Business and Finance news

The U.S. current-account deficit narrowed in the second quarter to $98.8 billion, the least since 2001, reflecting a smaller shortfall in trade of goods as imports and exports both decreased.
The gap, the broadest measure of trade because it includes transfer payments and investment income, was more than forecast and followed a revised $104.5 […]

The U.S. economic recovery will be “anemic” and prone to a relapse because it lacks momentum, Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach said.
“The economy is growing very close to what people refer to as a stall speed,” Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “It lacks a cushion […]

The U.K. housing market may have stabilized after more surveyors reported a gain in home values than a drop for the first time in two years, a report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed.
The number of respondents surveyed saying prices rose in August exceeded those reporting declines by 11 percentage points, […]

Can hundreds of stock-selling insiders be wrong?
The stock market has mounted an historic rally since it hit a low in March. The S&P 500 is up 55%, as U.S. job losses have slowed and credit markets have stabilized.
But against that improving backdrop, one indicator has turned distinctly bearish: Corporate officers and directors […]

General Motors has agreed to sell a major portion of its European Opel division to a consortium led by the Canadian auto supplier Magna, the automaker announced Thursday.
Under the plan, Magna, along with Russia’s Sberbank, will take over 55% of Opel. Opel employees will own another 10%, leaving GM with just 35% of Adam […]

U.K. producer prices rose for a sixth month in August as the cost of raw materials jumped the most in more than a year, a sign inflation pressures are persisting in the economy.
The price of goods at factory gates climbed 0.2 percent from July, when it rose at the same pace, the Office […]

European Investment Bank President Philippe Maystadt said the EIB’s lending target may be lower in 2010 than this year’s estimate of 70 billion euros ($102 billion) if the economy recovers.
“We expect this year’s target to be met,” Maystadt said today in an interview in Brussels. “As for 2010, we still have to discuss […]

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said he is “not worried” about the emirate’s ability to repay at least $4.52 billion of debt this year, boosting property developer Nakheel’s bonds to a year-high.
“I assure you we are alright, the U.A.E. is alright, and we are not worried,” Sheikh Mohammed told reporters […]

Chile’s central bank will probably keep its benchmark interest rate at a record low for a second straight month as policy makers wait for signs that an economic recovery has taken hold.
Bank President Jose De Gregorio and the rest of the five- member policy committee will maintain the rate at 0.5 percent, according […]

A revival in India’s monsoon rains is helping ease dry weather that’s caused drought in more than a third of the country, aiding crops in the world’s second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar, a weather official said.
Rainfall this year may be 15-to-20 percent less than the 50-year average, making it the weakest […]