finance

Prius owners in Japan are rushing to dealers for repairs a day after Toyota's president announced a global recall for a glitch in the car's antilock brake system.

World stock markets rose Wednesday on hopes a government debt crisis in Europe can be quarantined to smaller economies.

The Federal Aviation Administration is close to wrapping up a two-year investigation of safety violations at American Airlines that could result in one of the largest fines in the agency's history, according to government and industry officials familiar with the investigation.

Honda Motor Co. is adding 437,000 vehicles to its 15-month-old global recall for faulty air bags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker.

Sanofi-Aventis reported a 10 percent increase in fourth quarter net profit Wednesday as strong sales of its swine flu vaccine drove full year earnings above expectations.

If history and the political lineup are any guides, President Barack Obama's latest effort to cut subsidies for wealthy farmers likely will fare no better than his first try — or his predecessor's attempt.

Nordea Bank AB, the largest banking group in the Nordic region, reported Wednesday a nearly 30 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit, due mainly to rising costs and loan losses.

China's export growth accelerated in January and imports rose, adding to signs a recovery in global and Chinese demand is on track.

Americans backed off from holiday spending in January, but retail sales rose for a third month in a row compared with a year earlier, largely because of gas price hikes, according to figures released Wednesday by a key data service.

Baidu Inc., which operates China's most popular Internet search engine, said its quarterly earnings jumped 48 percent, beating expectations on strong revenue growth.

World stocks rose on Wednesday and Greece's borrowing costs fell on the prospects of a Greek bailout, while safe-haven German government bond prices dipped and the euro eased after the previous session's hefty gains. Oil prices fell after data showed a large build in U.S. inventories but gold price were flat, taking a pause from Tuesday's rise.

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's most dominant and profitable automaker, was not accustomed to outsiders telling it what to do, let alone some obscure bureaucrat from the United States, whose own car industry was on taxpayer-funded life support.

Honda Motor Co said it would recall another 440,000 cars around the world for faulty airbags as rival Toyota Motor Corp faced further probes over its largest-ever safety crisis.

Top global miner BHP Billiton signaled caution over a sustained global recovery and held off from a share buyback after reporting its weakest first-half profit in four years. BHP's July-December profit nevertheless beat market forecasts and was 24 percent stronger than in the previous half spurring the miner to raise its dividend slightly, pushing its shares up more than 3 percent.

ArcelorMittal , the world's top steelmaker, cautioned its markets would only recover slowly as it forecast higher shipments but lower selling prices in the early months of 2010, putting pressure on core profits.

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis beat forecasts for fourth-quarter profit and expects earnings to rise 2 to 5 percent this year as growth areas such as vaccines offset stronger competition from generic rivals.

European governments have agreed in principle to help heavily indebted Greece, a senior German coalition source said on Tuesday, in what would be the first rescue of a euro zone member in the currency's 11-year history.

A strong performance at its cable division and cost-cuts at its film studio propelled Walt Disney Co to better-than-expected earnings, but clouds remained over its theme parks.

Morgan Stanley's move to cut the firm's pay ratio followed prodding by large investors who questioned the firm's high pay levels, and the firm is preparing to take further steps to address shareholder concern, The Wall Street Journal Online reported on Tuesday.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, from different sides of the political spectrum, expressed support on Tuesday for the U.S. government's aggressive steps in 2008 to keep the nation's banks and economy from a complete meltdown.

Got a job a few hundred miles away? The IRS helps you move, allowing deductions for some expenses.

Regional home auctions are different from auctions at the courthouse. Here are tips for each.

Employee benefits can save you big money. Here are several types to consider before signing up.

Whether a settlement is taxed or not depends on the nature of the claim, not the lawsuit.

You may want to help with your fiance's debt, but follow these tips to protect your credit.

A refinance or home equity line or loan can be used to fund home improvement plans.

Hiring managers share inside stories, both good and bad, about job applicants they'll never forget.

Writing off the cat as an "exterminating expense"? It's just one of 2010's wackiest tax deductions.

Brokerages offer generous rewards when investors use their credit cards.

The Credit CARD Act takes effect Feb. 22. Learn how to benefit from it.

