Euro-Area Crisis Presents Significant Risk for South Africa, Lagarde Says - Bloomberg

South Africa has become increasingly integrated into the global economy, leaving it exposed to

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 […]

Twenty-plus Sears and Kmart stores in region could be up for closure

Sears Holdings says its hasn’t yet determined which 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears stores it will close after a disappointing holiday sales season.
The company, which has 4,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada, announced today that it would close this number of stores after sales at its Kmart and domestic Sears stores in this […]

Homes sales are up, but prices still decline

The St. Louis home market seems to be going in two directions at once

Slightly more people seek unemployment benefits

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits ticked up slightly last week after two months of steady declines.
But the increase isn’t enough to reverse the downward trend. The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell to its lowest level since April. The decline in the average signals that companies are laying off fewer […]

Financier Theodore Forstmann dies

Theodore J. Forstmann, a longtime financier who counted the iconic baseball card company Topps and business jet company Gulfstream Aerospace among his buyouts, died Sunday at the age of 71.
The cause was brain cancer, according to a statement from sports agency IMG. Forstmann was the chairman and CEO of IMG and was the senior founding […]

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Kerr to step down as Missouri economic development boss

The man in charge of boosting Missouri’s economy is stepping down.
David Kerr, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, will leave at the end of the year, Gov. Jay Nixon’s office said Tuesday.
Kerr, a longtime executive at AT&T in Missouri and Kansas before entering the public sector, said he was stepping down to spend […]

World stocks up as Europe stabilizes, Japan grows

World stocks rose Monday after Japan’s economy grew for the first time in four quarters and Europe moved closer to resolving a debt crisis that threatens to hurl the region into recession.
Benchmark oil hovered near $99 per barrel while the dollar gained against the euro but fell against the yen.
European stocks were higher in early […]