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JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other banks drove stock indexes higher Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose to its highest level in two and a half years.
JPMorgan rose 1 percent after reporting that its income soared 47 percent in the fourth quarter. The bank set aside less money to cover bad loans and said […]

World stock markets were ending the week in sluggish mode Friday following weakness on Wall Street and a disappointing U.S labor report.
Oil prices fell to near $91 a barrel as traders mulled whether demand in a slowly recovering U.S. economy will be enough to push crude above $100 soon. In currencies, the dollar was down […]

WASHINGTON

The U.S. economic recovery is finally getting stronger, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday.
Bernanke, in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, said there is increased evidence that a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold.
"Overall the pace of economic recovery seems likely to be moderately stronger in 2011 than […]

Britain’s business minister says he will guarantee that the monarch’s head will appear on British postage stamps even if Royal Mail is sold to a foreign buyer.
Sculptor Arnold Machin’s depiction of a youthful Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on billions of stamps since it was first commissioned in 1967 and has become a classic of […]

For those using data from ADP Employer Services to formulate a U.S. payroll forecast, beware of December, said economists like JPMorgan’s Michael Feroli and Barclays Capital’s Michael Gapen.
“I don’t think ADP has been particularly useful in forecasting” the government’s employment figures, Feroli said in a telephone interview from his New York office. “ADP has […]

An explosion at a chlorine plant in southern France on Thursday killed one man and injured nine, authorities said.
The administration for the Bouches-du-Rhone region said a leak of water containing sodium prompted the explosion. The blast occurred at a plant run by Gazechim in the Mediterranean port of Lavera.
The administration said in a statement that […]

Torstar Corp. says it has completed the first stage of the sale of its 20-per-cent stake in CTVglobemedia Inc.
Torstar said Tuesday it has received $40 million in proceeds in connection with the acquisition by The Woodbridge Co. Ltd. of a direct interest in the Globe and Mail newspaper, which was completed on Dec. 21.
The move […]