"Wallstreet" Reader

"Wallstreet" Reader

Investors' Forecast: Sunny With Chance of Overheating

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 07:33 PM PST

Most forecasters are optimistic that the U.S. economy will grow at a moderate pace in 2011. Their greatest fear is that it will grow too fast.

Ad Execs Gaze Into 2011 Crystal Ball

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 07:12 PM PST

Ads have begun to make consumers work harder during the past few years, a trend Madison Avenue executives predict will accelerate in 2011.

Inflation Hits Chinese Kitchens Hard

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 07:53 PM PST

Rising food prices helped push China's consumer price index to a two-year high of 5.1% in November, and nowhere are the pressures felt more deeply than with cooking oil.

Singapore Grows at 6.9% Pace

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 07:54 PM PST

Singapore's ended a year of record economic growth with a 6.9% annualized expansion in the fourth quarter, which slightly trailed analysts' estimates but marked a rebound from a slump in the prior three months.

Congress Targets Spending

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 06:20 PM PST

The Republican majority that takes over the House this week plans an ambitious drive to slash government spending by tens of billions of dollars in the next few months.

Drilling Is Stalled Even After Ban Is Lifted

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 04:47 PM PST

More than two months after the Obama administration lifted its ban on drilling in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, oil companies are still waiting for approval to drill the first new oil well there.

New Laws Govern Guns, Web, Banks

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 05:02 PM PST

A raft of new federal and local laws ring in the new year, governing a span of topics from health care and finance to texting, guns and smoking.

States, Industry in Oversight Flap

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 04:53 PM PST

States are getting ready to take over the regulation of thousands of investment advisers from federal agencies this summer. But that oversight has costs that some cash-strapped states can't easily afford.

Big Firms Poised to Spend Again

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 07:58 PM PST

Big U.S. companies have cleaned up their balance sheets and, flush with cash, appear open to using it in 2011 on factories, stores and even hiring.

A Borders Supplier Holds Off

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 06:24 PM PST

A book distributor said it would temporarily stop shipping books to Borders Group after the retail chain decided to halt payments to some publishers.

Verizon Wireless to Showcase Google-Powered 4G Phones

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 06:44 PM PST

For its new 4G network, Verizon Wireless is expected to unveil a range of devices powered by Google software, underscoring the importance of the two companies' relationship even as speculation mounts about a Verizon iPhone.

UAW Sets a Strategy on Foreign Car Plants

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 05:43 PM PST

The United Auto Workers union said it is prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a bid to organize hourly factory workers at foreign-owned car plants in the U.S.

Google Digital Newsstand Aims to Muscle In on Apple

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 07:40 PM PST

Google and Apple have stepped up their battle to win over publishers, as the two companies vie to become the dominant distributor of newspapers and magazines for tablet computers and other mobile devices.

Bank Stocks Are Facing Headwinds

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 04:54 PM PST

Bank stocks regained their footing in 2010, but some analysts aren't banking on a quick return to the heady pre-meltdown days.

Insurers Sued Over Death Bets

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 05:24 PM PST

Investors are accusing insurers of encouraging the collapsed boom in a financial product: investor-driven life-insurance policies.

Vizio to Introduce Tablet, Cellphone

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 06:35 PM PST

Vizio plans to release details on its new cellphone and new tablet computer, expanding the small company's lineup from low-cost, flat-panel TVs.

IPhone Alarm Glitch Leaves Some Asleep

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 01:39 PM PST

A glitch with Apple's iPhone alarm gave some users a late start to the new year. For alarms that were set for one-time use only—as opposed to recurring—on the first two days of 2011, the application failed to work.

Runway Probe Excludes Airline

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 06:53 PM PST

Federal safety officials, saying American Airlines violated long-established "standards of conduct" for aviation incident investigations, have barred the carrier from participating in a probe of one its jets that ran off the end of a Wyoming runway last week.

New Efforts to Resolve Ivory Coast Crisis

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 12:40 PM PST

A delegation of regional African leaders is set to travel to Ivory Coast on Monday to try again to persuade entrenched Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down from the post of president that international observers say is no longer his.

Spending Battlelines

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 10:36 AM PST

The Obama administration and congressional Republicans clashed over federal spending and borrowing, pointing to fights ahead between the White House and newly empowered Republican lawmakers.