Business News Stories
AP - A conservative former finance minister was headed toward a clear victory in Finland's presidential election Sunday, according to partial results and a TV election forecast.
Reuters - Pro-Europe politician Sauli Niinisto won Finland's presidency, according to an early tally of Sunday's run-off election, showing voters want to keep the country in the euro zone despite their misgivings over European Union bailouts.
Reuters - Europe will again be at the center of investors' focus this week as the U.S. earnings season passes the halfway mark and there is little on the economic calendar to give the market direction.
Reuters - Greece's prime minister scrambled Sunday to convince lenders and politicians to sign off on a 130 billion euro rescue, after his finance minister said just hours remained to clinch a deal to avoid a messy default.
Reuters - The United States is coming to be seen as a global threat, acting unilaterally with aggressive new market rules that critics say will hurt U.S. firms, foreign banks, and international markets in one swoop.
Reuters - Top executives at trader Glencore and miner Xstrata are hammering out the final details of an $80 billion tie-up to seal the industry's largest ever takeover, which could be announced as early as Tuesday.
Reuters - Euro zone finance ministers told Greece it could not go ahead with an agreed deal to restructure privately held debt until it guaranteed to implement reforms to secure a second financing package from the euro zone and the IMF.
Reuters - An explosion hit a gas pipeline running from Egypt to Israel Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile Sinai region, witnesses and state media reported.
Reuters - The majority of Germans feel the euro currency bloc would be better off if debt-crippled Greece left it, a poll published in mass-selling newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed on Sunday.
Reuters - France's finance minister said on Sunday talks were moving "relatively well" on the private sector portion of a Greek bailout, but discussions designed to bring its debt down to 120 pct of GDP level by 2020 were difficult.
AP - American and Israeli gas prospectors say they have discovered a large amount of offshore natural gas in Israeli waters near the Lebanese border.
Reuters - An Israeli raid on Iran's nuclear facilities would deliver a painful shock to the global economy, revive flagging Islamist militancy and possibly drag the United States into a regional war whether it backed its ally's attack or not.
Reuters - China has a stake in helping euro zone countries get through their debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in comments published on Sunday, pointing to Europe's importance as a market and hinting at more possible support for beleaguered exporters.
Reuters - rallies that caught many in the market by surprise - investors will be paying keen attention to the world's central banks in the coming week for signs of continued easy money.
Reuters - Japan's troubled Olympus Corp said on Sunday it will hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on April 20, when it is expected to seek approval of a new management team.
AP - An Egyptian security official says attackers have set off explosives along a gas pipeline in the country's Sinai peninsula, halting exports to neighboring Israel and Jordan.
Reuters - Memory chipmaker Micron Technology's board appointed company veteran Mark Durcan as chief executive a day after longtime Chairman and CEO Steve Appleton was killed in a plane crash.
Reuters - Euro zone finance ministers told Greece on Saturday it could not go ahead with an agreed deal to restructure privately-held debt until it guaranteed it would implement reforms needed to secure a second financing package from the euro zone and the IMF.
Reuters - An explosion hit the gas pipeline between Egypt, Israel and Jordan Sunday in Northern Sinai, witnesses and state TV said.
Reuters - The possibility of a sovereign default by Greece cannot be ruled out, Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the single currency zone, said in a German magazine on Saturday.
AP - General Motors Co. said Saturday that most of its 4,400 U.S. dealers have agreed to upgrade their showrooms over the next four years.
Reuters - Greece has just one day left to strike a deal with impatient lenders and reluctant political party leaders on a 130 billion rescue plan before the country is pushed towards a chaotic default, its finance minister warned on Saturday.
AP - Greek finance minister: Debt talks held up by labor reforms.
More - (AP)
Reuters - Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would not retreat from its nuclear program even if its crude oil exports grind to a halt, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
Reuters - Deutsche Boerse's (DB1Gn.DE) chief executive Reto Francioni should step down following the collapse of its $7.4 billion plan to merge with NYSE Euronext , a member of the German exchange operator's supervisory board told a newspaper.
Reuters - Hungary is seeking an international credit line of 15 to 20 billion ($20 to $26.3 billion) euros, the secretary of state heading the prime minister's office, Mihaly Varga, was quoted on Saturday as saying.
AP - Canada's prime minister heads to China next week where he'll discuss Canada's vast oil reserves in a visit that's being viewed as an "open warning" to the United States, which rejected a pipeline from Canada to Texas.
AP - A confident Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of failing to do enough to create jobs as he campaigned Friday ahead of GOP presidential caucuses this weekend in a state with sky-high unemployment and foreclosure rates. Newt Gingrich, who is fighting for a respectable showing here, rolled out a fresh line of criticism by comparing the former Massachusetts governor to Obama.
Reuters - Canada will set up a new environmental monitoring system for the northern Alberta oil sands as it seeks to fend off harsh international criticism following revelations that oversight of the huge petroleum development has been insufficient.
Reuters - New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday sued three major U.S. banks, accusing them of fraud for using an electronic mortgage database that resulted in deceptive and illegal practices.
Reuters - Leitao is part of a cadre of amateur forecasters, bloggers and hobbyists who sift through reams of data every quarter to guess at Apple's quarterly results - often putting professional analysts to shame by coming up with more accurate predictions.
Reuters - The United States created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to a near three-year low, giving a boost to President Barack Obama.
AP - For most people, the 8.3 percent unemployment rate is the most visible sign of the economy's health. The rate's every movement is closely watched, especially in an election year.
AP - Year-over-year unemployment rates by age and sex
Reuters - An unexpectedly strong jobs report on Friday boosted President Barack Obama's re-election prospects, but the trend must last to deny his opponents the biggest cudgel they have to bash him before the November election.
Reuters - Stock-picking once again matters on Wall Street.
AP - Hackers have attacked the Greek Justice Ministry website to protest the government's signing of a global copyright treaty and its handling of the financial crisis.
ContributorNetwork - SAN FRANCISCO -- In a pleasant surprise, the Department of Labor has reported an another increase in total nonfarm employment. The U.S. added 243,000 jobs in January, ticking the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent.
AP - In an effort to cut the unemployment rate among veterans, President Barack Obama is calling for a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands.
