Business and Finance news

The biggest bear market in Treasuries since 2004 may get worse.
Unlike four years ago, when Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan embarked on 17 consecutive interest-rate increases to contain the threat of rising consumer prices, his successor Ben S. Bernanke is giving investors few assurances that the scourge of inflation will abate anytime soon. […]

The mounting trouble for U.S. automakers has cost them any chance of winning more than partial help from a foreign investor or overseas rival.
Bankers and analysts say Detroit-based automakers could still find partners for limited tie-ups but caution it could prove impossible to find a deep pocket overseas for the cash the U.S. […]

Switzerland's leading economic indicators fell to the lowest level in almost five years in June as slowing global growth and record oil prices worsened the outlook for the economy.
The monthly aggregate of indicators that aims to predict the direction of the economy about six months ahead slid to 1.01 from a revised 1.08 […]

Hawaii interisland airline go! announced Wednesday it will begin charging $25 for a second checked bag.
The fee, which will take effect July 15, is to help cover rising fuel costs, the company said. Go! is Hawaii's second largest interisland carrier, well behind Hawaiian Airlines, which has about 85 percent of the market. […]

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s chief executive was in town today to meet Gov. David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and update the leaders on AMD’s progress to build a chip plant in Saratoga County, an AMD spokesman said.
Bruno announced the meeting with AMD CEO Hector Ruiz during […]

Confidence among Japanese manufacturers fell the most in at least four years because of surging commodity costs and waning demand for the country's cars and electronics.
Sentiment among manufacturers with more than 1 billion yen ($9.3 million) in capital was minus 15.1 points this quarter, the lowest since the Cabinet Office and Finance Ministry […]

China's central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said his bank may formulate “stronger policies'' to tackle inflation exacerbated by the government's latest fuel- price increases.
“Surely higher energy prices will send some pressure to the consumer price index, so we may have stronger policies against inflation,'' Zhou told reporters in New York today before a […]

Monaco Coach Corp. has detoured from a plan to stop financing purchases of its recreational vehicles.
GE Money announced in May that it would largely discontinue its RV and marine lending.
Coburg-based Monaco (NYSE: MNC), one of the nation's leading manufacturers of recreational vehicles, announced Wednesday the continuation of its consumer financing relationship with […]

Israeli inflation rose at the fastest pace in more than five years in May, reflecting higher costs of food and fuel and making it more likely the central bank will raise interest rates.
Prices rose 5.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with an increase of 4.7 percent in April, the Central Bureau of […]

Huong Cheng, a senior at San Leandro High School, was awarded top prize in the Merrill Lynch/NFTE Bay Area Regional Business Plan competition.
She won a cash prize of $1,500 for her proposed business, called Personal Person, which would connect the elderly with high school volunteers. The teenagers would visit with seniors and […]