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U.K. consumer confidence increased to the highest level since May after the Bank of England cut interest rates to a record low, GfK NOP said.
The market researcher’s index of consumer confidence rose five points to minus 30 in March, the company said in a statement in London. The survey of 2,003 people was […]

NEW YORK – Oil prices rose above $53 a barrel today and gas prices jumped above $2 a gallon in the United States for the first this year as investors wagered that there would be a new run on crude stocks.
Canadian gas prices also edged higher today, to an average of just under […]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Wachovia Securities and First Clearing, both of St. Louis, $1.1 million for failing to provide more than 800,000 notifications to customers over a five-year period ending in 2008. At the time, Wachovia Securities and First Clearing were both subsidiaries of Wachovia Corp. First Clearing also sent confirmations […]

The news about global manufacturing is so bad, it might be good.
As factory production collapses around the world, excess inventories that stand in the way of an eventual recovery are disappearing even faster. That may allow manufacturing to stabilize later this year, providing some relief for a global economy that is contracting for […]

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Long-time pillars of the community are now pariahs living in fear, hiding behind locked gates and security guards amid the public outrage over bonuses paid with taxpayer bailout money.
Payouts by American International Group Inc. appear to have put a face on the economic struggles the country faces, and the anger […]

The number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but the number filing for more than a week hit a fresh record high, according to a government report released Thursday.
In the week ended March 14, a total of 646,000 people filed initial jobless claims, down 12,000 from the previous week’s […]

More Britons joined the jobless rolls than at any time since 1971 as the recession destroyed work in factories, building sites and banks.
Claims for jobless benefits rose 138,400 in February to 1.39 million, the Office for National Statistics said today. That’s more than the population of Cambridge and compares with the increase of […]

U.S. President Barack Obama’s task force on the auto industry has hired a bankruptcy lawyer to advise it on its options.
The task force hired Matthew Feldman, a partner in the business reorganization and restructuring department at New York law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, the law firm said in a news release Friday.
Feldman […]

I’m always amazed by the size of the tax refund most Americans get year after year. The average refund was $2,429 last year, up from $2,324 in 2007, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
I’ll lay heavy odds that this year’s refunds will be bigger, thanks to higher contribution limits for IRAs, deductions for […]

U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger denied motions by former executives at Qwest Communications International Inc. to dismiss civil fraud claims made by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC alleges that five former employees of the Denver-based telecommunications company artificially inflated Qwest’s share price by misrepresenting one-time "IRU" sales as recurring revenue.
Former Qwest […]