Europe’s Debt Crisis Causes Brent Oil Dip to Zero...

The fear of feeble oil demand due to concerns over Europe’s growing debt woes and disputes on how to address the problem elevated borrowing costs. This weakened Brent crude on Friday as well as U.S. crude, both on their 2nd week of losses. Now on its 7th week of losses, euro against the dollar was also weak intraday. Wall Street’s slightly up equities lifted U.S. oil briefly but stocks fell finishing low for 7 straight...

Higher October Existing Home Sales, Pricing Recove...

Low mortgage interest rates and rent increases encouraged home buyers to cause an unexpected home sales rise of 1.4% in October, said the National Association of Realtors on Monday. September’s revised rate of 4.90 million went up to an annual rate of 4.97 million units against poll’s expectation of rate to fall to 4.8 million. Still, the increase did nothing as median existing home sales price was 4.7% lower last month...

Poor Rate Actually Higher at 49 Million Said Lates...

The Census Bureau reported a higher number of poverty rates for the elderly, Asians and Hispanics. It has hit a record 49 million in 2010, higher by 16%. This contradicts the September official data that said the number of poor Americans was at 46.2 million. People aged 65 and up contributed the highest percentage at 15.9% as they are badly affected by Medicare’s out-of-pocket medical expenses and co-pays. The official...

Small Buys to Get Maximum Fees from Visa, MasterCa...

Effective October 1st, Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc will impose maximum fees even on the smallest debit-card purchases. The fees will be passed to the biggest lenders like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. Retailers are now charged 1.55% of purchase amount in addition to 4 cents for small ticket transactions below $15 or 7 cents for a $2 coffee. Merchants cost would increase 3 times under Federal Reserve rules with...

Eric Schmidt Denies Rigged Google Search Results F...

Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel that looks into possible abuse reported that Google had become an anti-competitive Internet force. However, Google Inc.’s Chairman Eric Schmidt said search results were not cooked to favor its own. Mike Lee, a Republican Senator said Google is in a position to determine who succeeds or fails on the Internet, making it the biggest kingmaker on Earth. The Federal Trade...

First Kyushu Nuclear Reactor Restart Seen Since Ja...

After Japan’s earthquake in March, Genkai’s city mayor has given approval to the restart of reactors in Kyushu Electric Power Co. The other reactors in the country have no restart schedule yet, and summer power outages may still occur. Prior to the earthquake incidences, 30% of Japan’s electricity was supplied by nuclear power. After the quake, only 19 of 54 reactors remained working. Senior economist Tomomichi Akuta...

Next Fed Move Hesitant, Waiting to be Debated by M...

Investors wonder what the Federal Reserve’s next move is after its $600 billion bond-buying program ends. PIMCO manager Bill Gross said the Fed may indicate readiness to support should the economy worsen and recession looms. DoubleLine Captial’s Gregory Whiteley is surprised at how fast QE3 talks began even before QE2 ended. With a total $2.3 trillion support for the economy from the Fed, it may not act so fast. Before...

JPMorgan Settles Fraudulent CDO Case by Paying $15...

JPMorgan Chase & Co settled a Securities and Exchange Commission court case with $153.6 million in payment for mortgage fraud. The SEC’s complaint versus JPMorgan reflected how the bank sold collateralized mortgage obligations to free itself from credit-scarred mortgage securities. The case was similar to the one the SEC had with Goldman Sachs Group Inc in July. Both involved the banks’ betting against complex...