WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday again stopped short of labeling China a currency manipulator, noting gains in the value of the yuan, but said the currency remains “significantly undervalued.”In a twice-yearly finding to answer congressional critics of China’s overwhelming bilateral trade advantage, the Treasury declined to slap Beijing with the currency manipulator tag, a move that could spark U.S. trade sanctions.The U.S. Treasury argued that Beijing knows that an appreciating c

Nov. 28, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― American consumers are growing more confident about the job market, companies are ordering more equipment and home prices are rising in most major cities.The latest batch of government data suggests that the economy is improving just as the holiday shopping season begins. The only threat is a package of huge spending cuts and tax increases that will kick in unless Congress strikes a budget deal by year’s end.Rising home values, more hiring and lower gas prices pushed consumer c

Nov. 28, 2012

LONDON (AP) ― Britain’s financial regulator has fined UBS AG for failures which allowed a rogue trader to lose $2.3 billion in the country’s biggest-ever fraud case at a bank.The Financial Services Authority said Monday that it was fining the Swiss-based bank 29.7 million pounds ($47.6 million) after finding serious weaknesses in procedures, management systems and internal controls in the London branch of UBS.Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli, 32, was last week sentenced to seven years in prison a

Nov. 27, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Talk of compromise on a broad budget deal greeted returning lawmakers Monday, but agreement still seemed distant as the White House and congressional Republicans ceded little ground on a key sticking point: whether to raise revenue through higher tax rates or by limiting tax breaks and deductions.House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, pressed his case for revenue derived by reducing tax loopholes rather than raising tax rates on wealthy taxpayers, as President Barack Obama insists

Nov. 27, 2012

LONDON (AP) ― The British government has chosen Mark Carney, a Canadian, to become governor of the Bank of England, the first time a foreigner has been tapped for the position since the central bank was founded in 1694.Treasury chief George Osborne announced the surprise choice to the House of Commons on Monday, saying Carney ― who is currently the head of Canada’s central bank ― would apply for British citizenship.“Mark Carney is the outstanding candidate to be governor of the Bank of England a

Nov. 27, 2012

As Volkswagen AG plots a course toward its goal of becoming the world’s biggest automaker by 2018, it’s increasingly clear that the path to global dominance runs through places like Lanzhou, in western China. The capital of landlocked Gansu province, which borders the Gobi Desert, is home to a total of 11 dealerships for VW and its sister brands, Audi and Skoda. With a population of 3.6 million, and GDP per capita of about $4,100, Lanzhou is the type of smaller city away from China’s prosperous

Nov. 26, 2012

TOKYO (AFP) ― Shares in Japan’s Renesas Electronics jumped some 10 percent Monday on reports that its three major shareholders and a government fund reached a final accord on the embattled chipmaker’s bailout.The stock was up 9.68 percent at 317 yen in mid-morning trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, after soaring 15.9 percent earlier in the day.The Nikkei economic daily and other media reported Monday that the troubled chipmaker’s three largest shareholders have agreed to a purchase of the firm b

Nov. 26, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Bye-bye Black Friday. So long Small Business Saturday. Now, it’s Cyber Monday’s turn.Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed online sales spiked on the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the next in a series of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season.It’s estimated that this year’s Cyber Monday will be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row: According to research firm comScore, Americans

Nov. 26, 2012

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels Monday for the third time in two weeks for talks on unlocking the next slice of aid to debt-crippled Greece, which is in danger of running out of money.Greece has been waiting since June for a loan installment of 31.2 billion euros ($40 billion), part of a 130-billion-euro financial assistance package initially granted early this year.By the end of the year, Athens is also due to receive two more aid payments, worth 5.0 and 8.3 billion

Nov. 26, 2012

Airbus SAS won an order for 60 A320 planes from state-backed China Eastern Airlines Corp., less than two weeks after the European Union backed down in a dispute with the government in Beijing over jetliner-emission levies. China Eastern received a “substantive” discount to the list price of $5.4 billion for the single-aisle planes, it said in a statement from Shanghai Friday, adding that Toulouse, France-based Airbus also agreed to take 18 regional jets off its hands. EU plans to impose carbon d

Nov. 25, 2012

Thanksgiving shopping took a noticeable bite out of Black Friday’s start to the holiday season, as the latest survey found retail sales in stores fell slightly from last year. Saturday’s report from retail technology company ShopperTrak finds consumers spent $11.2 billion at stores across the U.S. That is down 1.8 percent from last year’s total. This year’s Friday results appear to have been tempered by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting sales Thursday evening while still full of Thanksgi

Nov. 25, 2012