April 11, 2012
Alcoa quarterly profits decline on aluminum prices
US aluminium giant Alcoa has said that its net profits fell from a year ago as the company kicked off US earnings season. It made a net income in the first quarter of $94m (£59m), compared with $308m in the same period last year. This was partly due…
April 8, 2012
US adds 120,000 jobs in March, lower than predicted
The US economy added 120,000 jobs during March, lower than estimates suggested, while the unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.2%. Analysts had predicted a fourth straight month with job growth of more than 200,000. President Barack Obama's…
April 8, 2012
CFTC sues RBC over alleged Caribbean operations
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a legal suit against Canada’s biggest bank by assets, accusing it of carrying out hundreds of millions of dollars of “wash trades” in the Caribbean, among other offices, in…
April 8, 2012
Google and Viacom: YouTube copyright lawsuit back on
A lawsuit by media giant Viacom against Google over copyrighted videos on YouTube can be heard in court again. Viacom has accused Google of "massive intentional copyright infringement". In 2010, a lower court dismissed Viacom's $1bn (£630m) case…
April 8, 2012
Samsung expects profits to double from smartphone boost
Samsung Electronics has said it expects its profit for the first three months of the year to almost double as its smartphone sales continue to grow. The company said it expects an operating profit 5.8tn won ($5.1bn; £3.2bn) for the period. The…
April 8, 2012
US freezes pay for bailout CEOs
Pay for the chief executives of AIG, Ally Financial and General Motors will remain frozen this year, the US Treasury said, after the bailed-out companies failed to sufficiently repay US taxpayers. The companies are the last of seven that…
April 4, 2012
China eyes freer financial markets to boost yuan role
China, the world's second-largest economy, is looking to increase investment…
April 4, 2012
Boao Forum participants optimistic about emerging markets
Business and political leaders from around the world have gathered this week in south China’s island province of Hainan for the Boao forum for Asia. Against the backdrop of the global downturn, their focus is Asia’s economy. But participants are…
April 4, 2012
Spain’s jobless level hits record 4.75 million
The number of Spanish jobseekers rose for the eighth month in a row in March to hit a record 4.75 million. The Labour Ministry said the number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose by 38,769 with the services sector seeing the most jobs…
April 4, 2012
US Federal Reserve stays concerned over growth
The US central bank is concerned that the gains in employment recently will dissipate if growth does not pick up. Some at the Federal Reserve "perceived a non-negligible risk that improvements in employment could diminish as the year progressed,"…