BEIJING—Surging inflation that helped trigger protests in Shanghai is prompting China’s leaders to turn to a tool they long resisted: speeding up the rise of the country’s tightly controlled currency. Rising prices are a political threat to China’s communist leaders and they have declared taming inflation their priority. But they suffered a setback in March, [...]
BEIJING—China Shenhua Energy Co., the country’s biggest coal producer, said Saturday that its first-quarter profit jumped 16.6 percent over a year ago as China’s rapid economic growth drove strong energy demand. Profit in the three months ending March 31 was 11 billion yuan ($1.7 billion), or 0.55 yuan (8 U.S. cents) per share, up from [...]
SANTA ANA, California—A federal judge said Friday that he will deny another request from Toyota Motor Corp. to dismiss lawsuits filed by car owners who claim sudden-acceleration defects caused the value of their vehicles to drop. US District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana said in a 30-page ruling that the lawsuits have enough merit [...]
WASHINGTON—Businesses owned by Asian Americans have grown at more than twice the national average, offering a boost to the United States economy, official figures said Thursday. Releasing a survey taken twice each decade, the Census Bureau said that Asian Americans owned 1.5 million businesses in 2007, a rise of 40 percent from five years earlier. [...]
NEW YORK—US stocks rallied Thursday as positive earnings reports lured investors to shrug off mixed economic data. Building on nearly three-year highs hit Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 72.35 points (0.57 percent) to finish the session at 12,763.31. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite edged up 2.65 points (0.09 percent) to 2,872.53, a fresh 10-year [...]
NEW YORK—US oil prices were stable Thursday after hitting levels not seen since September 2008, as traders weighed a weaker dollar and slower US growth. The day ended with New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, up just 10 cents to $112.86 a barrel, after nearing the $114 mark earlier in the [...]
MANILA, Philippines—Production at the Galoc oil field off Palawan reached 6.92 million barrels as of end-March 2011, already depleting close to 70 percent of its estimated reserves of 10 million barrels. In a regulatory filing, Australian firm Otto Energy Ltd. said the Galoc oil field has also managed to deliver a total of 20 shipments [...]
MANILA, Philippines—The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has estimated that inflation will settle between 3.7 and 4.7 percent, saying price movements in the first four months of the year still indicated attainability of the full-year inflation goal. Under the government’s macro-economic targets, inflation should fall between 3 and 5 percent this year. Economic managers said such [...]
MANILA, Philippines—The Alcantara-led Conal Holdings Corp. is pushing through with plans to build two coal-fired power plants in Sarangani and Zamboanga to provide 300 megawatts in additional baseload capacity to these provinces within four to five years’ time. Antonio Miguel B. Alcantara, financial analyst for parent firm Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc., said the additional capacity [...]
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Local stock prices pulled back sharply on Thursday as many investors decided to pocket gains as the main index neared record highs. The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 42.49 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 4,278.83. It broke down a support level at 4,300 as investors dumped financial, holding firms and [...]
NEW YORK—The Nasdaq Composite index hit its highest level in more than 10 years Wednesday as US stocks pushed upward after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. The tech-rich Nasdaq added 22.34 points (0.78 percent) at 2,869.88, the highest close since December 2000, when it was plummeting as the dot-com bubble famously burst, plunging [...]
NEW YORK—Crude oil prices rose Wednesday on the back of the Federal Reserve’s decision to continue pursuing an exceptionally supportive monetary policy which weighed on the dollar. New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, closed at $112.76 a barrel, a gain of 55 cents from Tuesday. In London, Brent North Sea [...]
