News and Finance

Exports from Europe's largest economy increased more than economists expected in September as a depreciating euro made German products more competitive.
Sales abroad, adjusted for working days and seasonal changes, rose 0.7 percent from August, when they dropped 0.3 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists expected a gain of 0.6 […]

French consumer confidence dropped in October to match a record low on concern that the global economic slowdown will prompt companies from banks to carmakers to continue firing workers.
A gauge of consumer sentiment fell to minus 47 from minus 44 in September, the Paris-based national statistics office, Insee, said in a statement today. […]

European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet may need to show he's still inflation fighter-in- chief after price expectations soared in the wake of the bank's Oct. 8 interest-rate reduction.
Economists at Deutsche Bank AG say the ECB will slash the benchmark rate to a record low of 1.5 percent by the middle of […]

Regulators in individual European Union countries would get enhanced authority to police banks' foreign subsidiaries under a draft proposal before the EU.
Conceived in the months before the worsening of the current financial crisis, the plan is intended to make it easier for regulators to identify troubled banks earlier by giving the authorities a […]

German producer prices rose less than economists expected in August, evidence that inflation pressures are easing in Europe's largest economy.
Producer prices rose 8.1 percent from a year earlier after increasing 8.9 percent in July, which was the fastest pace since October 1981, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists forecast prices […]

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said investors shouldn't expect taxpayers to bail them out when financial markets are in turmoil and proposed closer scrutiny of credit-ratings services.
The Illinois senator, reacting to the collapse of New York- based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said regulation of Wall Street needs to “catch up'' with changes in […]

American International Group looked to be at risk of becoming the latest victim of the biggest financial shake-up since the Great Depression as the insurer’s shares plunged as much as 71 percent on fears of credit losses.
AIG’s struggles followed the failure of frantic attempts to find a rescuer for investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings […]

The threat of another round of major U.S. airline bankruptcies seems to have diminished, but it’s not just because of tumbling fuel prices and sweeping downsizing.
For most of the top airlines, Chapter 11 simply isn’t feasible considering the high cost of bankruptcy and the relatively small savings to be wrung.
“It’s too expensive […]

Energy companies waited anxiously on Monday as Hurricane Gustav lurched across the nation’s largest concentration of oil platforms and refineries in the biggest threat to fuel supplies since 2005.
Nearly all of the oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and more than a quarter of U.S. refining capacity was shut or slowed […]

Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years now owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, according to Zillow.com, an Internet provider of home valuations.
Second-quarter home prices fell 9.9 percent from a year earlier, giving 29 percent of owners negative equity, said Zillow, the Seattle-based service […]