Stock index futures pointed to a flat open on Friday following data that showed U.S. employers cut fewer-than-expected jobs in August even as the unemployment rate hit a 26-year high. Wall Street is focused on unemployment as it is the biggest weight on the nascent recovery. The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose to
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The pace of U.S. job losses hit a one-year low last month but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, the government said on Friday in a report showing a slowly improving labor market. The Labor Department said employers cut 216,000 jobs, the smallest since August 2008, and revised job losses
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Cyprus said on Friday that Turkey must open its ports to Greek Cypriots without setting conditions, rejecting Ankara's stand that it would do so only if the EU established trade links with the Turkish Cypriots. The European Union has told Turkey, which is negotiating EU membership, that it must lift its blockade on Greek Cypriot
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Real estate and construction firms have been the worst hit in Britain by the global downturn, with the number going bust more than doubling since the credit crunch started two years ago, according to a report on Friday. Some 1,573 companies in the property sector went bust in the second quarter, compared with 696 in
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U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday, ahead of eagerly-awaited monthly U.S. jobs data and unemployment rate. At 5:29 a.m. EDT, futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.44 percent, Dow Jones futures were up 0.41 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.34 percent. Investors were bracing
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Apple Inc's media extravaganza next week is being greeted with unusual calm, as it is uncertain if charismatic CEO Steve Jobs will appear and investors have nothing much to bet on apart from new iPods with cameras. Apple's stock has often swung wildly and rumors have swirled about game-changing products ahead of such events, but
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By Ros Krasny Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher on Thursday said the United States should have a "good snap-back" from recession in the final months of 2009, but that future growth could be a "slow crawl". "You could have a stout third-quarter (GDP) number," Fisher told reporters after a speech at the University
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The global economy is emerging from a deep downturn but the recovery will be sluggish and unwinding stimulus measures too soon could derail an upswing, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Friday. Speaking at a Bundesbank conference in Berlin, Strauss-Kahn expressed concern about the risks of a rise in unemployment, which he said could
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By Linda Sieg The greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020 set by Japan's incoming Democratic Party government is based on the premise that there will be an international agreement including China and India, a party executive said on Friday. The party, promising a more aggressive green policy than the outgoing government, has called for a
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New car sales in Britain rose for a second month running in August as the government's "cash for bangers" scheme lured cost-conscious buyers on to forecourts. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said sales rose an annual 6 percent to just over 67,000. That built on a rise of 2.4 percent in July and
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