Hot finance topics

Despite continued worries about the economy, more Americans are expected to hit the highway this holiday season.
Travel group AAA said Wednesday it expects 91.9 million Americans — about 30% of the population — is expected to travel at least 50 miles from home during the 11-day year-end holiday season. That’s up 1.4% from a […]

The United States will hold talks with North Korea in Beijing Thursday on the possibility of providing food aid to the impoverished country, the State Department said.
The Obama administration has been deliberating on the issue for months. The United Nations and U.S. charities say aid is badly needed, but it remains a controversial issue. North […]

German authorities say a piece of mail sent to Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann was a fully functional letter bomb capable of exploding.
German prosecutors and police in Hesse state said in a joint statement that a suspicious letter addressed personally to Ackermann and intercepted at the mail room of the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters on Wednesday […]

Citigroup says it is cutting 4,500 jobs over the next few quarters.
CEO Vikram Pandit said the job cuts are part of the New York bank’s efforts to reduce costs. Pandit made the remarks Tuesday at a financial services conference hosted by Goldman Sachs & Co.
Citigroup Inc.’s fourth-quarter results will include $400 million in expenses related […]

China’s attempts to deflate its property bubble come at a perilous time.
Fears that the euro might collapse, unleashing a tsunami of financial and economic disruptions around the globe, have added urgency to concerns that China’s campaign to cool overheated housing prices may go too far.
As economic growth wanes, Beijing has begun easing tight credit policies […]

The unemployment rate, which has refused to budge from the 9 percent neighborhood for two and a half frustrating years, suddenly dropped in November, driven in part by small businesses that finally see reason to hope and hire.
Economists said there was a long way to go but liked what they saw.
The rate fell to 8.6 […]

Under pressure to deliver shock treatment to the ailing euro, European finance ministers failed to come up with a plan for European countries to spend within their means. Such a plan is needed before Europe’s central bank and the International Monetary Fund consider stepping in to stem an escalating threat to the global economy.
The ministers […]

Carl Icahn said Monday that he wants to buy Commercial Metals Co. for about $1.73 billion and combine parts of it with metals recycling businesses that he already owns.
The billionaire investor, who already owns almost 10 percent of Commercial Metals, said he also plans to nominate three of his associates to be directors on its […]

Four people have been arrested in the Philippines for allegedly hacking into AT&T’s phone systems as part of a plan to funnel money to a Saudi-based terror group, according to police.
The Philippine Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said it worked with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to arrest the suspects late Thursday. The hackers, […]

Livestock farmers are demanding a change in the nation’s ethanol policy, claiming current rules could lead to spikes in meat prices and even shortages at supermarkets if corn growers have a bad year.
The amount of corn consumed by the ethanol industry combined with continued demand from overseas has cattle and hog farmers worried that if […]