Business and Finance news

General Electric and other industrial companies are pushing stocks higher Tuesday in another day of choppy trading.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 25 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,086 at 2:55 p.m. The Dow dropped as many as 73 points in the morning. General Electric Co. rose the most of the 30 Dow stocks, […]

Fear that Greece will default on its debt, perhaps triggering a financial chain reaction that will cause another global recession, hurt European stocks Monday and sent American stocks lower for a time.
The market tension came after a German politician suggested Greek finances are so bad the nation might have to leave the coalition of 17 […]

If you’re on Twitter, expect to see more ads flowing through your stream of tweets in the next few months.
The ads will show up even if the promotion is from a company that a person hasn’t chosen to follow. Until now, Twitter had only displayed ads that users were tracking.
As has been the case since […]

U.S. stock futures are falling as anxious traders await a key report on hiring and employment in August.
The Labor Department reports at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on the number of jobs created in August. Economists surveyed by FactSet expect that the economy added 93,000 jobs, not enough to reduce the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.
Global markets sank […]

Now playing: Movies at Walmart.com.
The world’s largest retailer on Tuesday started streaming many movies the same day they come out on DVD, in a second bid for a share of popular movie rental and streaming website Netflix Inc.’s business and just two weeks after Netflix announced new price increases.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought video-streaming service Vudu.com […]

A Cairo court decided Monday to combine the trials of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister on charges they ordered the killings of protesters during Egypt’s uprising.
The trial for Mubarak, his former security chief Habib el-Adly, and six aides will start Aug. 3, the court ruled during a chaotic hearing where lawyers […]

Asian markets moved higher Friday after debt-strapped Greece gave final approval to a set of harsh austerity measures required before it receives the next installment of emergency loans.
Oil prices dipped below $95 per barrel, while the dollar strengthened against the euro but slipped against the yen.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5 percent to 9,862.85 after […]

Falling real estate prices are eating away at home equity.
The percentage of their homes that Americans own is near its lowest point since World War II, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. The average homeowner now has 38 percent equity, down from 61 percent a decade ago.
The latest bleak snapshot of the housing market came as […]

Americans are losing faith that the economy will keep improving, according to a monthly survey.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence index fell to a six-month low of 60.8 from a revised 66 in April, a sign of the toll that high gas prices, a choppy job outlook and a moribund housing market are taking on people’s […]

Regulators have shut down a small bank in Washington state, pushing to 44 the number of U.S. bank failures this year in the wake of a severe recession and mounting troubled loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized Snohomish, Wash.-based First Heritage Bank, with $173.5 million in assets and $163.3 million in deposits. Tacoma, […]