Business and Finance news

A state board gave a green light Tuesday to $1.55 million in bonds to help finance Zoltek’s new plant in St. Peters.
The Missouri Development Finance Board gave preliminary approval to the bonds, part of $15.5 million that the carbon-fiber-maker is cobbling together to buy and renovate a 130,000 square-foot building on Geunther Blvd. Other incentives […]

ST. LOUIS • Funeral services are pending for Rick Desloge, who spent nearly three decades as a journalist with the St. Louis Business Journal.
The Business Journal says Desloge died Monday, about a year after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was 63.
Desloge began at the Business Journal in 1984 and continued working until recently. […]

Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. tumbled 25 percent so far today after the O’Fallon, Mo.-based company posted a huge loss due to dropping sales.
After markets closed on Wednesday, MEMC reported reported a $92 million net loss for the first quarter on continued erosion of demand and pricing in semiconductor and solar industries.
As of 1:35 […]

Iconic investor Warren Buffett announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer in a letter to shareholders of his firm Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett, 81, said his "condition is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way," and that additional tests didn’t reveal incidence of cancer anywhere else in […]

ATHENS, GREECE

Citibank won approval to issue its own credit card in China, making it the first non-Asian bank to enter that market.
The approval from Chinese banking authorities was announced by the bank’s parent, Citigroup (, Fortune 500), Monday. The card is expected to be issued sometime later this year.

"This approval represents a significant milestone in […]

Fewer Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance payments last week, showing the labor market is starting 2012 on better footing than a year earlier.
Applications for jobless benefits (INJCJC) decreased 15,000 in the week ended Dec. 31 to 372,000, Labor Department figures showed today. The median estimate of 38 economists in a Bloomberg News survey […]

NEW YORK

By year’s end, the St. Louis area’s biggest business group will have a new leader. Now a growing number of people are saying it may be time for a whole new direction.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay is adding his voice to those calling for big changes at the Regional Chamber and Growth Association, where longtime […]

A former board member of Olympus Corp. said Friday that he launched an online petition to persuade the Japanese company to bring back Michael Woodford, the British executive fired for questioning payments made to cover up huge investment losses.
Koji Miyata, who served on Olympus’ board from 1995 to 2006, told The Associated Press that he […]