Look to new companies.

Markets don't reward smart people, nor should they.

Markets don't reward smart people, nor should they.

Why the Tea Party will have a hard time winning over Independents.

A new study shows that banks, not consumer victims, are increasingly feeling the pain of digital fraud.

How Twitter and ''The New Yorker'' can be friends.

The introduction of the iPad has re-energized an ongoing technology debate. Is it better to have one

After hours: NetGear, RealNetworks and Baidu shares rise.

Social games could be the perfect addition to Google's new social networking service.

Pierce Freeman's business card application is added to the App Store.

Random brilliance from around the net. 

What's better than a 52-week low? How about a five-year plunge?

Looking for a megatrend? Then follow the leaders.

How to get into the habit of saving.

It's unanimous: Akamai is a buy.

Yesterday's market is today's moneymaking road map.

There's more to cash than dividends.     

You have more control over your taxes than you think.

Apple takes a sequential market-share hit, but it's no big deal.

Struggling public pension funds are tossing up a Hail Mary pass.

Shares end higher, lifted by the latest manufacturing index and increases in personal income and spending.

The cuts are expected to total an additional 450 out of about 6,800 employees. A steady decline in DVD revenue has forced Hollywood studios to cut staff.

OWN, jointly founded by Ms. Winfrey’s production company and Discovery Communications, is starting to reveal some details about its programming.

When you sign for a debit card at a retailer, the store pays your bank more than twice as much as when you enter a PIN — a strategy Visa hatched decades ago.

President Obama’s proposals to tax and curb the activities of Wall Street have thrown an unpredictable element into the debate over financial regulatory reform.

The Great Bailout is mostly over for the banks. For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the lifeline keeps getting longer.

The boom in the high-yield debt markets has bought time and breathing space for companies needing extra financial flexibility. But that has come at a cost, according to the latest annual report by Mody's Investors Service: more than $700 billion will come due between 2012 and 2014.

A letter was sent to the book seller’s board seeking permission for Ronald Burkle’s company to raise its stake to up to 37 percent without tripping poison pill provisions.

The cuts are expected to total an additional 450 out of about 6,800 employees. A steady decline in DVD revenue has forced Hollywood studios to cut staff.

The evangelical group Focus on the Family has purchased an ad for Super Bowl that is expected to contain an anti-abortion message.

On February 1, 2010, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.32 on HSY Common Stock.

DST reported earnings of 92 cents per share in the fourth quarter, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 105 cents.

The FDA granted approval to Juvederm XC, which is the latest version of the company's Juvederm family of products.

For 2010, UPS anticipates earnings per share to be in the range of $2.70-$3.05, an increase of 17%-32% over 2009 results.

Zacks Releases Four Powerful ''Buy'' Stocks: Tempur-Pedic International Inc., Limited Brands Inc., Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. and SKECHERS USA, Inc.

D.R. Horton took advantage of the demand created by the federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

Interactive Brokers underperforms.

Full-year earnings were 63 cents per share, down from $1.79 in 2008 but was more than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 49 cents.

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: La-Z-Boy, Ethan Allen, Freeport McMoRan, Nucor and Ford

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: ExxonMobil Corporation, Chevron Corporation, ConocoPhillips, Hess Corporation and Humana Inc.

34 Recommendations

Honda Motor Co. is adding more than 378,000 cars to an existing safety recall for air bag inflation problems, the company said Tuesday.

27 Recommendations

Government safety officials Tuesday announced a recall of more than 500,000 drop-side cribs sold at Buy Buy Baby, Kmart, Wal-Mart and other stores after the death of three infants.

6 Recommendations

Consumers sent tepid signals to The Walt Disney Co. during the holiday quarter, as many of them still required discounts to step into theme parks and reduced spending on food, beverages and merchandise when they got there.

4 Recommendations

Senate Democrats circulated a jobs bill Tuesday that's light on new initiatives on boosting hiring and heavy with provisions sought by lobbyists for business groups, doctors and the satellite broadcasting industry.

3 Recommendations

International sales again added fizz to Coca-Cola's fourth quarter, while sales in North America softened, to lift profit 55 percent in the last three months of the year.