Business and Finance news

An Italian coast guard official vehemently demanded that the captain go back to his crippled cruise ship to oversee its evacuation, but the captain repeatedly resisted, according to a shocking audiotape made public Tuesday.
Prosecutors have accused Capt. Francesco Schettino of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his vessel before all passengers were evacuated during the […]

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 […]

SPREAD THE REGION: Sandy Weber, VP and district director with US Bank, has been elected to a one-year term as chairwoman of North County Inc., a regional development organization.
Weber succeeds Patty Gould, the Pattonville School District’s school and business partnership director, who was chair of the board for 2011.
In announcing Weber’s appointment, Gould said Weber […]

Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday amid new signs of pressure on Europe’s banking system and a downturn on Wall Street.
Benchmark oil lingered above $99 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro but fell against the yen.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.7 percent to 8,367.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 0.9 […]

Until this past summer, I used to love shopping at outlet malls. A few times a year, my friends and I would head across the border from Vancouver into Washington state to go shopping at the Tulalip Premium Outlet shopping centre. And whenever we were on vacation, one of the first things we looked up […]

South Korea’s main opposition party said Wednesday it will not support a free trade deal with the United States unless a key sticking point is addressed, dimming prospects for a quick approval.
President Barack Obama signed off on the deal after congressional approval last month. But South Korea’s opposition lawmakers have refused to ratify the deal, […]

The prospect of new governments in Greece and Italy helped support market sentiment Friday, at the end of a hugely-volatile week when investors fretted over the future of the euro currency and the outlook for the global economy.
With Greece having appointed Lucas Papademos as the prime minister of a coalition government, and Italy expected to […]

Thailand’s energy minister said the flood crisis in Bangkok is likely to drag on for another month, as authorities issued another evacuation advisory in a northern neighborhood and floodwaters inched further into the city’s heart.
Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said, however, that floods may finally begin to subside in the capital by mid-November, according to a […]

Chrysler said Tuesday its U.S. sales jumped 27 percent in October, while General Motors reported a slimmer 2 percent increase on increased demand for both cars and trucks.
Chrysler Group LLC sold more than 114,000 cars and trucks last month compared with 90,000 a year earlier. The results marked the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based automaker’s best October […]

Stocks edged between small gains and losses Friday afternoon as traders scrutinized a plan to contain Europe’s debt crisis that sent the market soaring a day earlier.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up nearly 23 points at 12,231. The Dow surged 339 points the day before, its biggest gain since Aug. 11. The Dow is […]