Business and Finance news

The U.S. economic contraction in the fourth quarter was deeper than the government first estimated, with other reports today signaling little prospect of relief until at least the middle of 2009.
Gross domestic product shrank at a 6.2 percent annual pace from October through December, the most since 1982, the Commerce Department said today […]

Northern Trust has quickly learned that you can’t conduct business as usual when you’re on the government dole.
The bank, which received $1.57 billion in funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, last fall, was heavily criticized by lawmakers after it was revealed Tuesday that it held big parties for clients last […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has given Wall Street a double dose of reassurance.
Bernanke told Congress Monday that the recession might end this year and that regulators aren’t planning to nationalize banks.
The news alleviated some of investors’ deepening worries about the economy and the banking system, and the Dow Jones […]

As rumours continued to swirl today about the future of troubled automaker Chrysler LLC, one analyst said there's a chance the U.S. government could force a merger between the company and rival General Motors.
Chrysler said in its restructuring plan submitted to the U.S., Canadian and Ontario governments last week that it still believes […]

Early last year, the Bank of Canada forecast the country’s economy would grow by 2.8 per cent in 2009; predictions that $200 (U.S.)-a-barrel oil was in view seemed plausible; and subprime mortgage losses in the U.S. were widely expected to cause little more than a temporary slowdown.
Needless to say, things haven’t turned out that […]

Eight months after announcing a sweeping plan to sell off assets to raise cash, General Motors Corp has reached a critical moment: hours before it has to submit a new survival plan to U.S. officials, it still has no buyers.
GM has been hoping to sell its Hummer and Saab brands. It has also tried […]

Foreign direct investment in China declined for a fourth month in January as companies cut back on spending to weather the global financial crisis.
Investment fell 32.6 percent to $7.54 billion from a year earlier, the commerce ministry said at a briefing in Beijing today. That compared with a 5.7 percent decline in December. […]

Canada’s largest insurance companies are bracing for another challenging year after plummeting stock markets wreaked havoc on their latest financial results, signalling the global financial crisis is tightening its chokehold on this country’s financial services sector.
Manulife Financial Corp., Canada’s biggest insurer, said plunging stock prices fuelled a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of $1.87 billion. It had […]

China’s producer prices tumbled by the most in almost seven years and inflation cooled to the weakest pace since 2006 as the government struggled to revive growth in the world’s third-biggest economy.
Consumer prices rose 1 percent in January from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today, after gaining 1.2 percent in December. […]

The Canadian Auto Workers union is still awaiting details on terms of government loans to struggling vehicle makers here and the outcome of union negotiations in the U.S. before opening talks on concessions.
CAW president Ken Lewenza said yesterday the union had hoped to start talks with General Motors, Chrysler and Ford earlier this week but […]