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Boston Scientific Corp. said Thursday it will begin shipping two types of implantable defibrillators, after shipments were halted in March when it was discovered that two manufacturing processes used in the production of the devices had not been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Natick, Mass., company is reporting that the FDA has […]

Consumer borrowing fell again in February, reflecting weakness in credit cards and auto loans.
Analysts said the sharp reduction showed that the weak economy was still making consumers hesitant to take on more debt.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that borrowing declined by $11.5 billion in February, surprisingly weaker than the small […]

HearUSA said its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009 rose 5 percent to $21.7 million from $20.7 million in the same year-ago quarter. Losses from continuing operations were $315,000, improved from a loss of $3.5 million a year earlier.
Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $172,000, or 0 cents a share, in the fourth […]

Crude oil advanced Wednesday, extending the previous session’s 4% gain, as investors continued their bid for riskier assets.
What prices are doing: Crude oil for March delivery rose 33 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $77.33 a barrel Wednesday.
Oil surged 3.8% Tuesday to settle at $77.01 a barrel. Prices tracked rising stocks and were […]

The top-grossing movie in the world, Avatar, is on screens now, and it clearly identifies the most evil force in the universe. It’s business.
"There’s only one thing the shareholders hate more than bad publicity," says the smarmy manager of an unnamed company’s mining operations on the planet Pandora in Avatar, "and that’s a […]

Financial and energy stocks helped push the Toronto stock market slightly higher Monday.
The rise followed a three-session losing streak brought on by Chinese moves to slow bank lending, proposals to curb risk-taking by U.S. banks and doubt over whether U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke would be appointed to another term.
The S&P/TSX composite index rose […]

St. Louis-area casinos saw their business grow in 2009, but all of the gains were concentrated in two casinos.
Revenue at the region’s six casinos climbed nearly 2 percent for the year to $1.05 billion, despite a tough economy that had gamblers nationwide holding their wallets tighter. In December, casino revenue grew 1.7 percent, […]

A wave of consolidation may sweep through U.S. small business lenders as the beleaguered industry seeks to take advantage of low valuations to combine with rivals or other large companies in a bid to survive.
Once a dominant player in the business development companies (BDC) industry, American Capital Ltd, which recently restructured its debt, may […]

It was part of the corporate lore at Bank of America: Whenever legendary boss Hugh McColl would buy a bank in Florida, Texas, or Georgia in the 1980s and early 1990s, he’d call his trusted lieutenant Ken Lewis to his Charlotte office and order Lewis to fix the new acquisition to fit his revolutionary […]

Ballpark — A mildly pungent jalape