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World markets managed modest gains Thursday, shrugging off a weak U.S. growth report and an interest rate hike in China.
Oil prices rose above $97 a barrel as a report showed U.S. crude supply fell more than expected last week, suggesting demand is improving. The dollar slipped against the euro and the yen.
In early European trading, […]
Gas prices hit a sweet spot for automakers last month. They fell far enough to spur pickup truck sales, yet remained so high that small cars sold well, sometimes just hours after reaching dealers’ lots.
That made June a good month for General Motors and Ford, which have traditionally relied on truck sales and now have […]
European countries must decide how to plug potential funding gaps for Greece next year before the International Monetary Fund can release the next batch of loans, an envoy from the Fund said Tuesday, as the struggling country’s prime minister convened party deputies to discuss further austerity measures.
Senior representative Bob Traa said EU leaders had “hard […]
Don’t blame speculators for your pain at the pump, says Bill O’Grady. First blame the worldwide thirst for oil. Then blame the Federal Reserve for a cheap-money policy that makes commodities look attractive to investors.
Then blame fear, building quietly around the world, that America may someday stop being the global policeman.
O’Grady spent most of his […]
Last September, my wife and I started scouring the city for a new house. We were living in a cozy bungalow, but with a growing kid and another on the way, we decided it was time to move.
Buying a new house is, of course, expensive, so I wanted to do whatever it took to reduce […]
Shares of Creve Coeur-based Monsanto Co. bounced up a few bucks on Tuesday as rumors swirled that chemical giant BASF had plans to make a bid for the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology company.
But the rumors are likely just that, analysts said, and merely underscore how suggestible the stock market can be.
“I would say the collective […]
A week before becoming ground zero for the world’s biggest nuclear crisis since 1986, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant offered $11 an hour for full-time maintenance work in an area of Japan that was lagging even before last month’s earthquake and tsunami struck.
The wage, the same as McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) pays for part-time work in […]
Amsted Rail Co. has rehired about 700 workers at its Granite City plant in recent months, with plans to add 250 new employees.
“It’s going great. We have all our people back at work,” said Robert Lott, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1063, the union representing workers.
The Chicago-based maker of rail machinery laid off […]
U.S. factories are closing. American manufacturing jobs are reappearing overseas. China’s industrial might is growing each year.
And it might seem as if the United States doesn’t make world-class goods as well as some other nations.
“There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products,” President […]
The young roulette dealer, dressed in electric green, gives the wheel a spin as a crowd of men clutch their whiskey glasses, hoping to strike it rich.
Thus begins a night of gambling, drinking and mingling at the newly opened Casino Damascus _ the first to open in Syria in nearly four decades.
The glittering casino showcases […]