Business and Finance news

ST. LOUIS • Four days after pleading guilty to state fraud charges, US Fidelis co-founder Darain Atkinson appeared Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to admit he also broke federal laws in cheating customers and failing to declare or pay taxes on $13 million received from the company in just one year.
In a […]

Hedge funds reduced bullish bets on commodities for a second consecutive week as the Federal Reserve signaled it may refrain from more monetary stimulus, increasing concern that growth will slow and curb demand for raw materials.
Money managers lowered net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 2.8 percent to 1.1 million contracts in […]

You find the home of your dreams. You’re pre-approved for a mortgage. You’ve scheduled the closing. Then … the appraisal comes in too low and the deal blows up.
Even as some mortgage standards have eased, hitting a needed appraisal value is proving a frustrating blocker for buyers and sellers and those looking to […]

Troubled Chinese timberland company Sino-Forest Corp. is filing for bankruptcy protection and putting itself up for sale.
Sino Forest says if it doesn

Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament has overwhelmingly voted in favor of ensuring that its own lawmakers will comprise the bulk of a panel that will write the country’s constitution.
Lawmakers Saturday voted on the criteria for the makeup of a 100-member panel drafting the document. The Islamists, who dominate the parliament, want a formidable presence on the panel […]

Monsanto Co. and Dow Chemical Co. will get speedier government reviews for some of their newest genetically modified crops under a plan to cut approval times in half, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
Monsanto soybeans that tolerate applications of the herbicide dicamba and a Dow soybean engineered to tolerate 2,4-D are among a dozen petitions […]

Turning up the heat on talks aimed at making sure nonprofit hospitals do enough charitable work, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn stuck to his Thursday deadline and authorized the Department of Revenue to resume decisions that could strip some health care institutions of valuable tax exemptions.
The Democratic governor’s action came a day after negotiations failed to […]

The official who supervised the U.K. police’s much-criticized initial inquiry into Britain’s phone hacking scandal says a crush of terrorism cases meant he had no choice but to curtail media investigation.
Former Scotland Yard counterterrorism chief Peter Clarke says his force was so stretched by the threat of al-Qaida attacks in 2005 it had to enlist […]

Employment will improve more this year than economists previously estimated, helping the world

German business confidence rose more than economists forecast to a seven-month high in February as Europe