The Federal Reserve will stick to its plan for a gradual reduction in bond purchases, economists said after a government report showed that U.S. employment rose at the slowest pace in three years in December. The Fed will reduce purchases by $10 billion at each of the next six meetings this year before ending the program in October, according to the median forecasts of 42 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The 74,000 gain in payrolls was the weakest since January 2011, Labor Department figures sh

Jan. 12, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama took a step Friday toward reshaping the Federal Reserve under incoming chairman Janet Yellen, choosing a leading expert on the global economy to be her vice chairman. Obama said he will nominate Stanley Fischer, a former head of the Bank of Israel, for the No. 2 job at the Fed. He would replace Yellen, who was confirmed this week to lead the Fed. Fischer, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, was a long-time professor at the Massachusetts Instit

Jan. 12, 2014

PARIS (AFP) ― The eurozone may be finally returning to some semblance of normality after years of debt crisis that brought fear to the world. It’s been two years since the now 18-member currency bloc was fighting for its life and investors are again knocking on the eurozone’s door, buying up assets deemed dangerous only months ago.The latest sign of this is on the bond markets, where the borrowing rates for countries that seemed on the verge of a precipice are back at levels last seen before the

Jan. 12, 2014

LAS VEGAS (AP) ― Gadget lovers are slipping on fitness bands that track movement and buckling on smartwatches that let them check phone messages. Some brave souls are even donning Google’s geeky-looking Glass eyewear. For the technology industry, this is exciting time, but also a risky one. No one really knows whether the average consumer can be enticed to make gadgets part of their everyday attire. The question is: Can tech companies create wearables with the right mix of function and fashion?

Jan. 9, 2014

LONDON (AP) ― Glimmers of hope emerged Wednesday for the eurozone economy to suggest that the coming year will see the recovery gathering steam.Official figures showed a stabilization in unemployment and the biggest increase in monthly retail sales in 12 years.Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said the eurozone’s unemployment rate held steady in November at a record 12.1 percent for the eighth month running after a modest 4,000 rise in the ranks of the jobless to 19.24 million. Since Septemb

Jan. 9, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The U.S. trade deficit shrank sharply in November as exports hit a record high for the second straight month, official data showed Tuesday in a positive sign for economic growth.The foreign trade deficit narrowed 12.9 percent from October, the second month in a row of contraction, to a four-year low of $34.3 billion, the Commerce Department reported.That was the smallest trade deficit in goods and services with the rest of the world since September 2009.The deficit was much lo

Jan. 8, 2014

DEARBORN (AP) ― Alan Mulally is staying at Ford.The chief executive, who was rumored to be in the running to become Microsoft’s next leader, told the Associated Press Tuesday that he won’t leave the automaker before the end of 2014.“I would like to end the Microsoft speculation because I have no other plans to do anything other than serve Ford,” Mulally said in an interview. When asked if this should end investor concern about his departure, Mulally said, “You don’t have to worry about me leavin

Jan. 8, 2014

NAIROBI (AFP) ― The International Monetary Fund will revise upward its global growth forecast in about three weeks, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Tuesday in Nairobi.“We will be revising upwards the global forecast of the economic growth,” she told a press conference in the Kenyan capital, adding that it would be premature to say any more.Lagarde, who was wrapping up a two-day visit to Kenya, gave no reason for the revision.When it issued its latest World Economic Outlook report in Oct

Jan. 8, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Election-year legislation to revive expired federal jobless benefits unexpectedly cleared an early hurdle on Tuesday, offering a hint of bipartisan compromise in Congress and a glimmer of hope to the long-term jobless and their families.“Let’s get this done,” implored President Barack Obama at the White House, shortly after six Republicans sided with Democrats on a 60-37 Senate vote to keep the measure alive.Even so, the fate of the three-month reinstatement remained uncertain

Jan. 8, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ― JPMorgan Chase & Co., already beset by costly legal woes, will pay more than $2.5 billion for ignoring obvious warning signs of Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, authorities said Tuesday. The nation’s largest bank will forfeit a record $1.7 billion to settle criminal charges, plus pay an additional $543 million to settle civil claims by victims. It also will pay a $350 million civil penalty for what the Treasury Department called “critical and widespread deficiencies” in its

Jan. 8, 2014

China’s cabinet imposed new controls on the multi-trillion-dollar shadow-banking industry with an order that targets off-the-books loans and shores up enforcement of current rules, two people familiar with the matter said. The rules include a ban on transactions designed to avoid regulations, such as moving interbank loans off balance sheets to reduce reported levels of lending, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the order hasn’t been made public. Such operations are part of

Jan. 7, 2014