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• Wharton’s Allen: Greece Poised to Leave Eurozone
  Greece will leave the eurozone, predicts Wharton finance professor Franklin Allen. The latest European summit calls for stronger fiscal controls and oversight of budges of European Union countries. The fiscal pact is supposed to keep spending under control. But because...
• Kyle Bass Urges Texas Fund to Hold Gold Hedge
  Kyle Bass, the Dallas hedge-fund manager, urged overseers of Texas s state university endowment, the second-largest U.S. college fund, to stick with a $1 billion investment in gold bullion even as the fund s assets decline. I m against selling any of the gold, Bass said...
• MF Global UK to Start Returning Funds
  MF Global Holding Ltd. s U.K. administrators told a London judge they plan to start returning money to the failed broker s clients as early as next week. The interim distribution would be made only to agreed claims from customers with protected accounts, Martin Pascoe, a...
• Gold, Silver Pace Early-Year Comeback Among Metals
  Commodity prices slumped last year amid concern about Europe s debt crisis and sluggish global economic growth, but now they re coming back with a vengeance. Gold soared 11 percent in January, and silver jumped 19 percent, The Wall Street Journal reports. Copper, aluminum...
• China May Consider Bigger Role in EU Rescue
  China is considering increasing its participation in the rescue funds aimed at resolving the European debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told journalists on Thursday. But Wen did not make any explicit financial commitments for the European Financial Stability Facility...
• Moody's Sees Negative Ratings Trend for Asian Firms
  Defaults by Asian companies are likely to rise this year as the economic environment deteriorates and credit becomes tighter with European lenders reducing their exposure to the region, ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday. Asian sectors most...
• Apple Invades $3.8 Trillion Corporate Market With iPad
  Apple Inc., without much effort on its part, is making rapid headway in selling to corporations. After years of being the also-ran to Microsoft Corp. in the workplace, Apple has seen its iPad become a standard business tool. According to an IDG Connect survey, 51 percent...
• Shilling: China Economy Heading for ‘Hard Landing’
  China s economy is headed for a hard landing this year as weaker demand overseas chokes off exports, said Gary Shilling, who correctly forecast the U.S. recession that began in December 2007.A Chinese government report yesterday showed that export orders fell last month...
• California Vows to Repay $30B Redevelopment Debt
  Holders of almost $30 billion of California redevelopment bonds will be repaid on time, even as the 425 agencies responsible for them are dissolved this week, state Finance Director Ana Matosantos said.So-called successor agencies, mostly cities and counties, will inherit...
• Muni Rally Drives Yields Near Record Low
  Municipal bonds rallied for a fifth straight day on Wednesday, the most this year, driving 10-year yields near record lows amid scarce supply and rising demand for the securities from mutual funds.The yield on top-rated tax-exempt bonds maturing in 10 years fell 2.2 basis...
• Buffett Railroad Boosts Capital Plan on Coal Bet
  Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the railroad controlled by Warren Buffett, plans $3.9 billion in capital spending this year, an increase of 11 percent from 2011, as the company boosts capacity for coal shipments.The 2012 proposal includes $2.1 billion on the core network and...
• Hong Kong Plans $10 Billion Boost to Economy
  Hong Kong will spend nearly HK$80 billion ($10.3 billion) to bolster growth as the government forecasts the weakest expansion since 2009 on a bleak outlook for the U.S. and Europe. Gross domestic product may rise between 1 percent and 3 percent this year, down from an...
• European Crisis Hinders World Factory Output
  Crumbling global demand restrained factory output in Asia and most of Europe in January, business surveys showed on Wednesday, putting pressure on policymakers to shore up growth and counter a spreading malaise. Asia's export-reliant countries, while far more resilient,...
• US Accuses China of Plot Against DuPont
  Chinese government representatives directed a U.S. businessman to obtain valuable technology manufactured by chemical giant DuPont and U.S. authorities were seeking on Wednesday to keep him in jail ahead of his trial on charges relating to trade secret theft, prosecutors...
• Portuguese Bond Yields Fall in Solid Auction
  Portugal sold all 1.5 billion euros ($1.97 billion) on offer in a treasury bill auction on Wednesday with yields falling on both maturities, successfully passing the test of its ability to raise short-term funds after a surge in its long-term bond rates. Many investors...
• Beef Prices May Hit Record High as Herds Shrink
  As if consumers, already under stress from high unemployment and small wage gains, don t have enough to worry about, beef prices are expected to soar to record highs this year. Beef prices will probably spike 4 percent or 5 percent on top of a 10 percent increase last...
• Mild Snap to Cut Heating Energy Demand
  Mild weather expected to linger in the eastern U.S. the rest of this week will mean less energy is needed to warm homes and businesses, forecasters said.The high temperature in New York s Central Park is forecast to be 61 degrees Fahrenheit (16 Celsius) today, according to...
• Orange Juice Posts Biggest January Gain Since '81
  Orange-juice futures rose Tuesday, capping the biggest January gain in 31 years, on speculation that a U.S. probe into a banned fungicide will reduce imports as inventories ebb. Cotton declined.Last week, the Food and Drug Administration detained imported juice shipments...
• Morgan Stanley Cuts US Gas Price Forecast by 30%
  Morgan Stanley cut its 2012 forecast for U.S. natural gas futures by 30 percent, citing less-than- estimated heating demand. The bank cut its estimate to an average of $2.70 per million British thermal units from $3.85 for 2012, Hussein Allidina, the head of commodity...
• Goldman Ends Bet on Higher Copper Prices
  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ended its bet on higher copper prices for June 2012.The bet was opened at $7,274 a metric on Dec. 19, for a profit of $1,161 a ton, Max Layton, an analyst at Goldman in London, wrote in a report dated today. The metal is above Goldman s...
• Apple Names European Executive as Retail Chief
  Apple Inc. is reaching over the Atlantic to snatch a British electronics-chain CEO as the head of its own retail operation. Apple said Tuesday that Dixons Retail PLC's John Browett will become its top retail executive on April 20. He will report directly to Apple CEO Tim...
• Demand for Barbie Helps Push Mattel Profit Up 14%
  Strong holiday demand for toys including Barbie and Monster High dolls helped push Mattel Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit up a better-than-expected 14 percent. The company also raised its dividend and its shares edged higher in premarket trading. But there were a few lumps...
• Charge Hurts UPS Profit, but US Business Surges
  UPS said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter net income slid because of an accounting charge, but its adjusted results topped Wall Street's expectations. Excluding the charge, profit rose 21 percent. The world's largest package delivery company credited the increase to an...
• Debt Buyer Fined $2.5 Million for Deceptions
  
  
• Honda Out to Shake Up Market With First Small Jet
  Honda Motor Co.expects to grab at least a quarter of the world market for small business jets soon after delivering its first aircraft next year, achieving the company's long-standing goal of taking to the skies, an executive said. Honda, Japan's No.3 car maker and the...

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