Asian stocks rallied on Thursday, propelled by the biggest surge in U.S. bank shares in 16 years and a sharp drop in oil prices, easing the worst fears about the global credit crisis spiralling out of control. Wells Fargo & Co, the fifth-biggest U.S. bank, posted quarterly results well above expectations and raised its dividend
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The global food crisis is largely responsible for driving up the United Nations' need for funding to confront disasters and emergencies around the world this year by one-fifth, the U.N. said on Wednesday. World prices of basic foodstuffs such as wheat and rice have doubled over the last year, badly hitting poor nations that rely
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Inflation accelerated in June to its fastest rate since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 while workers' earnings slumped, compounding the difficulties for policy-makers trying to support a weak economy without fueling price pressures. Industrial output unexpectedly rose 0.5% in June, confounding expectations of no rise at all and following a fall in May,
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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday a top Fed priority is restoring financial calm even as "too high" inflation and weak growth threaten the economy. Bernanke, who spoke on the second of two days of semiannual monetary policy testimony, faces some congressional skepticism about a plan to backstop
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By Bernd Debusmann By Bernd Debusmann WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) – If necessity really is the mother of invention, oil at $140 a barrel and gasoline at $4 a gallon will force the United States, the world's most profligate user of energy, into a new era of creativity and innovation. As long as America's leaders
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Oil fell sharply on Wednesday after U.S. government data showed a rise in crude oil and gasoline stocks last week. Prices had already dropped steeply in the previous session on expectations that a faltering economy in top energy consumer the United States would hit demand growth. U.S. crude was $5.45 down at $133.29 a barrel
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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Intel (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's top PC chip maker, on Tuesday launched the next-generation of its Centrino wireless chip that it hopes will provide a new revenue stream amid a broader push into mobile technologies. The launch of the Centrino 2 chip, previously code named Montevina, came after a delay
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Slovakia will be eurozone’s poorest By Peter Laca and Jan Lopatka SACA, Slovakia, July 16 (Reuters) – "What can I buy with 300?" cries Marca Tancosova, a Roma woman worried that her 9,000 crown ($473.9) welfare check will shrink after Slovakia adopts the European Union's common currency next year. Tancosova, a character in a play
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The European Commission presented a Report and a proposal for a Directive to amend the current EU excise duty legislation on tobacco. The draft Directive foresees a gradual increase in the EU minimum taxation levels on cigarettes and fine cut tobacco up to 2014. It also updates the definitions of different types of tobacco products
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U.S. consumer prices in June rose by the biggest amount since 1982 on a continued surge in gasoline prices, adding more weight to an economy struggling through a strained banking system and the worst housing downturn in decades, a government report on Wednesday showed. The Consumer Price Index, the government's key measure of inflation, advanced
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