Markets Stocks were mixed Friday. The Dow declined 43 points, ending the week at 12,681. But positive reports from chipmakers pushed the Nasdaq 24 points higher, to 2,859. The S&P 500 gained a single point, settling at 1,345.
Latest Unemployment Numbers New York State and New York City both saw their June unemployment rates tick up to 8 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively. In the city, the securities industry shed 2,000 jobs last month. Local government took an even bigger hit, losing 2,700 jobs. Restaurants and private schools have added the greatest number of positions since the city hit economic bottom in September 2009.
Debt Talks Continue on Capitol Hill President Barack Obama said he's now open to a short-term deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling if it will allow time for a broader plan to be put in place. There are 13 days left before the August 2 deadline, when the U.S. risks defaulting on its financial obligations.
City officials want to attract a major research institution to open a new science and engineering campus in New York City.
News Corporation's phone-hacking scandal continues to grow. Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton has announced he's resigning. He was chairman of News International, overseeing the British newspapers that are at the heart of the scandal.
The scandal may have just jumped the pond. The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. tried to hack the phones of September 11, 2001, victims. The company told WNYC it has no comment.
Markets After three days of losses, markets returned to positive territory on Wednesday, spurred on by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that the Fed is prepared to do more to stimulate the economy if it falters. News Corporation added 58 cents after the beleaguered media giant announced it will abandon a bid for full control of a British satellite broadcaster.
Markets fell on Tuesday after the rating agency Moody’s cut Ireland’s credit rating to junk status. The Dow dropped 59 points, closing at 12,447. The S&P 500 was down six points, closing at 1,314. The Nasdaq fell 21 points, closing at 2,782.
It was a rocky start to trading this week, as fears about Europe's debt crisis seized investors. The Dow fell 151 points, to close at 12,506 on Monday. The S&P 500 dropped 24 points, to end at 1,319. And the Nasdaq dropped 57 points, to close at 2,803.
As part of our weekly look at issues in the workplace, we talk with management consultant Peter Bregman, who says that in our driven, fast-paced, productivity-focused lives we are losing our ability to take time out of our day to slow down and just think.
Markets Wall Street was flat on Tuesday, after resuming trading following Monday's holiday and last week's strong finish. The Dow Jones dropped 13 points, to 12,570. The S&P 500 dipped two points, closing at 1,338. The NASDAQ bucked the trend, gaining 10 points, to end the day at 2,826.
The ghost of mortgage-backed securities reappeared this week. Bank of America agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle claims with several major institutional investors who said they had been misled about the poor quality of mortgage-backed securities. These were bonds purchased from Countrywide Financial, which was later absorbed by Bank of America.
Tuesday marks the last day of the Federal Reserve's QE2 or quantitative easing, a program to strengthen the U.S. economy through the purchase of $600 billion in bonds. As it comes to a close, QE2 is getting mixed reviews. The economy is growing, but at a lackluster pace. Stock are up, but the dollar is down.
The big worry last summer was the possibility of states across the country defaulting on their debts.
IMF Appoints New Chief French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has been chosen to lead the International Monetary Fund after receiving the support of the Obama administration. She will become the first female leader of the organization and steps in after the former chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, stepped down after being charged with sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper in New York City.
Markets A bit of hope returned to Wall Street on Monday, after signs that that the debt crisis in Europe could be avoided. That sent stocks up a percentage point. The Dow Jones gained 109 points, to close at 12,044. The S&P 500 gained 12 points, ending at 1,280. And the NASDAQ added 35 points, to finish at 2,688.
Stocks ended another week lower than where they started.
In trading on Thursday, LinkedIn, the social networking site for career-minded individuals, gained $3.50, or five percent, to $70.32. And, Pandora, the company that lets you design your own internet radio station, added 66 cents, or five percent, closing at $14 a share.
You might think the lobbying in Washington, D.C., stops on a piece of legislation once it's signed into law.
Many Americans appear determined to go on a vacation this summer despite their anxieties about the economy. But they will have to make an extra effort to find savings, with gas prices and air fares both higher than they were last year.
Investors overcame their fears that the financial crisis in Greece could spread throughout Europe, and pushed the market up on Monday. The Dow Jones finished up 76 points to close at 12,080. The S&P 500 gained seven points, to end at 1,278. The NASDAQ added 13 points, to close at 2,630.
For a third straight day, Republican senators in Albany conferenced behind closed doors only to emerge saying they have no agreement on whether to bring a bill legalizing same-sex marriage to the floor for a vote.
New York City and state's unemployment rates stayed steady last month — at 8.6 and 7.9 percent, respectively.
The Federal Reserve's sometimes-controversial program of quantitative easing, or QE2, comes to an end in 15 days.
It's been nearly a year since sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system were signed into law. That law, known as Dodd-Frank, is supposed to create a new set of rules for the banking industry to prevent another so-called Great Recession.
Economic Concerns Continue What's the cure for an ailing economy? Time. That's the overwhelming response from several leading economists polled by the Associated Press. The survey found that many of them are now lowering their expectations for job growth and economic expansion for the rest of the year.
This week, talk about a Congressman Anthony Weiner threatened to derail the entire news cycle. Weiner, who admitted on Monday to sending sexually explicit pictures to several women online, is now under pressure to resign. At one time, he was considered a serious contender for the New York City mayor's office. Could he still be a contender?
New York City has been transformed in the past decade by a construction boom, which created not just office buildings but lots of new condos. The recession put an end to the rapid growth. Construction has dropped 22 percent since 2008.
Throughout the recession and the recovery, New York City's jobless rate has been lower than the nation's as a whole. It was 8.6 percent in April in the city, compared with 9.1 percent for the entire U.S.
It's Internet Week, and all week long, the city has organized events designed to celebrate the local technology industry.
