Hot finance topics

Purchases of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in February for a second month, a sign the recovery in the housing market may be uneven.
Sales dropped 1.6 percent to a 313,000 annual pace, the slowest since October, from a 318,000 rate in January that was weaker than previously reported, figures from the Commerce […]

Britain

The following recall has been announced:
PLAY THEATER TOYS
DETAILS: Four-in-one dramatic play theater toys imported by Guidecraft Inc., of Winthrop, Minn., and manufactured by Mega Profit Trading Ltd., of China. The toys were sold at various catalogs, Guidecraft.com and other Internet retailers nationwide from July 2010 through April 2011.
WHY: The toy theaters can unexpectedly tip over […]

General Electric Co. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s compensation fell 24 percent in 2011 after it spiked in 2010.
GE, which makes products ranging from jet engines to light bulbs, as well as financing projects around the globe, gave Immelt a pay package valued at nearly $11.4 million, according to an analysis of regulatory documents filed […]

Shares in BP PLC have hit their highest level in over a year in the wake of the oil company’s announcement that it had reached a settlement with victims of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
BP shares were up 1.6 percent at 504.4 pence in midday trading in London Monday. The company’s share price […]

BRUSSELS

Japan posted a record trade deficit in January as the yen

Egypt said Saturday the criminal trial of 16 Americans and 27 others will start Feb. 26 in a politically charged case against foreign-funded pro-democracy groups that has badly shaken Cairo’s ties with Washington.
The trial represents an escalation in what has become the deepest crisis in U.S.-Egypt relations in decades. American officials have threatened to cut […]

The stock market shook off its worries about Greece on Monday and got back to its routine of little-by-little gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 80 points _ nothing flashy, but enough to regain most of what it lost Friday. Before that, stocks had notched three days in a row of small increases.
The gains were […]

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said slower inflation gives policy makers room to increase bond purchases to aid the U.K. economy and guard against a