Cautious New Year optimism rippled through Asian and European stock markets on Monday as investors waited for news of tax cutting plans in Germany and the United States. The upbeat mood was undented by war in the Middle East and further disruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe in a pricing dispute between Moscow and
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Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was examined at least eight times in 16 years by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators, who often came armed with suspicions, the Wall Street Journal said. SEC officials followed up on emails from a New York hedge fund that described Bernard Madoff's business practices
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Core OPEC oil producers in the Gulf would ignore Iran's call for Islamic countries to cut supplies to supporters of Israel in response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, an OPEC source said on Monday. "There are no plans to do this and I think it is very unlikely," the source told Reuters. U.S. crude
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For videogame publishers the start of 2009 marks a new phase in gaming with the release of new titles no longer confined to the top holiday sale months but spread throughout the year. Traditionally about half of annual videogame sales were rung up in November and December but last year Take Two Interactive broke this
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Dolby Laboratories Inc, a company best known for its audio technology, is now targeting one of the most buzzed-about areas in video: bringing digital 3-D entertainment to the home. Dolby says it is currently talking with content providers about encoding its digital 3-D technology into Blu-ray movies. It declined to identify potential partners. The company
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Even amid the flash and sizzle of the world's premier showcase for consumer electronics, the reality of the economic recession will be hard to ignore. With shoppers in a funk and companies scaling back, the annual Consumer Electronics Show extravaganza in Las Vegas this week is likely to be subdued, with fewer manufacturers, retailers and
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Stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Monday, as gloomy comments by U.S. and European policymakers overshadowed hopes that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's plan for massive tax cuts will help revive economic growth. Highlights: * At 4:58 a.m. EST, futures for the S&P 500 futures, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq
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Germany's coalition parties meet on Monday to hammer out a framework for a second stimulus package worth up to 50 billion euros to help Europe's biggest economy weather its worst recession since World War Two. The parties, including Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD), agree on boosting spending on infrastructure projects to
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By Michael Wei China's office workers are tightening their belts, cutting back spending on everything from clothes to fast food, despite government efforts to boost consumption to stave off the worst effects of a global recession. Websites and blogs popular among young Chinese professionals are extolling the virtues of frugality as the global financial crisis
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Investors jumped into equities on Monday, the first full day of 2009 trading for many, as low prices and hopes for a global economic recovery later this year prompted a shift into riskier assets. Fears of spreading trouble in the Middle East, meanwhile, kept oil prices firm. The dollar climbed, sending the euro to a
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