News and Finance

Malaysia's central bank pledged it will take action to prevent the economy from deteriorating after keeping the benchmark interest rate unchanged for the 20th straight meeting.
“In the face of diminishing inflationary pressures, and in the event of heightened downside risks to growth, the bank will take swift monetary policy action to provide support […]

Banks borrowed more than 15 billion euros from the European Central Bank at its emergency rate for a third day yesterday, pushing the amount lent over a three-day period to a record.
The ECB's marginal lending rate is 5.25 percent, one percentage point above its benchmark rate for regular auctions. At the same time, […]

Citigroup will acquire the banking operations of Wachovia for $2.2 billion in an all-stock deal announced Monday, following much speculation over the weekend about the fate of the nation’s fourth-largest bank.
To help finance the transaction, Citigroup said it would raise $10 billion through a sale of common stock and announced it would slash […]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have prohibited some of the lending practices advocates say contributed to the downturn in California’s housing market.
The legislation would have banned negative amortization loans, in which homeowners pay less than the interest on their loan and can end up owing more than their homes […]

In Spain, unemployment is rising, the housing industry has collapsed and the finance minister says the near future may include “zero growth.''
It could have been worse.
In 1999, the Bank of Spain began requiring banks to boost reserves in anticipation of future write-offs for bad loans. The rules forced Spanish lenders to build […]

Malaysia's inflation accelerated to a 22-month high on rising food and transport costs, stoking speculation the central bank will increase interest rates.
Consumer prices rose 3.8 percent in May from a year earlier, after a 3 percent gain in April, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shahrir Abdul Samad told reporters today in Putrajaya, […]

Profits dropped almost 8% at Target Corp. on softer-than-expected sales and higher costs, but the discount retailer still beat Wall Street earnings estimates for its first quarter.
The nation’s second-largest discount retailer on Tuesday reported a profit of $602 million, or 74 cents per share, in the three months ended May 3, down from $651 […]

Warren Buffett, whose business and investment acumen has made him one of the world’s wealthiest men, embarked on a European tour Monday looking for possible acquisitions for his Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Starting in Frankfurt, continental Europe’s financial hub, the 77-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire said he wanted to put his company "on the […]

Cell phone maker Motorola says it lost slightly more money in the first quarter as sales in its key mobile unit fell 39%.
Motorola says it lost $194 million, or 9 cents per share, on revenue of $7.45 billion. A year earlier, the company says it lost $181 million, or 8 cents per share, on […]

The world economy will slow sharply this year, according to an International Monetary Fund forecast, with the United States sliding into a recession amid housing, credit and financial slumps.
The IMF, in a World Economic Outlook released Wednesday, slashed growth projections for the United States - the epicenter of the woes - and the global […]