Business and Finance news

Chrysler says its U.S. sales jumped 27 percent in September on strong demand for its cars and SUVs.
Chrysler sold 127,334 new vehicles, including 8,709 new Chrysler 200 sedans.
Jeeps also did well. Sales of the Jeep Compass more than tripled, while Wrangler sales surged 47 percent. Demand for the Dodge Ram pickup rose 45 percent one […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted that the second Greek bailout package might have to be renegotiated amid increasing market speculation Wednesday that European leaders want to force private holders of Greek bonds to take bigger losses.
Merkel didn’t rule out altering the terms to the euro109 billion ($148 billion) package, saying the decision must be based […]

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will shuffle $400 billion of its portfolio to try to drive down long-term interest rates and get the economy going. But economists doubted it would do much good, the stock market sold off, and the Fed itself was unusually divided over the strategy.
Lowering interest rates makes it cheaper for […]

Congress gave President Barack Obama’s drive to promote jobs growth a boost Thursday by presenting him with a major overhaul of the patent system that the president has sought as a means to spur innovation and put more people back to work.
The Senate voted 89-9 to pass the patent bill and send it to Obama […]

Federal officials say offshore oil and gas workers in the Gulf of Mexico are going back to platforms and rigs that had been evacuated because of Tropical Storm Lee.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement said Monday in a news release that 232 production platforms and 24 rigs had been evacuated. That meant […]

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 […]

JEFFERSON CITY

Travelers across the nation waited for flights to resume in and out of East Coast airports that were closed by Tropical Storm Irene this weekend.
Irene was downgraded from a hurricane Sunday as winds ebbed around the time that the storm pushed into New York, the nation’s busiest air-traffic region.
Federal officials said airports reopened around Washington, […]

TORONTO

With markets still going haywire and conflicting financial advice coming from all directions, it would be tempting to just stick your head in the sand and hope it all goes away.
Instead, say experts, there are a few basic steps to take that will help you keep your finances intact, not to mention your sanity. (And […]