Avis buys car sharing firm Zipcar

2 January 2013 Last updated at 11:54 ETThe global car hire firm Avis Budget has agreed to buy Zipcar, the world’s biggest car-sharing firm, for $ 500m (£307m).The car hire giant is buying into the fast-growing sharing market, which it says is worth $ 400m in the US.Zipcar has 767,000 members, who pay an annual joining fee and then are charged by the hour to use its cars.Avis is paying $ 12.25 per...

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US may skirt ‘fiscal cliff’ but faces higher taxes

WASHINGTON (AP) — A last-ditch tax deal in the Senate might let the U.S. economy escape the worst of the so-called fiscal cliff and avoid going back into recession. But even if the House goes along, the tax increases likely coming in 2013 will dent economic growth anyway.In the early hours of the new year, the Senate voted to end a long stalemate and raise taxes on upper-income households, extend...

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UK must stay in Europe, says CBI

31 December 2012 Last updated at 02:54 ETThe CBI says the UK needs to keep its place within the European Union to push for freer trade for its businesses.The business lobby group says the UK should use the EU to help rebalance the economy towards exports and create new trade deals.It is pushing for a new free trade deal between Europe and the US.The CBI says although the EU and US have relatively...

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Reasons to Be Scared of Microsoft Stock

The early days of January are typically a time of unbridled optimism. This will be the year we lose 10 pounds and learn to speak French; Japan will turn itself around; Microsoft (MSFT) stock will pull itself out of a decade of doldrums.Most analysts are betting that the Redmond computer company’s time has come. The company’s fiscal-year revenue has nearly tripled to $ 74 billion in the last 10 years....

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Starbucks’s $40,000 Bid for Bipartisanship

Starbucks’s (SBUX) campaign for a fiscal-cliff deal, in which employees of D.C.-area shops are encouraged to write “Come Together” on customers’ cups, has drawn a lot of attention – and some mockery. The Daily Beast called it “doppio,” and the move was ridiculed as as a sign of desperation on Twitter.It is no empty gesture. Starbucks expects to sell up to 200,000 cups of coffee in the D.C. metro area...

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Retailers launch online bargains

24 December 2012 Last updated at 12:20 ETThe battle for the consumer has moved online with retailers bringing forward the start of sales after reports of lacklustre spending on the High Street.Marks & Spencer and John Lewis are among major names to start discounting online in the hope that shoppers will be browsing sites over Christmas.Sales online have traditionally begun on Christmas Day or...

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Italy’s Monti opens door to seeking new term

ROME (Reuters) – Two days after stepping down, Mario Monti announced on Sunday he would consider seeking a second term as Italian prime minister if approached by allies committed to backing his austere brand of reforms.The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government of experts to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, resigned on Friday but has faced growing calls...

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News Corp publishing loses $2.1bn

21 December 2012 Last updated at 13:22 ETNews Corporation says its publishing wing incurred a $ 2.1bn (£1.3bn) loss in the last financial year.Revenues fell 5%, partly as a result of the closure of the News of the World, which it stopped publishing after the phone-hacking scandal broke in the UK.The company detailed the losses as it formally applied to US regulators the Securities and Exchange Commission...

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The NRA’s Solution: A Gun in Every School

With characteristic flair, the National Rifle Association held America in suspense for a week on how it would react to the Newtown (Conn.) school massacre and then came out, guns blazing.Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s longtime top official, left no doubt during his nationally televised press conference that the pro-gun lobby—pound for pound, the most effective single-issue advocacy group in Washington—will...

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U.S. state, local spending expands for first time in 3 years

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – State and local government spending grew at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, after 11 straight quarters of contraction, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday.The last time state and local spending expanded was in the third quarter of 2009, at a much more robust rate of 2.2 percent. Then, for nearly three years, spending contracted sharply, with the biggest...

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S&P raises Greece’s credit rating

18 December 2012 Last updated at 14:23 ETRatings agency Standard and Poor’s has raised the credit rating of Greece’s sovereign debt by six levels, praising the “strong determination” of fellow eurozone countries to help it stay as a member state.S&P has increased Greece’s rating from “selective default” to “B-minus”.The agency also praised the continuing efforts by Greece’s government to cut its...

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Hopes rise for “fiscal cliff” deal as Obama, Boehner meet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and top Republican John Boehner met at the White House on Monday as hopes rose that Washington will be able to head off steep tax hikes and spending cuts that could push the economy into recession next year.Aides from both parties said they were optimistic that a deal could be reached in the coming days to avert the “fiscal cliff,” as lawmakers set the...

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Abe’s challenge: Can he give Japan what money can’t buy

TOKYO (Reuters) – Even before Japanese voters returned Shinzo Abe‘s party to power, he had already won over financial markets with an economic revival plan as seductively simple as economists say it is risky: print money and spend it. Lots of it.The Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide on Sunday is likely to sustain a market rally fuelled by economic stimulus hopes, but Abe’s economic legacy will...

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Best Buy extends deadline for founder bid

(Reuters) – Best Buy Co Inc agreed to extend the deadline to February 28 for founder Richard Schulze to make a bid for the company, continuing the uncertainty for shareholders over whether he can put a bid together.Best Buy shares fell 14.2 percent to $ 12.12 on the New York Stock Exchange.The company said on Friday the extension would allow Schulze to include the consumer electronics retailer’s full-year...

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With SolarCity IPO, Elon Musk May Get Clean Tech Right

Over the past few years, Silicon Valley has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into a vast array of “clean technology” companies. You probably can’t name many of them because, on the whole, they’ve been tremendous failures or totally underwhelming. Companies participating in particularly difficult areas such as solar have turned into laughingstocks and symbols of huge investments gone wrong.There...

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TSX ends higher as financials gain; German data helps

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian stocks ended higher on Tuesday, helped by a strong showing from banks and other financial stocks as a German poll showed a sharp improvement in investor sentiment in Europe’s biggest economy.The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> added 51.89 points, or 0.42 percent, to close at 12,282.36.</.gsptse>(Reporting by Alastair Sharp)Economy...

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China reports strong economy data

9 December 2012 Last updated at 06:49 ETChina’s economic growth rate may be gathering pace again, as the government released strong industrial output and retail sales figures.Industrial production rose by 10.1% in November, compared with a year earlier, according to the official data from the National Bureau of Statistics.This was better than expected, and the strongest performance since March.At...

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Employment ducks superstorm Sandy punch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Companies kept up their steady but slow hiring pace in November, defying predictions that superstorm Sandy would deal a big blow to the labor market.While the unemployment rate fell to a near four-year low of 7.7 percent, that was only because many Americans gave up the hunt for work, tempering the signal from the stronger-than-expected payrolls growth.A big drop in consumer...

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Intel CEO Otellini expects insider to replace him

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel‘s outgoing chief executive, Paul Otellini, said he expected to be replaced by a company insider and also signaled that the top chipmaker could open its factories to strategic customers.Otellini’s comments at a Sanford Bernstein investor conference on Wednesday stoked speculation the top chipmaker may manufacture mobile chips for Apple and pushed Intel’s shares higher...

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TSX ends higher as CP Rail gains on cost-cutting

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian stocks ended higher on Wednesday as optimism about Chinese economic growth boosted energy stocks and investors cheered a cost-cutting plan at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd .The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> closed up 20.11 points, or 0.17 percent, at 12,157.29.</.gsptse>(Reporting by Alastair Sharp)Economy News Headlines – Yahoo!...

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