Rise
in jobless claims underscores wobbly recovery WASHINGTON
(AP) -- A spike in unemployment claims Thursday underscored the bumpiness of
the economic rebound: Consumers are spending more. Factories are making more.
But layoffs have not tapered off as fast as expected. So
can the recovery gather much steam if 17 percent of working-age Americans remain
jobless or underemployed? Employers
have begun to add jobs recently, including 162,000 in March. Yet much stronger
job creation is needed to ease the current 9.7 percent unemployment rate. And
if layoffs were to spike and job creation sputter, the recovery could fall back
into a "double-dip" recession. TOKYO
(AP) -- The
testing covers the entire lineup of Google
1Q profit rises 37 pct but stock slides SAN
FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc.'s first-quarter profit rose 37 percent as more
people clicked on higher-priced Internet ads powered by the company's search
engine, but investors possibly worried about Google's rising expenditures sent
its stock down sharply. Google
shares fell $31.30, 5.3 percent, to $564 in after-hours trading. Before the
earnings release they closed at $595.30, up 1.1 percent on the day. Even
so, the results released Thursday are the latest indication that the online
advertising and technology sectors are bouncing back from the recession more
quickly than many other parts of the economy. China's
robust growth fuels debate over policy SHANGHAI
(AP) -- The latest surge in China's growth is welcome news for the global
recovery and could give Growth
in the world's third-largest economy accelerated to 11.9 percent in the first
quarter, the government reported Thursday. Inflation stayed low, allowing Such
dynamic growth could help offset potential losses to China's exporters from any
gains in the value of the country's yuan, enabling Senate
panel says regulators ignored risks at WaMu WASHINGTON
(AP) -- A Senate panel contends regulators failed to stop "shoddy"
lending and excessive risk-taking at Panel
chairman Levin,
who heads the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, says the OTS oversaw
WaMu "on a collaborative basis, not a regulatory basis." China
trims holdings of US Treasurys by 1.3 percent WASHINGTON
(AP) -- China trimmed its holdings of U.S. Treasury debt 1.3 percent in
February, the fourth consecutive decline. Those reductions are raising concerns
that the U.S. government could face higher interest rates to finance its
soaring budget deficits. The
Treasury Department said Thursday that China's holdings dropped $11.5 billion
to $877.5 billion. That still left China as the largest foreign holder of U.S.
Treasury debt. Banks
once again cut emergency borrowing from Fed WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Banks borrowed less from the The
Fed said that banks averaged $6.77 billion in daily borrowing for the week that
ended Wednesday. That was down from $7.21 billion in average borrowing in the
previous weeks. Banks
have been reducing their use of the Fed's emergency discount window as
financial conditions have improved. Volcanic
ash cloud disrupting US flights to Europe WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The bottom fell out of travel plans for thousands of U.S. airline
passengers Thursday as dozens of flights between the U.S. and Europe were
canceled, part of a global disruption in air travel as clouds of ash from a
volcano in Iceland forced widespread closures of European airports. At
least 100 U.S. flights had been canceled by early Thursday afternoon Eastern
Daylight Time, according to David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air
Transportation Association, which represents most major U.S. carriers. Firm
of ex-Obama aide settles NY corruption probe NEW
YORK (AP) -- An investment firm founded by President Obama's former car czar,
Steven Rattner, has agreed to pay $12 million to resolve allegations that it
paid kickbacks to drum up business from New York's giant government pension
fund. The
Quadrangle Group said it would refund $7 million to the pension fund and pay
another $5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of the
deal, which was announced Thursday. The
settlement covers only Quadrangle, not Rattner, who left the firm last year to
become co-leader of the presidential task force that restructured the auto
industry. US
government: 7 UBS customers hid Swiss-based assets NEW
YORK (AP) -- Seven customers of banking giant UBS have been charged with
conspiracy and criminal tax offenses in a scheme to conceal more than $100
million in Swiss-based assets and any profits from the Internal Revenue
Service, prosecutors announced Thursday. The
charges were contained in five indictments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Two of the defendants pleaded guilty Thursday to filing false federal income
tax returns and agreed to pay millions of dollars in penalties. By
The Associated Press The
Dow rose 21.46, or 0.2 percent, to 11,144.57, its highest close since Sept. 19,
2008. Benchmark
crude for May delivery fell 33 cents to settle at $85.51 a barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. In
other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil rose a penny to settle at
$2.2523 a gallon, and gasoline slid 0.65 cent to settle at $2.3262 a gallon.
Natural gas dropped 21.4 cents to settle at $3.985 per 1,000 cubic feet. In
London, Brent crude rose $1.02 to settle at $87.17 on the ICE futures exchange.