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Toyota Motor recalled nearly 2.2 million vehicles, citing a defect that could cause gas pedals to stick, in an extension of the safety crisis that has hounded the world’s top automaker for more than a year.
The surprise action on Thursday extended a damaging string of recalls covering 19 million Toyota vehicles worldwide since 2009, mainly over complaints of unintended acceleration linked to defective floormats and gas pedals. Get the full story »
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that there is substantial capacity across major world economies in strategic oil reserves in the event of a supply disruption. Get the full story »
President Barack Obama said Thursday he’s confident that markets will be able to ride out the situation in Libya and the price of oil will stabilize.
Obama made the brief comments during a discussion with a new council of business and labor leaders he’s appointed to work on economic competitiveness. He said that energy costs are generally a source of uncertainty for businesses. But as for the spike in oil prices, the president said: “We think we’ll be able to ride out the situation in Libya and it will stabilize.”
Oil prices rose again Thursday as the rebellion in Libya appeared to have shut down even more crude production than previously estimated. At the pump, gas prices rose more than 2 cents to a new national average of about $3.23 per gallon. Get the full story »
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open a Neighborhood Market store at the Presidential Towers apartment complex in the West Loop in what would be the discount chain’s first small grocery store in Chicago.
The world’s largest retailer intends to spend $1 million to build out 26,491 square feet on one level at the residential tower at 555 W. Madison St., according to a building permit filed on behalf of Walmart.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based discount chain has been making a push to expand into urban centers of the north to jump start sales growth. On Tuesday, the retail giant reported that sales at U.S. stores open at least one year, a key metric of retail health, fell for the second year in a row. Get the full story »
Sales of existing homes in the Chicago area fell last month, and plunged dramatically within the city of Chicago, but consumers who did close transactions were able to buy a lot of house for their money.
The Illinois Association of Realtors said Wednesday that 3,844 single-family homes and condominiums were sold in January, a 2 percent drop from January 2010. Sales activity within the collar counties mitigated the anemic performance within the city of Chicago, and especially in the condo market. Get the full story »
Chicago's CME Group offices at 30 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
Nasdaq OMX Group could launch a rival bid for NYSE Euronext to avoid being left on the sidelines, a source said, as traditional exchanges race to merge to see off upstart electronic rivals.
This is one option Nasdaq, valued at $5.7 billion, is considering as a spate of deals shakes up an industry under intense cost pressure from new entrants such as BATS Global Markets, which last week snapped up rival Chi-X.
Nasdaq’s alternatives include tying up with IntercontinentalExchange Inc or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to wrest NYSE from its planned $10.2 billion takeover by Deutsche Boerse, the source familiar with the matter said. Get the full story »
Northfield-based Kraft Foods Inc. said Tuesday that it plans to bulk up its marketing efforts and introduce several new products in an effort to offset higher ingredient costs.
The company estimates that pricier ingredients will cost it between $700 million and $800 million in North America alone. The higher costs will be particularly important to areas where Kraft competes the most, including meat, cheese, chocolate and coffee. Get the full story »
(Motorola)
Motorola Mobility Inc.’s Xoom tablet, which debuted to positive buzz when it was introduced earlier this year, will go on sale at Verizon Wireless on Thursday at a subsidized price of $599.99 or $799.99 without a contract, the companies said Tuesday.
The pricing confirms remarks made by Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Sanjay Jha on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress show in Spain. Reuters had also quoted Jha as saying, “Competing with Apple, you have to deliver premium products.”
Motorola introduced the Xoom in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device is the first to run Honeycomb, a version of Google’s Android operating system that is specifically designed for tablets. Get the full story »
In this photo taken April 3, 2010, a customer uses an Apple iPad on the first day of Apple iPad sales at an Apple store in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
Apple is expected to launch its new iPad on March 2, contrary to speculation of a delay of the latest version of the popular tablet computer.
One person familiar with the matter said recent speculation about a delay until June was “simply not true” as Apple is planning a launch in the same seasonal schedule as the first iPad, which went on sale in April 2010.
Apple will host an event on Mar. 2, where the company is expected to take the wraps off the newest iPad model, an individual with knowledge of the situation said. Apple declined to comment. Get the full story »
Signs advertising homes for sale in Naperville in August 2010. (Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)
Home prices in the Chicago area in December hit a new low since the housing market’s peak in 2006, falling 30 percent to levels not seen since March 2002, according to a widely-watched housing index released Tuesday morning.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed that Chicago was one of 11 markets in December that hit their lowest level since home prices peaked, which locally was in September 2006.
In the Chicago market, according to the index, December home prices slipped 1.4 percent from November, slightly less than the 2.2 percent drop in November. On a year-over-year basis, Chicago-area prices were down 7.4 percent. “Chicago’s been surprisingly weak,” said Karl Case, a professor emeritus of economics at Wellesley College and one of the economists who created the index. Get the full story »
Former Bears player Dave Duerson in 2007. (David Trotman-Wilkins/Chicago Tribune)
Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, who committed suicide last Thursday in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., had filed for voluntary personal bankruptcy last September in a case that was still pending.
But his Fort Lauderdale lawyer said he was “shocked” when he learned that his client had shot himself. Get the full story »
Standing in front of a fast-charging station at the Chicago Auto Show, Gov. Pat Quinn called on automakers to bring electric vehicles to the state in light of charging infrastructure planned for the Chicago area.
“We’re going to have electric vehicles galore in the state of Illinois,” he said. “We want to be the nation’s capital for electric vehicles.”
In announcing that Chicago has signed a contract to have 280 charging stations installed in the area, Quinn said the infrastructure will go a long way toward making the state’s environmental goals a reality. Get the full story »
A Giordano's at 1040 W. Belmont on Feb. 18, 2011. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
By Alejandra Cancino and Becky Yerak | It wasn’t the pizza, it was the real estate.
That’s what attorney Michael Gesas, who represents the Apostolou family businesses, said Friday while explaining the reasons prominent Chicago pizza chain Giordano’s filed for bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday. The Apostolou family owns Giordano’s.
Giordano’s filing was prompted, Gesas said, when the Apostolou family defaulted on loans on their real estate business, Randolph Partners LLC. Get the full story »
Allstate Corp. sued Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG Friday, accusing the banks of misrepresenting risks on more than $385 million of mortgage securities it bought.
Allstate, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, has filed similar lawsuits against Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Get the full story »
