Business and Finance news

Japan’s government could agree as much as $30 billion in new stimulus measures on Monday as economic growth is likely to slow next year due to sluggish personal spending and rising inventories.
Economists doubt whether that amount will be enough to push up growth significantly as the Democratic Party-led government will fund the stimulus with […]

Nasdaq OMX Group said the number of Greater China companies that list on its exchange could double in as little as two years, fueled by a growing appetite for these shares from a wider range of U.S. institutional investors.
Three of the top 10 performing initial public share offerings in the United States this year […]

Home buyers in much of the United States paid thousands of dollars below asking prices in September, but had slightly less negotiating power than in August, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.
According to the September Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, buyers paid 2.9 percent less, or a median of $6,161, below the listing […]

Intel Corp, the world’s biggest chip-maker, expects the launch of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system to prompt corporate buyers to replace hardware in 2010, a company executive said on Tuesday.
“With Windows 7 coming along, you’re going to see that as a factor in corporate computer purchasing. That stuff will start moving the PC […]

World governments should consider urgently a levy on banks to fund future bailouts, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Saturday, departing from London’s longstanding resistance to a global tax.
France and Germany have led the way in Europe on seeking to force the financial sector to return some of the billions of public dollars […]

Wall Street cash bonuses are set to increase by about 40 percent this year, the Wall Street Journal said citing a report by compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates.
In a report to be released later on Thursday, Johnson Associates projects that the biggest increases in year-end cash bonuses and equity awards will go to employees […]

Pulte Homes Inc raised its forecast for efficiencies and savings from its acquisition of rival Centex Corp, overshadowing a quarterly loss and sending its shares up 7.5 percent.
The biggest U.S. homebuilder also reported higher gross margins in the third quarter.
Pulte, which has operations in 29 states, said its new target for efficiencies and savings […]

When hunting for cash, desperate small business owners may find themselves sucked into buying books and software packages promising "Billions in Free Grants!" from Web sites with names like NeverPayItBack.com, or hiring consultants who promise to find them gads of money. All they’re likely to get, though, are empty promises.
Grants are rare, but the […]