Wen: China needs policies to promote export growth

Premier Wen Jiabao said China needs targeted measures to promote steady export growth, which will help the nation meet its annual economic goals, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The country must pay attention to problems in imports and exports, Xinhua cited Wen as saying during an inspection tour in Guangdong, China’s biggest exporting province. He reiterated the government needs to increase the intensity of macro-economic adjustments to stabilize expansion in the second half of the ye

Aug. 26, 2012

Microsoft revamps its logo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Microsoft’s corporate logo has a new look, setting the stage for a wave of products designed to cast the world’s largest software maker in a new light.The makeover unveiled Thursday marks the first time that Microsoft Corp. has revamped its logo since February 1987. The Internet was barely around then, and cell phones were considered a luxury.At the time, Microsoft was putting the finishing touches on the second version of its Windows operating system. Two of Microsoft’s big

Aug. 24, 2012

Sony may cut 1,000 jobs in Sweden

Sony Corp., the Japanese electronics maker cutting 10,000 jobs as it tries to recover from a record loss, may eliminate as many as 1,000 positions at a mobile-phone unit in Sweden, Sydsvenska Dagbladet said. About 3,000 people work at the unit in Lund, and the Tokyo- based company is considering moving the development of new mobile phones to Japan, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. The company has called a mandatory staff meeting at 9 a.m. local time Thursday, public br

Aug. 23, 2012

ECB backs Greece, pushes for reforms

Eurogroup chief Juncker ‘totally opposed’ to Greek eurozone exitATHENS (AFP) ― Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker insisted Wednesday that Greece’s place was in the eurozone but urged its government to redouble reform efforts to secure continued EU-IMF financial aid.Juncker, head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, said he was “totally opposed” to Greece being forced out of the 17-nation bloc, a move he said would create a “major risk” for the entire euro area.But he noted that the s

Aug. 23, 2012

Best Buy profit drops 90 percent

NEW YORK (AP) ― The news just keeps getting worse at Best Buy each day.To top off an already eventful several days for the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer, Best Buy Co. withdrew its full-year earnings guidance Tuesday after reporting a 90-percent drop in net income during the second quarter, dragged down by restructuring charges and weak sales.The poor report comes a day after Best Buy named Hubert Joly, former CEO of the Carlson travel company and turnaround expert, as its new CE

Aug. 22, 2012

Japan swings to trade deficit as exports sink

Japan reported a wider-than-expected trade deficit in July as Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and a slowdown in China dragged down exports and higher oil prices boosted imports. The shortfall was 517.4 billion yen ($6.5 billion), after a revised 60.3 billion yen surplus in June, the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo Wednesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 28 analysts was for a 270 billion yen deficit. Exports fell 8.1 percent from a year earlier, compared with an estimated 2.9 p

Aug. 22, 2012

Greece seeks reform ‘breathing space’

P.M. says country needs more time to make spending cuts and reformsBERLIN (AFP) ― Greece’s prime minister called Wednesday for more time to make spending cuts and reforms to unlock funds to keep the debt-wracked country afloat, two days before crunch talks in Germany.“All that we want is a little ‘breathing space’ to revive the economy quickly and raise state income. More time does not automatically mean more money,” Antonis Samaras said in an interview with German daily Bild.Samaras was to meet

Aug. 22, 2012

Facebook’s first big investor Thiel cashes out

NEW YORK (AP) ― Peter one of Facebook’s earliest investors and a member of its board, was among the insiders selling stock in the social network after a lockup expired last week.A regulatory filing on Monday said that Thiel, a former CEO at PayPal sold about 20 million shares of Facebook through affiliates such as his Founders Fund and other entities last week. The shares were sold on Thursday and Friday for between $19.27 and $20.69, for a total of about $396 million.Though Facebook’s stock has

Aug. 21, 2012

Apple’s market value hits $624b

Company hits record high as investors await new iPhone, beats Microsoft’s 1999 peakNEW YORK (AP) ― Apple is Wall Street’s all-time MVP ― that’s Most Valuable Property. On Monday, Apple’s surging stock propelled the company’s value to $624 billion, the world’s highest, ever. It beat the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in the heady days of the Internet boom. After a four-month dip, Apple’s stock has hit new highs recently because of optimism around what is believed to be th

Aug. 21, 2012

Damage to U.S. labor market is reversible

Most of the damage inflicted on the U.S. labor market by the recession is reversible, according to Federal Reserve research, leaving open the possibility that additional stimulus will be effective in reducing joblessness. About one-third, or 1.5 percentage points, of the jump in unemployment from 5 percent as the economic slump began to its 10 percent peak in October 2009 can be traced to a mismatch between the supply of labor and job openings, according to a study released this month by the Fed

Aug. 21, 2012

World must brace for higher food prices: expert

PARIS (AFP) ― With drought parching farms in the United States and near the Black Sea, weak monsoon rains in India and insidious hunger in Africa’s Sahel region, the world could be headed towards another food crisis, experts say.Asia should keep a catastrophe at bay with a strong rice harvest while the G20 group of industrialized and emerging economies tries to parry the main threat, soaring food prices.“We have had quite a few climate events this year that will lead to very poor harvests, notab

Aug. 20, 2012