Business and Finance news

Spain’s resistance to Europe’s debt crisis may be tested next month as local governments taking power after regional elections threaten to repeat Catalonia’s experience when revealing the state of their finances.
Finance Minister Elena Salgado, who is spearheading the nation’s efforts to stave off turmoil, agreed to seven deficit- cutting plans with local finance chiefs […]

Mexico’s anti-trust commission has hit billionaire Carlos Slim’s cellphone subsidiary with a 12 billion peso ($1 billion) fine, parent company America Movil announced.
The Federal Competition Commission said the cellphone subsidiary, Telcel, engaged in monopolistic practices associated with call terminations, America Movil said in a filing with the Mexican stock exchange late Friday.
The company said it […]

With work proceeding apace on the $152 million rehab of the old Dillard’s Building at Washington Ave. and 6th Street downtown, its owners announced today that they’ll start taking reservations for “The Laurel Apartments.”
The massive old department store will include 205 apartments, ranging in size from 648 to 2,888 square feet. They’ll be ready for […]

Vivendi SA said Sunday that it agreed to acquire Vodafone Group PLC’s 44 percent stake in French mobile operator SFR for 7.95 billion euros ($11.3 billion).
The long-anticipated deal will give Vivendi full control of the company, which generates more revenue for the conglomerate than any other division. Vivendi already owns a 56 percent stake in […]

Inflation spooked the nation in the early 1980s. It surged and kept rising until it topped 13 percent.
These days, inflation is much lower. Yet to many Americans, it feels worse now. And for a good reason: Their income has been even flatter than inflation.
Back in the ’80’s, the money people made typically more than made […]

Stocks are little changed in early trading on a day with little expected in the way of economic reports or corporate earnings announcements.
Major indexes have risen steadily this month. The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen on only three trading days in February. The Dow is up 0.4 percent this week. The S&P 500 is […]

Activity at manufacturing and service companies has reached a level not seen since before the recession, suggesting a stronger year for hiring.
Some economists are even hopeful that Friday’s employment report may be better than first thought, based on new economic data reported Thursday.
The service sector, which employs nearly 90 percent of the work force, is […]

Retail sales probably climbed for a sixth month in December, a sign consumers are contributing more to the U.S. expansion even as the labor market struggles to accelerate, economists said before a report this week.
The projected 0.8 percent gain in purchases would match the previous month’s increase, according to the median of 58 estimates […]

FedEx Corp., the second-largest U.S. package-shipping company, started direct cargo flights between southern China and India to meet rising demand for express deliveries.
The company expects “dramatic growth in trade” between China and India, David Cunningham Jr., Asia-Pacific president of the FedEx Express unit, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. […]

Republicans won a smashing victory in this month’s U.S. national elections; no issue resonated more with the party’s base than President Barack Obama’s health-care legislation.
The House Republicans’ “Pledge to America” vowed “to repeal and replace the government takeover of health care with common sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs.” The […]