Hot finance topics

Stocks are closing higher for the third day in a row on hopes that European leaders are moving closer to a plan to contain that region’s debt crisis.
Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel said her country would do whatever it could to help Greece. Greece’s finance minister also said that country would receive the next round of […]

President Barack Obama is on the road selling his jobs plan _ and his re-election hopes _ to plugged-in networkers in Silicon Valley and around the country.
He was to appear Monday at a town hall-style event hosted by the career-focused social networking site LinkedIn to pitch his nearly $450 billion jobs proposal as he travels […]

ST. LOUIS

The head of the International Monetary Fund called Thursday for bold and collective action to combat a slowing global economy and a worsening European debt crisis.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also said she welcomed President Barack Obama’s U.S. job-creation plan in light of the unemployment crisis in the United States.
Lagarde will preside at her first […]

Asian stock markets took a beating Monday after U.S. companies stopped hiring in August, reviving fears that the world’s largest economy is heading back into recession.
Oil prices extended losses to below $86 a barrel as the dismal jobs report suggested that a weak U.S. economy will lessen demand for crude. The dollar was higher against […]

Fears that car buyers would stay away from dealerships in August never materialized.
Instead, Americans were lured by new models, cheaper financing and the need to replace aging cars. As a result, August sales rose 7.5 percent compared with the same month last year, according to Autodata Corp.
Most major automakers reported healthy sales increases in August, […]

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ATHENS, GREECE

The real danger from the downgrade of U.S. government debt by Standard & Poor’s isn’t higher interest rates. It’s the hit to the nation’s fragile economic psyche and rattled financial markets.
S&P’s decision to strip the U.S. of its sterling AAA credit rating for the first time and move it down one notch, to AA+, deals […]

The franchise owner of local Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants has filed for bankruptcy and plans to shutter a store at the St. Louis Mills mall in Hazelwood.
The closure of the Hazelwood Chevys, which is expected to occur in the next few days, follows T&J Restaurants’ closure of the Chevys in Columbia, Mo., earlier this week.
T&J […]