Business and Finance news

Asian markets were mostly lower in early trading Monday, as investors shifted their focus from Europe to the U.S. economy.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5 percent to 9,096.27. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.4 percent to 19,938.46, while South Korea’s Kospi was 0.4 percent lower at 1,921.78. Benchmarks in Australia and Singapore also fell, while […]

Stocks edged between small gains and losses Friday afternoon as traders scrutinized a plan to contain Europe’s debt crisis that sent the market soaring a day earlier.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up nearly 23 points at 12,231. The Dow surged 339 points the day before, its biggest gain since Aug. 11. The Dow is […]

The Commerce Trust Co. has tapped David Krauss of The Stolar Partnership to oversee the bank’s wealth management services for ultra high-net worth individuals and families.
Krauss currently is a partner at The Stolar Partnership in downtown St. Louis and heads the law firm’s Stolar Family Office business unit, which provides investment oversight for high-net worth individuals.
Krauss will join Commerce in December as managing director of The […]

Higher fares helped Delta Air Lines post a bigger third-quarter profit even though fuel prices jumped and passenger traffic was flat.
But the company’s results missed Wall Street expectations and helped push down its stock price 2.3 percent in pre-market trading.
In the past, airlines struggled to make money in a weak economy or when fuel prices […]

U.S. stock futures are mixed after European leaders said they made progress on resolving the region’s debt problems at a weekend summit but delayed offering any details.
European leaders say they will unveil plans to help resolve the crisis by Wednesday. Worries about Europe’s debt problems have helped drag global stocks up and down over the […]

EU finance ministers neared agreement Saturday on forcing banks to raise just over euro100 billion ($140 billion) to make sure they have enough reserves to weather further losses on their Greek debt holdings and market turmoil, a European official said.
Finance ministers from the 17 nations that use the euro decided Friday that banks must take […]

British police say they knew that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid had hacked into the phone of murdered British teenager Milly Dowler nine years before the scandal exploded.
The chief constable of southern England’s Surrey Police says his force knew as far back as April 2002 that someone linked to the News of the […]

Amgen Inc. is laying off about 380 employees in research and development as it restructures its R&D operations.
The biotech company, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., says the layoffs are targeted to enable the company to better allocate its research and development resources.
Company spokeswoman Christine Regan says the affected employees were notified Wednesday. They work at […]

Thousands of striking workers blockaded roads leading to Freeport-McMoRan Cooper & Gold Inc.’s mine in easternmost Indonesia on Tuesday, preventing food, medicine and other supplies from reaching holed-up staffers and their families.
Production at the mine, which holds some of the largest gold and copper reserves in the world, was halted for a second day over […]

The protesters at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement were planning a day of rest Sunday, a day after rallies across the globe drew thousands who marched and chanted and, in some cases, grew violent.
In New York City, the group that insists on being leaderless had nothing on its agenda save its nightly […]