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The cost of living in the U.S. fell in April for a second month, the first back-to-back declines in inflation since late 2008, as fuel prices retreated.
The consumer-price index decreased 0.4 percent, the biggest decrease since December 2008, after falling 0.2 percent in March, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. Economists […]

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York Appellate judge has rejected Macy’s request to slap rival J.C. Penney Co. with a temporary restraining order barring it from selling non-branded goods designed by Martha Stewart while an appeal is pending.
On Monday, rival Macy’s Inc. filed an appeal to overturn a decision made by New York State […]

Employment by retailers slumped the most in more than a year last month, hurting growth in the U.S. job market, as higher payroll taxes and concern fiscal policies will reduce consumer spending prompt companies to trim costs.
Retail employment declined by 24,000 in March, the most since February 2012, Labor Department data showed today in […]

Graybar Electric Co. is suing its former chief financial officer, alleging he improperly took confidential computer files and trade secrets when he resigned and may have given sensitive information to his new employer.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, says D. Beatty D’Alessandro violated federal and state computer tampering laws and […]

A Central Bank official and a senior Finance Ministry technocrat says that Bank of Cyprus savers with over 100,000 euros could take losses of up to 60 percent.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to publicly discuss details of the issue, said Saturday that deposits over 100,000 at the country’s […]

The newly restored and renovated Central Library in downtown St. Louis gets a shout-out in the latest issue of Preservation magazine.
“Crown jewel” of the city’s library system is a tag the magazine puts on the century-old building. The spring issue of the publication, put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, carries a photo […]

Euro-area finance chiefs, pressuring Cyprus to shrink its banking system as the condition for a bailout, are reviving demands they jettisoned last week as too extreme, four European officials said.
Finance ministers for the 17 euro countries are considering a plan to shutter the two biggest banks in Cyprus and freeze the assets of uninsured […]

Netflix’s stock surged Wednesday afternoon as billionaire investor Carl Icahn revealed that his funds have acquired a 10% stake in the streaming media and rentals business.
) shares tripped two circuit breakers in their rapid rise, triggering a temporary halt in the stock. When shares resumed trading, they cooled off slightly but […]

Industry analysts are already predicting that Apple’s iPhone 5, widely expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, will be the best-selling smartphone of all time. Each new iPhone has outsold the previous version, and the iconic device has been the top-selling mobile phone since its 2007 debut.
That raises the question: How much longer […]

U.S. Bank is the country’s fifth-largest commercial bank, with 3,000 branches in 25 states. It’s also “one of the largest slumlords in the City of Los Angeles,” according to the L.A. city attorney’s office.
In a complaint filed last month, the office accused U.S. Bank of failing to maintain more than 170 foreclosed […]