After a month of bad news about housing starts, existing home sales, and mortgage delinquencies, the number of homes going into foreclosure is slowing rapidly. RealtyTrac reported 308,524 U.S. properties foreclosures last month, a decrease…
China’s statistics bureau said that the rise in housing prices over the last year was 1.5%. The China Real Estate Association put the figure at 22%. “When I saw that figure I was also…
“Go where the money is, and go there often”–Willie Sutton, professional bank robber Hackers can work their way into Google’s (GOOG) mail servers in China and government computers with sensitive date. But, the real…
The unemployment rate is slightly below the 10% mark, which seems terribly important psychologically. It seems that the economy is fine if the jobless rate is 9.7% but is in horrible shape if the…
By Bruce Watson, Daily Finance Forbes just released its annual ranking of the world’s richest people and, to a few readers, the list may come as a shock. The top slot isn’t taken up…
Reuters: BP (BP) bought Devon for $11 billion to get access to its oil fields. Reuters: Toyota (TM) give a Senate panel a memo from a union seeking better quality control. Reuters: S&P said…
Markets in Asia were slightly higher. The Nikkei rose 1% to 10,685. Sony (SNE) moved higher. The Hang Seng was up .1% to 21,228. The Shanghai Composite was up .6% to 3,051. At the…
It was less than two years ago that defunct business magazine Portfolio named Citigroup(C) CEO Vikram Pandit one of the twenty worst CEOs of all time. Pandit may be about to jump on the list of…
Wal-Mart (WMT), the world’s largest retailer which has sales greater than the GDP of many countries, has decided it is so successful that it can stock products that no one wants. According to Reuters,…
by Diane Vacca After working for eight and a half years at IBM, Nancy Ikeda, 55, lost her job 13 months ago. She had lived in Binghamton, N.Y., since her daughters were in high…
Average: “an estimation of or approximation to an arithmetic mean”–Webster The smartest move that J. Raymond Elliot made in his career was to leave the Boston Scientific (BSX) board in 2009 after less than…
By Heather Horn of The Atlantic Wire In the past few days, plans have solidified for a new European version of the International Monetary Fund. Advocates, which include French and German politicians, say the…
OPEC say that crude consumption will rise this year, but in the fine print of its statement, the cartel undercuts its own prediction. OPEC expects world oil demand to grow 900,000 barrels a day in 2010.…
Updates throughout the day. AIG (AIG) has developed a new system for paying management bonuses (NYT) “While banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have enough liquidity to consider raising dividends or buying back stock, regulators…
These are this Wednesday’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street morning research calls: Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein. Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY) Cut…
Results from the poll used to create the Blue Chip Economic Indicator show that economists believe that US GDP will grow at a slower rate than they had previously forecast for next year. According…
The price tag for Toyota’s (TM) massive recall of eight of its popular models plus the Prius hybrid and its Tundra truck is estimated as high as $5 billion according to experts surveyed by…
China’s exports rose 46% in February compared with the same month a year ago, underscoring concerns about whether its economy has begun to overheat. The Chinese customs agency, which made the announcement, also said that…
On the tenth anniversary of the tech bubble of 2000, short sellers aggressively dropped their bets against hardware, software and internet companies. Figures are from February 28. The short interest in Apple (AAPL) fell…
Reuters: Democrats may miss their goal to vote on healthcare reform. Reuters: China exports rose 46% in February. Reuters: China’s Geely raised money to buy Volvo. Reuters: Strong Chinese trade data made the case…