AP - LONDON AP) — European stock markets rose Friday after a strong set of industrial production figures for January stoked hopes that the recovery from recession in the 16 countries that use the euro may be stronger than previously thought.
AP - World oil demand will rise this year due to surging economic activity in Asian countries, especially China, the International Energy Agency said Friday as it bumped up its forecasts.
AP - Embattled UBS AG has warned that Switzerland's financial industry is at risk unless lawmakers approve a tax treaty with the United States, and that other Swiss banks may be next to face pressure from U.S. regulators.
AP - President Barack Obama intends to nominate Janet Yellen, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, to take over as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, a person familiar with the selection said Friday.
AP - The value of home mortgage advances in January fell by half from December, when there was a late rush to complete deals before a tax break ended at the New Year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday.
AP - British Airways PLC cabin crew plan to strike for a total of seven days this month, potentially disrupting thousands of travellers ahead of Easter holidays, after talks with management over changes to pay and working conditions broke down.
AFP - American household wealth jumped in 2009 for the first time since a brutal recession struck the country, underscoring the impact of an economic recovery, data from the central bank showed Thursday.
AP - Greece's economy was still shrinking and unemployment remained above 10 percent at the end of 2009, just before the government announced harsh spending cuts that are expected to drive the country deeper into recession, official data showed Friday.
Reuters - Wells Fargo & Co may be moving toward a settlement of Baltimore's lawsuit accusing it of steering minority borrowers to expensive home loans.
AP - Emergency aid from a proposed European Monetary Fund should come with strict conditions and a "prohibitive" price tag to boost market confidence, Germany's finance minister wrote in an article published Friday.
AP - Retail sales probably slipped slightly in February reflecting weakness in demand for autos and the severe winter storms that hit much of the country.
Investor's Business Daily - The end of the federal tax credit for homebuyers is fast approaching. That means crunch time for parents who want to help their kids buy a place as inexpensively as possible.
AFP - Oil rose close to 83 dollars a barrel on Friday as the International Energy Agency reported unexpectedly strong growth in world energy demand, led by China.
AFP - The only son of Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-Koo was Friday appointed to the board of South Korea's top carmaker, fuelling speculation he is being groomed to succeed his 71-year-old father.
BusinessWeek - James Tsai is the sort of MBA corporate recruiters covet. He went to a good prep school, earned a degree with honors from Middlebury College, and made vice-president in Bank of America's (bac.) international wealth management group at the age of 26. Today, Tsai is about to graduate, straight A's in hand, from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, a top-rated program in America. And he's hustling to land his first post-MBA job -- in China.
Reuters - Wells Fargo & Co may be moving toward a settlement of Baltimore's lawsuit accusing it of steering minority borrowers to expensive home loans.
AP - The value of home mortgage advances in January fell by half from December, when there was a late rush to complete deals before a tax break ended at the New Year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday.
AP - BULLISH OUTLOOK: Citigroup Inc. says its returning to "sustained profitability" after losing billions on bad loans and taking a federal bailout. CEO Vikram Pandit says the bank is shedding risky mortgage assets and shifting focus to emerging markets like Latin America and Asia.
AP - The head of the Federal Housing Administration is warning that boosting the minimum down payment borrowers must provide to qualify for home loans backed by the agency could threaten the housing market.
The Motley Fool - After a down January, the stock market is again positive for the year. The much-fabled January effect barometer didn't work in 2009, and it remains to be seen if it will work in 2010. Economic data has continued its slow improvement, keeping stocks fairly calm. The wild action so far this year has been in the currency markets.
AP - Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday, weeks before a government program that has been keeping rates low is scheduled to expire.
Reuters - U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.
AP - Calling himself a realist, Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday scaled back his proposal to raise income taxes, shifting to a call for an increase of just one percentage point to be used solely for preventing deep cuts to education.
Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications nudged higher last week, reflecting increased demand for home purchase loans even as interest rates trekked higher, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
AP - Nationalized mortgage lender Northern Rock said Wednesday that it returned to profit in the second half of 2009 as interest income rose and losses on loans fell.
The Motley Fool - The first Friday of every month brings the all-important employment report. February's numbers were better than anticipated. The United States lost only 36,000 jobs, versus the 68,000 that experts expected. This compares with 651,000 jobs lost in February 2009. Still, the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, with the unofficial rate stuck around a whopping 16%.
AP - Commercial mortgages were among the best-performing loans and leases held by banks and thrifts in the fourth quarter of last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday.
BusinessWeek - Who got us into this mess? It's not just greedy mortgage lenders and irresponsible economists who are responsible for the current financial crisis. Leaders, so called, have played a role too, by not managing their companies and so being detached from what was going on in them. And behind much of this has been an educational process that encouraged such detachment. As I've argued at length in my book, Managers not MBAs, the MBA is fine education -- but in the functions of business, not the exercise of managing. ...
AP - THE SALE: American International Group Inc. sold its American Life Insurance Co. division, or Alico, to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion. The deal is AIG's second big asset sale in two weeks. On March 1, it said it would sell its AIA Group unit to Prudential PLC for $35.5 billion.
AP - American International Group Inc. said Monday that it will sell its American Life Insurance Co. division for $15.5 billion to MetLife Inc. The government-approved deal, AIG's second big asset sale in two weeks, will give the insurer more cash to repay the billions of bailout dollars it still owes the government.
Reuters - MetLife Inc pursued AIG's foreign life insurance business for two years before finally clinching a $15.5 billion purchase that will give it beachheads in 47 nations from Peru to Bangladesh.
The Motley Fool - With the recent auction of Treasury's Bank of America (NYSE: BAC - News) warrants, the big bank joins Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - News), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS - News), and several other banks in completing its exit from TARP. But, is it a buy?
AFP - US life insurance giant MetLife will acquire a unit of American International Group in a 15.5-billion-dollar deal that will help AIG pay back part of its government bailout, the firms said Monday.
AFP - US insurance giants American International Group and MetLife will on Monday announce a $15.5 billion deal for AIG's second-largest foreign life-insurance business, The Wall Street Journal reported.
