30 May 2005 10:16 AM

The euro dropped against the dollar as the European Union constitution was dumped in the French referendum. The rejection that will hamper the adoption of the document supposed to pave the way for integration of the European economies had a downward effect on the European currency. The

27 May 2005 07:08 AM

U.S. senators demand that the Bush administration crack down on China to speed up currency revaluation. The comments that were directed at Treasury Secretary John W. Snow at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee add to the pressure on the administration to force Beijing that is artificially keeping its currency low to revalue yuan.

26 May 2005 07:02 AM

The US economy probably added 3.6% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, shows the survey of economists by Bloomberg News, which is more than 3.1 percent rate the government publicized on April 28. In the fourth quarter the rate was at 3.8 percent. The government estimates will be released at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.

24 May 2005 08:45 AM

Oil price has remained relatively stable on a rise in US refining output that was projected to increase to 94.5% of their capacity this week up from 94% in the past week, according to Bloomberg survey of economists.

23 May 2005 09:58 AM

The prospects of the US economy are dimming, but still look brighter than those of the eurozone or Japan, which might boost the value of the US dollar in the long-term. UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said on Sunday that, in his view, Britain and the United States will lead in the economic development in the

20 May 2005 09:58 AM

Morgan Stanley yesterday was ordered by a Florida jury to pay $850 million in punitive damages to Ronald O. Perelman in addition to $604 million in compensatory damages awarded to the plaintiff on Monday. The decision ups the total sum Morgan Stanley has to pay to $1.45 billion, although the jury stopped short of awarding

19 May 2005 07:50 AM

Federal banking regulators that have supplied the markets with pioneering guidelines for credit-risk management for home-equity lending are now looking into sorting out risks for mortgages. The new guidelines dealing with first-time mortgages are likely to come out in 2006, serving to ward off concerns about the

18 May 2005 05:11 AM

China is not manipulating its currency after all, US Congress admitted issuing a statement that China has to abandon its currency peg to the US dollar or risks accusations of exchange rate manipulations. The restrained statement invoked criticism of the producers who would prefer a statement saying that China is in direct violation of the rules.

17 May 2005 10:36 AM

Home-equity lenders need to rev up their risk management practices, says the guidance jointly issued by regulators including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union Administration and the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision

16 May 2005 08:04 AM

United Airlines that was allowed last week to renounce its pension liabilities amounting to $9.8 billion, heaping its problems on the overstrained Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. aggravates the burden put on the government agency that agreed to take on two-thirds of the liabilities, amounting to $6.6 billion. The rest of the debt

13 May 2005 07:12 AM

The National Association of Realtors, the regulator of the real estate industry, intends to limit the ability of online operators to show information about homes for sale. The new regulation would affect the systems called multiple-listing services (MLS) that display houses available

12 May 2005 08:55 AM

Clouds are gathering over the US credit market as prices on derivatives start moving out of correlation, the high-yield market strives to digest the huge automakers’ debt after S&P roiled the markets with a downgrade, and the synchrony between the prices of bonds, stocks, and credit derivatives is broken. Investors have woken

11 May 2005 10:31 AM

The Bank of England has said that inflation may head higher than the self-imposed barrier of 2% in 2005, retreating below this level next year. The Bank has expressed the risks to its inflation forecast as ``broadly balanced

10 May 2005 07:49 AM

The Securities and Exchange Commission is going to launch suits against several executives of General Re, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Thus, on May 2, Richard Napier, a senior vice president at General Re’s U.S. office, was told that he can be sued for his help to AIG in raising its reserves for claims. There are going to be more officers sued, according to a person familiar with the matter.

04 May 2005 06:21 AM

Federal Reserve meeting led to a quarter-percentage-point increase in Fed funds rate on Tuesday, bringing the rate to 3%, the highest level in three and a half years. Fed followed through with its ’measured’ increases despite an obvious slowdown in the US economy, and in the statement issued after the meeting reiterated its commitment to its "measured" pace of interest rate hikes.