Business and Finance news

When U.S. retail chains report November sales this week, investors will learn whether they have gone far enough to protect profits against a weak start to the holiday shopping season.
Early data on weekend shopping from U.S. Thanksgiving Day on Thursday through Sunday showed a slight increase in retail sales, pressuring shares from Wal-Mart Stores […]

Pulte Homes Inc raised its forecast for efficiencies and savings from its acquisition of rival Centex Corp, overshadowing a quarterly loss and sending its shares up 7.5 percent.
The biggest U.S. homebuilder also reported higher gross margins in the third quarter.
Pulte, which has operations in 29 states, said its new target for efficiencies and savings […]

U.S. bank regulators, saying losses on souring commercial real-estate loans pose the biggest risk to lenders, will issue guidelines to help the institutions modify the agreements.
Reduced demand for space has led to falling rental rates, adding to losses on the loans, leaders of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of […]

Ashoka Mody, an assistant director of the International Monetary Fund’s European department, was in critical condition today after he was shot in the garage of his Bethesda, Maryland home last night, police said.
Mody, an economist originally from India, has worked at the IMF for eight years and is mission chief to Germany and […]

Japan’s broadest indicator of economic health rose for a fifth month in August as global stimulus spending helped the country emerge from its worst postwar recession.
The coincident index, a composite of 11 indicators including factory production and retail sales, climbed to 91.4 in August, the highest since November, from a revised 89.8 a […]

German unemployment rose in September, posing a challenge for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s incoming coalition even as signs mount that the worst of the economic crisis is over.
The number of people out of work rose 10,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, before statistical changes are taken into account, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said […]

An Australian court has ruled that local governments can pursue financial claims against collapsed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in Australia and elsewhere, a firm that is funding the litigation said on Monday.
IMF (Australia) Ltd said the Federal Court ruled on Friday in favor of town councils and others which had lost money in […]

Chinese President Hu Jintao said countries with currencies that are held as reserves by other nations must consider the implications of their monetary policies for the rest of the world.
“Major reserve-currency issuing countries should take into account and balance the implications of their monetary policies for both their own economies and the world […]

The U.S. current-account deficit narrowed in the second quarter to $98.8 billion, the least since 2001, reflecting a smaller shortfall in trade of goods as imports and exports both decreased.
The gap, the broadest measure of trade because it includes transfer payments and investment income, was more than forecast and followed a revised $104.5 […]

European Investment Bank President Philippe Maystadt said the EIB’s lending target may be lower in 2010 than this year’s estimate of 70 billion euros ($102 billion) if the economy recovers.
“We expect this year’s target to be met,” Maystadt said today in an interview in Brussels. “As for 2010, we still have to discuss […]