Business News

Ben Bernanke's optimism that the US economy is heading for a soft landing received a lift on Friday as data showing strong job creation last month forced more pessimistic bond investors into retreat.

WASHINGTON - Gearing up for the holidays, employers boosted hiring in November, and hundreds of thousands of jobseekers streamed into the market, nudging the unemployment rate up to 4.5 percent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A stronger-than-forecast 132,000 jobs were created in November, according to a government report on Friday that implied the U.S. economy had more underlying resilience than previously thought.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that November's U.S. jobs report was "good news" and indicated economic growth was on a solid path.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment ebbed in December as consumers pared back their view of their future financial conditions, raising concerns on the outlook for spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday, ending the week with gains after data showed a healthy job market while Citigroup Inc. shares surged on speculation the company may divest some businesses and shake up senior management.

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended an erratic week with a moderate advance Friday as investors welcomed a government employment report that painted the U.S. job market as robust heading into the holiday season, easing concerns that the economy is losing steam too quickly. The major indexes all posted gains for the week.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were flat to lower on Friday but Wall Street's opening was expected to be decided by a key U.S. employment data report, which is seen as an important pointer to future interest moves.

PARIS (Reuters) - ISS, a shareholder advisory and proxy voting firm, recommended Euronext shareholders vote in favor of the pan-European exchange's planned merger with New York Stock Exchange owner NYSE Group Inc. .

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Euronext and NYSE won endorsement for their $14 billion merger from European regulators on Tuesday, removing a major hurdle for the first transatlantic stock exchange.

Brace yourself for a bunch of downbeat earnings reports from the semiconductor industry, as bellwether National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM - News) kicked the reporting slate off with some bad news.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae, the top U.S. mortgage-finance company that is trying to move on from one of the nation's largest accounting scandals, will deliver a long-overdue report on its 2005 earnings by next September, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawnmower maker the Toro Company said on Thursday quarterly earnings slipped in line with falling revenue, but beat estimates as growth in its professional segment helped offset lower domestic residential segment sales.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae sliced 6.3 billion dollars off earnings reported through mid-2004 as the government-chartered lender restated earnings in the wake of an accounting scandal.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MetLife Inc. , the largest U.S. life insurer, guided 2006 and 2007 earnings estimates down slightly on Wednesday, pressuring its shares.

NEW YORK - In a Dec. 5 story about index funds, The Associated Press reported erroneously that 60 basis points equals 0.06 percent. Sixty basis points equals 0.60 percent.

Women face some financial challenges not shared by men. Women tend to live longer and face a higher probability that they might outlive their savings. They may take breaks from contributing to their retirement funds or establishing their careers to have children or care for family members. Some must overcome the daily temptation to spend all their money on fabulous shoes.

Shares of small-cap lift-truck equipment firm Cascade (NYSE: CAE - News) aren't that widely followed by Wall Street -- which can spell opportunity for savvy individual investors.

At the AllThingsFinancial blog, financial planner "JLP" offered some good advice regarding questions you might want to ask your broker before handing over your hard-earned cash. To wit:

There's something interesting going on in the world of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), those stock-like/fund-like investments that have been growing in popularity lately. (For the basics on ETFs, what they are, and why you should consider them, drop by our ETF Center.)

LANSING, Mich. - Piles of crushed concrete and broken brick wait to be hauled away as bulldozers tear down old General Motors Corp. factories that have stood for a century on the banks of the Grand River in downtown Lansing.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen , the world's fourth largest carmaker, is recalling just over 300,000 VW brand Passat mid-size cars due to three different problems affecting models from the year 2005 to 2007, it said on Friday.

BALTIMORE - A government researcher pleaded guilty Friday to violating federal conflict-of-interest laws by accepting $285,000 in consulting fees from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. for work that overlapped his official duties.

LONDON (AFP) - British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has said that it had agreed to buy antibody therapy developer Domantis for 230 million pounds (339 million euros, 451 million dollars) in cash.

Wind, the Italian telecommunications company, raised a record EU1.7bn using an ultra high-risk debt instrument on Thursday in a move that indicates continuing investor confidence in the credit markets.

Top college teams may be gearing up for the bowl season, but in the race to bring more sports to American homes, College Sports Television is the scrappy upstart to watch as it battles to play on the same field as ESPN and Fox Sports.

Pity the poor desktop computer. It sparked a revolution 25 years ago, but these days most consumers get about as excited by their home PC as they do by a lawn mower.

It's no secret that newspaper stocks have been bad news for the market, so the Street has steered clear of the group. But Ed Walczak, managing director at Vontobel Asset Management, whose "deep-value" portfolio is 25% in cash, has acquired nearly a 2% stake in Gannett (NYSE:GCI - News; GCI), the media giant that owns 91 U.S. daily newspapers, including USA Today, the largest- selling daily, and nearly 1,000 non-dailies and 23 TV stations. Gannett also owns 17 dailies and 300 non-dailies in Britain. Unlike others in its group, Gannett's stock has been on the rise since July, going from 51 to ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks may stall at the start of next week as investors wait for the outcome of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

NEW YORK - In a Dec. 5 story about index funds, The Associated Press reported erroneously that 60 basis points equals 0.06 percent. Sixty basis points equals 0.60 percent.

SAN DIEGO - Donald Trump's new luxury hotel-condominiums on Mexico's booming Baja California coast registered about $122 million in sales Friday, potentially heralding a resurgent development boom along the Pacific shoreline, just south of the U.S. border.

LORAIN, Ohio - He glances through the chain-link fence at hulking, dark buildings and weeds growing tall in pavement cracks. The chilling scene on a gray November day makes John "Larry" Wargo sigh with sadness.

GAITHERSBURG, Maryland (Reuters) - Drug-coated heart stents are more likely to cause blood clots and other complications in certain high-risk cases and patients and doctors should be warned, a panel of medical experts advised on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Draft FCB won a coveted advertising account from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , the new business was trumpeted as proof of a turnaround at its parent company.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission's top lawyer on Friday authorized one of its members to vote on the proposed buyout of BellSouth Corp. by AT&T Inc., despite an apparent conflict of interest. The move could break a deadlock on the deal.