Oil prices jumped to a nine-month high above $105 a barrel on Monday after Iran said it halted crude exports to Britain and France in an escalation of a dispute over the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.By Monday afternoon, benchmark March crude was up $2.02 to $105.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since May. The contract rose 93 cents to settle at $103.24 per barrel in New York on Friday.Iran’s announcement will likely have minimal imp

Feb. 21, 2012

Lamborghini SpA, maker of the $1 million Aventador LP 700-4, said industry sales of ultra-luxury sports cars may slow as signs that China’s economy is weakening puts off some buyers. “If you look at the economy right now, there may be some uncertainty to make people wait a little,” Christian Mastro, Lamborghini’s Asia Pacific general manager, said in a phone interview “The number of people able to spend this kind of money is limited, it’s not unlimited.” Growth in the world’s second-largest econ

Feb. 20, 2012

SINGAPORE (AFP) ― If you have money and want to flaunt it, mansions, limousines and yachts are no longer enough. For the super rich of Asia, owning a private jet has become the ultimate status symbol.Executive-jet makers aiming to woo Asia’s growing ranks of billionaires and multi-millionaires were out in force at the Singapore Airshow, which drew to a close over the weekend.Brazil’s Embraer had Jackie Chan’s personal Legacy 650 jet ― with a unique white, red and yellow livery inspired by a myth

Feb. 20, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year.At $3.53 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1. And experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by late April.“You’re going to see a lot more staycations this year,” says Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. “When the price gets anywhere near $4, you really see people react.”Already, W. Howard Coudle, a retired machinist from Crestwood, Mo., has seen his monthly gaso

Feb. 20, 2012

MADRID (AP) ― Hundreds of thousands of protesters were marching throughout Spain on Sunday in the first large-scale show of anger over new labor reforms that make it easier for companies to fire workers and pull out of collective bargaining agreements.Spain’s main trade unions organized marches in 57 cities, beginning midmorning in southern Cordoba. Some events that had been planned for later in the day, such as in eastern Valencia, had to be brought forward because of the early buildup of large

Feb. 20, 2012

Azumi says Japan-China deal reached for common response to IMF on EuropeJapanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said his nation and China will work together to help Europe solve its debt crisis through the International Monetary Fund.  Europe needs a bigger so-called firewall of added funding to contain the crisis, even as Greece shows some improvement in solving its financial woes, Azumi told reporters in Beijing Sunday after meeting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. Azumi, who met Chinese Finance

Feb. 20, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Wynn Resorts Ltd. said Sunday that it forcibly bought back all the shares controlled by its biggest stakeholder Kazuo Okada and asked the Japanese tycoon to resign from the board after finding he made improper payments to overseas gambling regulators.The Las Vegas casino operator said it took action against Okada after a year-long investigation uncovered that he engaged in activities that violated U.S. anti-corruption law.The announcement marks the latest deterioration of Okada’s

Feb. 20, 2012

Japan posted a record trade deficit in January as the yen’s strength and weaker global demand eroded manufacturers’ profits and slowed the nation’s recovery from last year’s earthquake and tsunami. The trade deficit widened to 1.48 trillion yen ($19 billion) and shipments dropped 9.3 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said Monday in Tokyo. The median estimate of 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a trade gap of 1.46 trillion yen. The currency’s advance has hampere

Feb. 20, 2012

Japan agrees with China to aid Europe through IMF after further euro steps, Azumi saysJapanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said that his nation and China are committed to help resolve the European debt crisis through the International Monetary Fund once euro region members take further steps themselves. “We shared the view that Europe needs to make more efforts to create a bigger firewall,” Azumi told reporters in Beijing Sunday after meeting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. “We also agreed to a

Feb. 20, 2012

TEHRAN (AP) ― Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran’s crucial fuel exports. The EU imposed tough sanctions against Iran last month, which included a freeze of the country’s central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July. Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to “hostile” Europ

Feb. 20, 2012

European authorities are considering cutting interest rates: officialsGermany wants euro-area finance chiefs to avoid splitting consideration of a 130 billion-euro ($171 billion) Greek rescue and a bond swap to cut the nation’s debt load at a meeting next week, coalition lawmakers were told by German government officials in a briefing. As long as Greece meets conditions for the aid, the finance chiefs will probably approve the package along with the debt exchange, three German officials involved

Feb. 17, 2012

DETROIT (AP) ― General Motors earned its largest profit ever in 2011, two years after it nearly collapsed.Strong sales in the U.S. and China helped the carmaker turn a profit of $7.6 billion, beating its old record of $6.7 billion in 1997 during the pickup and SUV boom.GM is a vastly different company than it was back then. It’s smaller, has less debt and its contract with the United Auto Workers is less costly. But it took a $49.5 billion government bailout and bankruptcy protection in 2009 to

Feb. 17, 2012

HONG KONG (AP) ― China is poised to overtake India to become the world’s biggest gold market this year as rising incomes fuel demand for the precious metal and a weak rupee diminishes Indian purchases, an industry group said Thursday. The amount of gold bought in China rose 20 percent in 2011 over the year before to 770 metric tons, the World Gold Council said in its annual report. That put China behind only first-place India, where 933 metric tons were bought. Worldwide, the amount of gold purc

Feb. 17, 2012