BRUSSELS (AFP) ― The EU sharply cut its growth forecasts for the eurozone on Tuesday, warning that France and Italy remain huge problems for the sluggish European economy that is becoming a worry worldwide.The threat of deflation and recession combined with stubbornly high unemployment across the eurozone loomed large in the European Commission’s autumn economic forecasts.In a grim set of numbers, it cut its 2014 growth prediction for the 18-country area to just 0.8 percent from the previous 1.2

Nov. 5, 2014

DETROIT (AP) ― Falling gas prices improved buyers’ moods and boosted sales of SUVs and trucks in October.GM, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan, Volkswagen and Honda all reported sales gains last month. Of major automakers, only Ford and Hyundai saw declines.Industry sales rose 6 percent over last October, according to Autodata Corp. The national average price of gasoline fell 33 cents to end October at 80 cents a liter, according to AAA. Gasoline is now the cheapest it has been in four years, and the dec

Nov. 4, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ― The silvery skyscraper that rose from the ashes of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to become a symbol of American resilience opened for business Monday, as 175 employees of the magazine publishing giant Conde Nast settled into their first day of work there.The opening of the country’s tallest building, One World Trade Center, marked a symbolic return to a sense of normalcy for the site where the twin towers fell more than 13 years ago.“The New York City skyline is whole again,”

Nov. 4, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier Sprint said Monday it was slashing 2,000 jobs in a streamlining effort after reporting a $765 million quarterly loss.Sprint, which earlier this year replaced its chief executive after a failed bid for rival T-Mobile, also reported losing a large number of its most lucrative customers, amid price wars in the wireless sector.Chief executive Marcelo Claure said Sprint was adapting to the shifting industry landscape.“We have started a transformational j

Nov. 4, 2014

NEW YORK (AFP) ― The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation of JPMorgan Chase’s foreign exchange trading business, the bank disclosed Monday in a securities filing.JPMorgan said it is cooperating with the DOJ probe and with other U.S. and foreign investigations related to manipulation in the forex trade, as it raised its estimate of related legal costs by $1.3 billion to $5.9 billion.The foreign exchange probes focus on the bank’s “spot FX trading activities as well as

Nov. 4, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) ― With the Federal Reserve’s role in the U.S. economic recovery at a crossroads, Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Monday sat down with President Barack Obama in their first face-to-face meeting since she assumed her post as head of the American central bank in February. The White House said the two discussed their perspectives on the economy both at home and abroad.The White House called the meeting “part of an ongoing dialogue on the state of the economy, financial reform, and other ec

Nov. 4, 2014

At the height of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests last month, jewelry chain Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Ltd. had to shut down two of its five stores along a stretch of Nathan Road in Mong Kok. The busy area, one of three locations still blockaded by protesters, commands some of the highest retail rents in the city. Yet with 56 outlets across the city selling gold and Rolexes, the company has weathered the disruptions as its other outlets benefited from displaced business. “We lost ab

Nov. 3, 2014

Bill Gates. (Bloomberg)WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. philanthropist Bill Gates on Sunday announced he will donate over $500 million to fight malaria and other infectious diseases in the developing world, saying the Ebola outbreak is a call to action.The former Microsoft CEO told the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans that his Gates Foundation is committing more than $500 million in 2014 “to reduce the burden of malaria, pneumonia, diarrheal dise

Nov. 3, 2014

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker, who has pushed for policies aimed at keeping inflation in check, said he’s not worried now about prices rising too fast. “Given the economic challenges we’ve faced, I think this economy has turned in an excellent performance,” he said on Fox News’ ’’Sunday Morning Futures’’ program Sunday. “The unemployment rate has come down from 10 percent to 5.9 percent and inflation is low and not a problem.” Lacker will be a voting member of the pol

Nov. 3, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) ― China’s roaring economy for years has pulled much of the rest of the world with it, soaking up oil, iron ore and other commodities from developing countries and autos and luxury goods from Europe.But its role as a global engine is fading as its economy slows ― and many other nations, in the view of economists, will feel the pain. An Associated Press survey of 30 economists has found that 57 percent of them expect China’s decelerating economy to restrain growth in countries from

Nov. 3, 2014

Members of OPEC, the group that supplies 40 percent of the world’s oil, are engaged in an internal price war as they seek to preserve their share of an oversupplied market, Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said. “There is a price war within OPEC,” Abdul Mahdi told an evening session of the parliament in Baghdad, which was broadcast on state-run television. “The market’s fundamentals have changed, with an extra 3 million barrels a day of crude entering the market at a time when growth in China

Nov. 2, 2014

Howard Schultz, chief executive officer of Starbucks Corp. (Bloomberg)The afternoon coffee run may become a thing of the past if Starbucks Corp. gets its way. The world’s largest coffee-shop chain said Friday it would offer delivery in select markets in the second half of next year. Chief executive officer Howard Schultz described the plan as “e-commerce on steroids,” letting customers create standing orders that arrive at their desks daily. The move is part of Starbucks’ strategy to keep U.S. s

Nov. 2, 2014

MOJAVE, California (AFP) ― British tycoon Richard Branson insisted Saturday his dream of commercial space travel was still alive, despite a spacecraft crash that killed one pilot and seriously injured another.The pilots were flying the place for Virgin Galactic, whose SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was meant to carry tourists on short but expensive trips to space.The doomed flight ― the 35th by SpaceShipTwo ― marked the first time the spaceship had flown on a new kind of plastic-based rocket fuel mix

Nov. 2, 2014

Nikolai Borisov, the proprietor of three Italian restaurants in Moscow, has been forced to take Gorgonzola cheese and Parma ham off his menus after President Vladimir Putin banned some food imports in August. “You can make pizza using Russian cheese, but it won’t taste anything like Italian food,” said Borisov, 34. “When you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. The government passes one law worse than the other.” Responding to European Union and U.S. sanctions by prohibiting purchases of certa

Nov. 2, 2014

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Eurozone inflation edged up to 0.4 percent from multi-year lows while unemployment was little changed, official data showed Friday, providing only limited reassurance that a modest economic recovery remains on track.Analysts said the figures were far from encouraging, with the European Central Bank likely to come under additional pressure from anxious governments to do more to get the economy moving again.Inflation in the 18-nation eurozone rose to 0.4 percent in October from 0.

Nov. 2, 2014