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Mortgage applications in the U.S. fell last week from the highest level in four months as borrowing costs increased.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to purchase a home or refinance a loan declined by 1.8 percent to 742.9 in the week ended Oct. 9 from 756.3 a week earlier. The group’s gauge […]
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Gold’s rally this year to a record shows commodity investors remain concerned that the U.S. economic recovery will spur inflation, even as Wall Street forecasts and government bonds suggest stable prices.
Bullion has jumped 18 percent this year, heading for a ninth straight annual gain, after futures touched a record $1,045 an ounce yesterday […]
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Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Norman Chan said he will maintain the city’s fixed exchange rate, after the central bank intervened under his watch for the first time to stop the Hong Kong dollar gaining.
Chan, who began work as the head of the HKMA today, said his first task was “to keep […]
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I have to admit it’s getting better. A little better all the time.
Yup, I’ve succumbed to the latest round of Beatlemania — don’t the digitally rendered lads from Liverpool look fab in "Rock Band"? — but so have investors. And Wall Street has been acting more like cheery, optimistic Paul than brooding cynic […]
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The roughly 370,000 employees of Volkswagen and Porsche are striving initially to acquire a stake of up to 5 percent in the automotive group, VW’s labor chief told a German newspaper.
“I don’t know how much we will end up with. It certainly won’t be 10 percent overnight, but between one and five percent to […]
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Sales of new houses and orders for long-lasting goods in the U.S. probably increased in July as the rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s broadened, economists said before reports today.
New-home purchases rose 1.6 percent to a 390,000 annual pace, the highest level in eight months, according to the median forecast of […]
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Asia’s export-dependent nations may see their recoveries falter in the second half of the year as overseas demand remains subdued, economists said.
“Recovery in Asia does not look especially durable,” said Michael Taylor, a senior economist at Lombard Street Research Ltd. in London. “Sustainable Asian growth still depends on a global recovery lifting demand […]
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New Zealand’s long-term sovereign credit rating outlook was cut to negative from stable by Fitch Ratings, which said it is concerned by the economic outlook and the size of the nation’s current account deficit.
The deficit is large and projected to remain above the level necessary to stabilize and reduce net debt, Ai Ling […]
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U.K. consumer confidence increased to the highest level in 14 months in June as shoppers became more optimistic that the recession is past its worst, GfK NOP said.
An index of sentiment rose 2 points to minus 25, the strongest result since April 2008, the market researcher said in an e-mailed statement today in […]
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The U.S. government’s Aaa credit rating “remains solid,” said Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s Investors Service.
“Although the U.S. is losing altitude in the Aaa range, it is starting from a very strong base,” Cailleteau, who is chief international economist at Moody’s, said in Tokyo today. The economy is resilient […]
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