Europe's post-recession recovery hit a roadblock on Friday as German economic growth unexpectedly ground to a halt in the final quarter of 2009, though France made up for some of the damage. The news comes at a hard time for Europe's single currency bloc as governments struggle to sort out Greece's debt difficulties and contain
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Stock index futures pointed to a mostly lower open for U.S. shares on Friday, following strong gains in the previous session, as a pledge by European leaders to support Greece eased worries about a crisis in the euro zone. At 0931 GMT, futures for the Dow Jones were flat; those for the S&P 500 and
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Google Inc argued in a staunch and sometimes eloquent brief that an agreement reached with the Authors Guild to digitize millions of books was legal and a contribution to human knowledge. Google's ambitious plan has been praised for expanding access to books but the Justice Department criticized it on February 4 on a variety of
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At next week's mobile trade show in Barcelona you can find a program that measures how high you can throw a Nokia smartphone, an apt metaphor for Nokia's efforts to raise its game. But gravity might not favor the world's biggest maker of cellphones, as the focus of the $169 billion industry shifts to software
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Britain's Lloyds Banking Group rounded off a bumper, 23 billion pound ($36.1 billion) repair of its balance sheet, issuing a final tranche of new shares in a move that will trim the government's stake. Lloyds, partly state-owned after being rescued by the taxpayer at the height of the financial crisis, will issue 3.14 billion new
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Euro zone economic recovery stumbled in last year's final quarter as gross domestic product barely expanded, dragged down by a poor German performance despite healthy figures from France, data showed on Friday. The 16-country currency area's GDP edged up 0.1 percent in the October-December period, compared with the previous quarter, and contracted by 2.1 percent
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Next week's European Union finance minister meeting is unlikely to decide an aid package for Greece, but adverse market reactions could trigger a decision at any time, an EU government source told Reuters on Friday. EU leaders at their summit on Thursday aimed to keep pressure high on Greece, as well as on Portugal and
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The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for jobless benefits tumbled last week, a government report showed on Thursday, reversing a recent spike that had raised concerns about renewed labor market weakness. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000 for the week ended Feb. 6, down from
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US Stock index futures rose on Thursday with the spotlight on a European summit that could set the blueprint for aid to debt-laden Greece, while investors awaited data on the health of the labor market. Concern over the debt crisis in Greece has dampened confidence, and equity markets have been sensitive to statements and reports
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European leaders have reached a deal to provide aid to Greece, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said on Thursday, in an unprecedented move to stave off a broader crisis in the 16-nation bloc that shares the euro. "There is an agreement on the Greek situation. We will communicate now the agreement to the other leaders,"
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