Business and Finance news

The U.S. economy expanded a little faster at the beginning of the year than previously estimated. But the pace was still anemic and economists don’t see that changing much in the coming months.
The Commerce Department says the economy grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter. That’s not much better than the […]

Germany calmed fears that it wanted to force losses on Greece’s private creditors, agreeing on Friday with France that any private sector involvement should be voluntary as part of a new rescue plan European countries are preparing.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they had reached common ground on the delicate topic of […]

European officials say the Group of Eight rich nations will offer about $20 billion in pledges and commitments for Arab countries that have thrown out autocrats and are struggling to build new democracies.
President Barack Obama and other G-8 leaders are debating how and how much to aid Egypt and Tunisia after uprisings there.
The leaders of […]

Swiss investor confidence dropped for the first time in three months in May as a worsening European debt crisis and an appreciating franc clouded the economic growth outlook.
An index of investor and analyst expectations that aim to predict economic developments six months in advance fell to minus 11.5 from 8.8 in April, the ZEW […]

Indonesia’s central bank will probably keep interest rates unchanged for a third consecutive meeting to support the economy, allowing gains in the rupiah to reduce inflationary pressures.
Bank Indonesia will keep its benchmark reference rate at 6.75 percent, according to all 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The central bank is due to release its […]

Employers recruited more than half their interns for full-time positions last year, the highest rate of intern-to-staff hiring in a decade, according to survey results released Thursday.
The survey showed that companies turn 58% of their interns into full-time employees.
"That’s the highest conversion rate we’ve seen since we started tracking this on an annual basis […]

Rebounding energy demand and prices helped Arch Coal Inc. post a $55.6 million first-quarter profit and prompted the nation’s No. 2 coal producer to raise its earnings forecast for the full year.
Net income was 34 cents per share compared with a loss of $1.8 million, or 1 cent per share, in the same quarter a […]

Japan’s central bank pumped a record amount of funds into the financial system since March 11 to calm markets and soften the economic impact of the earthquake and tsunami.
Lenders’ deposits with the central bank will jump an estimated 146 percent to an all-time high of 43.6 trillion yen ($539 billion) today, from 17.7 trillion […]

Lonnie Tettaton, 74, the granddaddy of St. Louis sign painters and author of 16 books on lettering and a variety of books on other topics. His shop is at 108 Madison Street in north St. Louis and he lives in Hazelwood.
FAMILY

German authorities ordered 140 pigs slaughtered Tuesday after tests showed high levels of a cancer-causing chemical for the first time in swine, as the nation’s dioxin scandal widened beyond poultry and eggs.
The top agriculture official in northern Germany’s Lower Saxony state demanded the cull after tests found illegal levels of dioxin in swine at a […]