(Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s profit and sales surpassed expectations on Thursday as more people shopped at its established U.S. stores and spent more, pushing shares up 5 percent despite ongoing internal and government probes into possible bribery. Wal-Mart‘s shares jumped and briefly recovered all of the 8.2 percent plunge suffered after an April 21 [...]
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The nation’s two actors unions have merged, nearly a decade after last trying to do so. That signals an end to years of conflict and division that had long given Hollywood studios the advantage in negotiations. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the smaller of the two unions, had [...]
The Dow rose 45 points to close at 12949 Friday, inching toward a 13000 mark it hasn’t seen since before the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow edged teasingly close to the 13,000 marker on Friday, a milestone it hasn’t reached since before the financial crisis brought the U.S. economy to its knees. Skip to next [...]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. ? On a day that combined two campaigns into one, President Barack Obama on Wednesday challenged Republicans to raise taxes on the rich as Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich swiped at him on the economy and criticized each other over immigration. With a week to go before the Jan. 31 [...]
NEW YORK ? As Commissioner David Stern’s deadline passed, the NBA and its players continued negotiating Wednesday in an attempt to end the lockout. The two sides met for more than nine hours to try to hash out a deal to save the season. Stern had issued an ultimatum to players: Accept the league’s latest [...]
LOS ANGELES ? Americans’ spending on home videos has finally emerged from the recession ? helped by more purchases of higher-priced Blu-ray discs and greater outlays on cut-rate rentals from Netflix and Redbox. For the three months through September, home movie spending rose nearly 5 percent from a year earlier to $3.9 billion, the first [...]
TORONTO (Reuters) ? Canadian stocks staged a late rally to close higher on Wednesday, shrugging off early losses, helped by encouraging third-quarter earnings and news from Europe about plans to tackle the region’s debt crisis. Markets responded positively to a report the euro zone will dip deeply into a $440 billion euro bailout fund, the [...]
TOKYO (Reuters) ? European stock index futures fell Tuesday on uncertainty before a key summit, failing to sustain gains made in Asia where investors grew more optimistic about Europe’s leaders coming to a broad agreement on containing the region’s debt crisis. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose as much as 0.8 [...]