Business and Finance news

Stifel Financial Co. will speed up its repurchase of auction rate securities under a settlement reached with Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. The settlement will bring earlier relief for hundreds of Stifel customers who have been stuck with securities that they can’t sell.
The settlement also ends a nasty, public spat between St. […]

Economic growth in the U.S. this quarter is accelerating even more than previously anticipated as business investment picks up and stockpiles fall at a slower pace, according to economists at Morgan Stanley in New York.
The world’s largest economy is poised to grow at a 5.1 percent annual rate from October through December, according […]

WASHINGTON — One of the biggest challenges to ending the foreclosure crisis is this: A surprising number of homeowners who get their monthly payments reduced fall behind again within a year.   When borrowers get into financial trouble, lenders have several ways to help. They can offer grace periods, longer repayment schedules, lower interest […]

Dutch consumer confidence climbed to the highest in 21 months in December as a recovery of global trade helped boost exports.
The consumer-sentiment index in the euro area’s fifth- largest economy rose to minus 11 from minus 14 in the previous month, the national statistics bureau in The Hague said on its Web site […]

Estonia is set to adopt the euro on its target date in 2011 because of the Baltic country’s work on fulfilling economic requirements, European Union Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said yesterday.
“It is quite possible that Estonia will be in the euro by 2011,” Almunia told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The data […]

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get," Forrest Gump said in the classic 1994 film.
The same goes for buying a computer. It’s a box hiding items of varying quality inside.
I recently helped two frustrated HP buyers get replacements and another HP buyer get a repair for computers […]

European Union leaders said government measures to stimulate the economy should stay in place until the “recovery is fully secured.”
“Forecasts suggest a weak recovery in 2010, followed by a return to stronger growth in 2011,” heads of the 27-nation EU said in a statement after a summit in Brussels today. “But uncertainties and […]

Australian advertisements for job vacancies jumped in November by the most since May 2007, reinforcing central bank Governor Glenn Stevens’s decision to raise borrowing costs last week for an unprecedented third month.
Jobs advertised in newspapers and on the Internet gained 5.2 percent from October, according to an Australia & New Zealand Banking Group […]

GateWay Early College High School received an award this week for transitioning students from high school to college.
The high school, a division of GateWay Community College and part of the Maricopa Community Colleges System in Phoenix, was awarded the Pathways to Higher Education Award from the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education, USA Funds, University of […]

Solar module maker Canadian Solar Inc. is preparing to establish a manufacturing facility in Ontario that will create 500 direct jobs to take advantage of a provincial green-energy program that mandates local content.
The Kitchener-based company made the announcement this morning.
Canadian Solar, founded in 2001, said the new facility will be capable of manufacturing 200 megawatts […]