Northern Trust celebrated the opening of its first China branch, in Beijing, on Tuesday.
Chicago-based Northern has had a representative office in Beijing since 2005. Such an office can be used to build relationships in the market, but many services have had to be provided from offices in Singapore, Hong Kong or elsewhere. Having a branch enables Northern to provide more client services from Beijing. Get the full story »
Ireland unveiled the harshest budget measures in its history Wednesday, a four-year plan to claw back $20 billion using spending cuts and extra taxes. Some 24,000 state employees could lose their jobs and the sales tax could soar to 23 percent.
The plan seeks to cut $13.3 billion from spending and raise $6.7 billion in extra taxes from 2011 to 2014 to combat Europe’s worst deficit.
The government’s long-awaited austerity plan is a prerequisite for Ireland to get an international loan estimated to total $115 billion. The bailout is still being negotiated with experts from the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank in Dublin. Get the full story »
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to the lowest level since July 2008, a hopeful sign that improvement in the job market is accelerating.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that weekly unemployment claims dropped by 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 407,000 in the week ending Nov. 20. Wall Street analysts expected a much smaller drop. Get the full story>>
Americans earned more and spent more last month, a hopeful sign for the economy ahead of the holiday buying season.
The government says consumers boosted their spending 0.4 percent in October. People showed a slightly bigger appetite to spend because their incomes rose 0.5 percent, reflecting a slowly healing jobs market. Get the full story »
Debt isn’t stressing people as much as it had been, but consumers remain gun-shy about embarking on a big holiday spending spree.
An Associated Press-GfK Poll also suggests Americans are more disciplined about using their credit cards. Deep into a stubbornly harsh economic downturn, more people than last year say they pay off their balances right away, and fewer say they make credit card purchases if they lack enough money at the time. Get the full story »
U.S. construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. plans to issue a 1 billion yuan, or $150 million, two-year bond issue in Hong Kong, people familiar with the situation said Wednesday, becoming the second non-financial multinational company to tap the city’s growing yuan-denominated bond market. Get the full story »
Reports: Weekly jobless claims, 7:30 a.m.; Durable goods for October, 7:30 a.m.; Personal income and spending for October, 7:30 a.m.; New home sales for October, 9 a.m.; Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates.
Major earnings: Deere & Co., Tiffany & Co. releases quarterly financial results.
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Chicago mayoral candidate and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun has her five-bedroom, Prairie-style town home in Hyde Park on the market for $1.9 million.
The first African-American female to serve in the U.S. Senate, Braun, 63, announced on Saturday that she is running for mayor. Get the full story »
Federal authorities, intensifying an insider-trading investigation, are demanding trading and other information from some of the nation’s most powerful investment firms.
Hedge-fund giants SAC Capital Advisors and Citadel Asset Management, big mutual-fund company Janus Capital Group Inc. and Wellington Management Co., one of the nation’s biggest institutional-investment firms, have received subpoenas from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office seeking trading, communications and other data as part of a broad criminal investigation, according to people familiar with the matter. Get the full story »
Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of funding for U.S. home mortgages, will raise some loan fees, a sign it sees greater risks even for borrowers making regular payments.
The company, struggling to recover from the worst housing slump since the 1930s, will raise some so-called “delivery fees” in March to cover increased risks on loans for large portions of a property’s value, according to a bulletin dated Monday on its Web site. Get the full story »
A federal jury has ordered SAP to pay $1.3 billion to its archenemy, Oracle, for stealing customer support documents and software in a scheme to steal customers. Get the full story »
Welcome to the courtroom, Activision.
Guns N’ Roses lead singer Axl Rose is suing video game maker Activision Blizzard Inc. for $20 million over the company’s use of the song “Welcome to the Jungle” in the game “Guitar Hero III.” Get the full story »
Web sites offering a sense of community to people with diseases or ailments often are created by marketers who fail to disclose that they are sharing data about the users, a complaint filed with U.S. regulators charged on Tuesday.
Four pro-privacy groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, detailing a number of techniques marketers use to identify potential purchasers of particular medications. Get the full story »
Ariel Investments’ two biggest mutual funds outperformed their peers in the third quarter, and the Chicago-based money manager also said it plans to “remain patient” with “weak-performing” PrivateBancorp Inc.
Ariel on Tuesday released the results for its Ariel Fund, which has assets of $1.93 billion, and its Ariel Appreciation Fund, which has $1.32 billion in assets. Get the full story »
Bloomberg News | The Securities and Exchange Commission has indefinitely extended a rule exempting asset-backed bond issuers from reporting credit ratings in their marketing materials, undermining part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
