Republican governor told The Associated Press that both taxes are bad for the long term because they “chase capital away from the state.” However, he said Tennessee is still [...]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said euro-region leaders must erect a firewall around Greece to avert a cascade of market attacks on other European states that would risk breaking up the currency area. Expanding the powers of the region’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, as agreed by European leaders in July is necessary to avoid Greece’s [...]
Betting on Ben S. Bernanke has been the most profitable trade for government bond investors in 16 years, defying lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad who said the Federal Reserve chairman’s policies would lead to runaway inflation and the dollar’s debasement. Treasuries due in 10 or more years have returned 28 percent in 2011, exceeding the 24.4 [...]
Thailand’s central bank may cut its economic growth projections as the global recovery falters, Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said, signaling there may be less scope for interest rates to rise further. Inflation expectations aren’t likely to increase and the Bank of Thailand has “closed the gap somewhat” on normalizing borrowing costs, Prasarn said in an interview [...]
Wall Street leaders, urging coordinated action from world governments to solve the European sovereign-debt crisis, struggled themselves during four days of meetings in Washington to agree on what’s needed to end it. The chiefs of firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Societe Generale (GLE) SA met for three hours at the National Archives on [...]
Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world’s biggest bond fund, is forecasting that advanced economies will stall over the next year as Europe slides into a recession, underscoring mounting investor concern about the global economic outlook. There will be little-to-no economic growth in industrial nations in the coming 12 months as Europe’s economy shrinks by 1 [...]
Japan’s jobless rate rose for a second month and retail sales dropped, underscoring the challenge for incoming Prime Minister Yoshihiko Nodain securing Japan’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake. The unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent in July as payrolls fell by 40,000 from a month earlier, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. Retail sales slid a seasonally [...]
The newly appointed Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, Nguyen Van Binh, has vowed to force the interest rates down to 17-19 percent per annum. Commercial banks are drawing up a plan to meet the commitment. Commercial banks have offered new credit packages specifically designed for production businesses, importers and exporters, and the enterprises [...]