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Confidence among U.S. consumers increased in December for the first time in three months as the pace of job cuts slowed, easing concern spending will falter.
The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment rose to 73.4, higher than forecast, from 67.4 in November, according to data released today. The December figure exceeds […]

Bayer CropScience LP must pay about $2 million for losses sustained by two Missouri farmers when an experimental variety of rice the company was testing cross-bred with their crops, a federal jury ruled.
Friday’s verdict in St. Louis came in the first trial in what is intended to be a series of test […]

South Korea’s exports rose for the first time in 13 months in November.
Overseasshipments gained 18.8 percent from a year earlier to $34.3 billion, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said today in Gwacheon. The median estimate of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 22.8 percent increase. Imports rose 4.7 percent to […]

The United Arab Emirates offered banks emergency support on Sunday, the first steps to ease fears that a looming debt default by two of Dubai’s flagship firms could derail the global economic recovery.
But the move to inject liquidity into Dubai’s banks by the central bank of the Gulf Arab state, together with promises by […]

Japanese officials are more likely focused on the exchange rate of the yen versus China’s yuan rather than against the dollar, according to Citigroup Inc., citing the fact that China is Japan’s biggest trading partner.
For this reason the level at which Japanese authorities may intervene to temper the yen’s gain will be at […]

A senior Federal Reserve official said on Sunday the central bank should keep alive a mortgage-backed securities buying program beyond a planned end-date to give policy-makers more flexibility as they help the economy recover from a painful recession.
“I have advocated to keep the asset purchase program open but at a very low level, and […]

Could the foreclosure plague be ending?
Foreclosure filings were down 3% in October, the third consecutive month-over-month dip, according to RealtyTrac, the online seller of foreclosed homes.
To be sure, foreclosure rates are still elevated from a year ago: They’re up 18% compared with October 2008. But the month-over-month decrease followed a 4% drop in filings […]

Real-estate private-equity giant Lone Star Funds LS.UL is cutting some of its fees as it tries to raise $20 billion to buy pools of troubled mortgages and other kinds of distressed debt, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.
Lone Star, led by John Grayken, reduced the minimum management fee it will […]

The top U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday called on Corporate America to upgrade its proxy voting practices to ensure shareholders a greater voice in governing the companies they own.
“It is imperative that our proxy voting process work,” Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro told the Practising Law Institute conference in New York.
“The failure […]

China’s vast manufacturing sector expanded in October at the fastest rate in 18 months, a survey showed on Sunday, and economists said they expected the momentum to be sustained in the coming months.
The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) issued by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing rose to 55.2 last month, the highest level […]