Business Bulletin Board

ALLIANCE
The Sound Room entered a partnership with Lombardo Homes to pre-wire eight subdivisions in St. Louis County and St. Charles County.
EXPANDING
Networking Plus LLC added new business networking sites at Bridgeton and WingHaven.
Karpel Solutions, a south St. Louis County-based computer software company, started selling and delivering ShoreTel Unified Communication products.
GETTING BETTER
Peter A. Racen of Northwestern Mutual […]

Jobless claims fall 15,000 last week

Private-sector hiring surged in December as employers added 325,000 new workers while claims for jobless benefits fell, raising hope that recent labor market improvement would continue in 2012.
The ADP National Employment Report’s December job tally surprised economists who had expected a 178,000 gain. It was also well above the 204,000 private jobs added in […]

Iran dismisses sanction impact on currency

Iran said Tuesday that the steep depreciation in the country’s currency against the U.S. dollar was not linked to U.S. new sanctions targeting its Central Bank, while officials geared up for a meeting to assess possible measures to shore up the riyal in an already ailing economy.
Since President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law […]

U.K. Bonds Prove Best in World as Cameron Sidesteps Stresses in Euro Area - Bloomberg

The U.K. is home to this year

Murdoch tabloid spied on hacking victims’ lawyers

Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper company spied on two lawyers who represent alleged victims of phone hacking by its tabloid News of the World, the firm acknowledged Monday.
News International said lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris “were subject to surveillance,” a practice it called “inappropriate.”
The BBC and The Guardian newspaper reported Monday that Lewis and Harris […]

Looking for a job? This top-employer list might be a place to start

The 40 largest employers in the St. Louis region represent just a tiny fraction of all local employers. But they wield tremendous hiring clout, employing more than 260,000 people, or a fifth of all jobs here.
If only they were hiring more. Just 12 of the 40 are actively recruiting to expand their workforce, according to […]

Chinese officials jailed for leaking economic data

China said Monday that two officials have been jailed for leaking economic data to securities brokerages and four people who work in the financial industry are being investigated.
The National Administration for Protection of State Secrets said the officials shared classified data numerous times though it gave no specific details about the information or the impact […]

BSkyB profit up despite TV subscriptions slowdown

British Sky Broadcasting PLC, in which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has a large minority stake, saw its first quarter profits rise further as increasing sales of telephone and broadband packages offset a slowdown in new television subscriptions
The company said Wednesday that profit on continuing operations in the three months to end-September rose by 24 percent […]

Canadian economy shrinks as exports stall

The Canadian economy stalled in the second quarter, contracting slightly as exports dropped amid the global economic slowdown.
Statistics Canada said Wednesday that Canadian gross domestic product shrank 0.1 per cent in the three months ended June 30, or at an annualized pace

Venezuela’s Chavez may undergo more chemotherapy

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he may undergo another round of chemotherapy next week.
Chavez said he feels he is overcoming his illness. When he mentioned cancer, he described it in the past tense saying: “I had it.”
The 57-year-old Venezuelan leader recently shaved his head after his hair began to fall out as a […]