Friday, December 31, 2010

money news

  • Cleanup of Oil-Tainted Gulf Coast Nears End
    Dig 2 feet into the sand on this wind-swept beach and up comes the foul smell of oil. The unmistakable whiff of crude eight months after the BP spill is one of the last in-your-face reminders of the long, tainted summer on the Gulf Coast. For months, in what BP calls...
  • Anadarko Shares Recover Spill Losses on Bid Talk

    Shares of U.S. oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum Corp. jumped above highs reached days before BP's Gulf of Mexico Oil spill, rising more than 8 percent Thursday on market talk that a bid from BHP Billiton Ltd. was in the works. Rumors resurfaced that BHP Billiton is...
  • Russian Tycoon Khodorkovsky Gets Six More Years
    Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in prison Thursday following a trial seen as payback for his defiance of Vladimir Putin's power.Judge Viktor Danilkin sentenced Khodorkovsky to 14 years after convicting him of stealing oil from...
  • December US Auto Sales May Bode Well for 2011
    December is expected to be the third straight month that U.S. auto sales hold above 12 million vehicles on an annualized basis, capping a year of gradual recovery for the auto sector, analysts said. While December alone cannot predict 2011 performance, a full calendar...
  • Moody's: Home Foreclosures Will Soar to 2.1 Million
    The number of foreclosed homes rose over the summer after fewer people at risk received assistance lowering their monthly mortgage payments, a new report shows.About 470,000 homeowners received help either directly from banks or through government programs in the...
  • Publicly Modest Wall St. Bankers Covet Fancy Toys

    Wall Street executives may face smaller bonuses and a public that still eyes them with suspicion, but that isn't stopping them from rediscovering their love of luxury cars, oceanfront homes and private jets. A soaring stock market, a surge in merger deals and an uptick in...
  • China's Rare-Earths Export Cut Stirs Trade Fears
    China has raised fresh international trade concerns after slashing export quotas on rare earths minerals, risking action from the United States at the World Trade Organization. China, which produces about 97 percent of the global supply of rare earth minerals, cut its...
  • Banking Merger Market Looks Brighter in 2011

    The new year is offering hope to deal advisers, as U.S. bank M As promises to return at a healthy clip after three years of gloom. For a change, healthy banks are once again stepping up to snap up rivals as they search for revenue growth in a lukewarm economy, investment...
  • China's Property 'Bubble' May Deflate a Bit Next Year

    Chinese housing prices are on track to dip early next year, with tighter monetary policy and rising inventories combining to take some air out of a market that some fear could yet swell into a bubble. The government launched a campaign late last year to brake soaring...
  • Nonprofits Getting First Shot at Bank Foreclosures
    Francisco and Pam Cruz maneuvered around boxes of new flooring and open cans of paint as they surveyed the foreclosed Phoenix house they would soon call their own. This house wasn't typical of the thousands in foreclosure-battered Arizona that banks have auctioned for...
  • California Woman Arrested in Insider Trade Scheme
    A California woman is under arrest as part of a federal crackdown on people working at financial research firms who illegally feed inside information to investors.Winifred Jiau is scheduled to appear Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco.Manhattan prosecutors say the...
  • Rare-Earths Shares Jump After China's Quota Cut
    Shares of rare-earths prospectors soared on Wednesday after China cut export quotas, threatening to reduce already tight global supplies and risking action from the United States at the World Trade Organization. Shares of Lynas Corp., which owns the world's richest known...
  • OPEC Not Likely to Stand in the Way of $100 Oil

    Oil has burst above top exporter Saudi Arabia's preferred $70-$80 range and yet OPEC is unlikely to stop the rally, helping to prepare the way for the market to bound above $100 a barrel. At meetings this month a full conference of the Organization of the Petroleum...
  • Despite Holiday Spree, Economic Doubts Linger
    Holiday spending surged this year, but Americans still have their doubts about the economy.With unemployment high and home prices falling in the nation's largest cities, consumer confidence took an unexpected turn for the worse in December.The decline followed two months of...
  • Future May Not Be So Golden for Retiring Boomers
    Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.The...
  • US Firms Send Jobs Overseas, Where Sales Soar
    Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn't anyone hiring?Actually, many American companies are just maybe not in your town. They're hiring overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat.More than half of the 15,000 people that...
  • Netflix, Redbox Gain as DVD Sales Slide
    After a calamitous 2009, which saw home entertainment spending drop 5 percent as Americans struggled with tough economic times, 2010 wasn't all that bad. Sure, total consumer spending is likely to be down again, as dramatic Blu-ray Disc and digital delivery growth still...
  • Molycorp Jumps on China's Rare Earth Cutback

    Shares of Molycorp Inc. rose as much as 11.6 percent Tuesday after China said it would cut its rare earth mineral export quotas. The surge, which extends the nearly 10 percent jump that Molycorp posted Monday, came after China cut its first batch of rare earth export...
  • Netflix Falls as Barron's Warns: 'Buyer Beware'

    Shares of Netflix slid Monday as the list of those questioning the future profitability of the video rental company grows. Barron's assigned a stock rating of IB, for Netflix, short for investors, beware, saying the company will have a difficult time maintaining profit...



  • GE Leads $3.19 Trillion in Corporate Bond Sales Read more: Moneynews - America's Money News Page - Investing & Analysis

    Corporate bond sales worldwide topped $3 trillion for a second straight year, led by the highest-ever issuance of junk-rated debt, as borrowers locked in the lowest yields on record.Rabobank Nederland, the world s largest agricultural lender, and Fairfield,...

    Doctors Get Rich With Surgery Debunked by Studies Read more: Moneynews - America's Money News Page - Investing & Analysis

    Suffering from an aching back, truck driver Mikel Hehn went to see surgeon Jeffrey Gerdes in 2008. The St. Cloud, Minnesota, doctor diagnosed spinal disc degeneration, commonly treated with physical therapy, and said surgery wasn t called for.Unhappy with the answer, Hehn...


    Fewer Join Jobless Rolls in Good Sign for 2011 Read more: Moneynews - America's Money News Page - Investing & Analysis

    Far fewer Americans are applying for unemployment benefits as the year ends, raising hopes for a healthier job market in 2011.Applications are at their lowest level since July 2008, the Labor Department says. They fell to 388,000 in the week ending Dec. 25, bringing the...