Economy News Headlines

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada believes the United States will ultimately approve TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which Washington last month put on hold for more than a year, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said on Friday. Oliver, speaking to a Reuters editorial board, said the project still made enormous …

Small businesses and startups that were skittish about the economy this summer started hiring in bigger numbers this fall, helping drive the unemployment rate down to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest in two and a half years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday pledged an aggressive push to pass an extension to the payroll tax cut for U.S. workers, saying lawmakers must not leave for their holiday break without taking action on it. "We need to get this done. And I expect that it's going to get done before Congress leaves. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, on course for their best week in almost three years, after the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low, but resistance close to a key technical level limited gains as traders booked profits before the weekend. Improving U.S. economic data has heartened investors. U.S. …

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Banking Federation hopes EU leaders will take convincing decisions at a December 9 summit on moves towards a fiscal union, the federation's head Guido Ravoet said on Friday. Ravoet also said he expected banks would first curb their trading activities, rather than credit to the economy, …

LONDON (Reuters) - An upcoming cycle of stormy solar activity risks causing damage to electrical transformers and threatening vulnerable energy infrastructure around the globe, a report by an insurance group says. The sun follows a predictable 11 year activity cycle, with the next period of stormy activity expected to begin …

The US economy added 120,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell, the Labor Department [...]

LONDON (Reuters) - An upcoming cycle of stormy solar activity risks causing damage to electrical transformers and threatening vulnerable energy infrastructure around the globe, a report by an insurance group says. The sun follows a predictable 11 year activity cycle, with the next period of stormy activity expected to begin …

Obama lauds positive jobs report, says economy needs to 'keep growth going'

The charts below show that the Eurozone's Purchasing Managers Index is diving down toward the worrisome level of 45.0%. By contrast the the US ISM Manufacturing Index has turned around and is climbing to the 52.5 % level. This spread between 52.5% (US) and 45%, (Europe) is the widest spread in favor of the U.S. in almost …

LONDON (Reuters) - Battersea Power Station, the derelict London landmark that has been at the centre of a string of failed redevelopment schemes, should be knocked down to spur economic growth in the UK capital, developers told Reuters. The protected status of the disused power station, which has been a feature of the London …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Declines in U.S. construction employment, amid a weak housing market, are tempering optimism over a sharp drop in the unemployment rate, staffing industry executives said. U.S. housing is dragging on economic growth despite signs that the economic recovery is gaining some traction. The U.S. jobless …

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain is not convinced that the EU treaty needs changing to tackle the euro zone debt crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday, after discussing plans for tougher governance in the bloc with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Cameron said after meeting Sarkozy in Paris that the crisis was having …

These Asian ETFs all show similar bottoming formations on the charts, and renewed economic growth in China could spur these funds to big gains in 2012.

Economy Minister Yukio Edano defended Japan's corporate governance practices Friday amid an ongoing accounting scandal at Olympus Corp. that has tainted the country's image.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks rose on Friday and were on track for their biggest weekly gain since November 2008 as U.S. data showed a drop in the jobless rate, while the euro gained for a fifth consecutive session. The U.S. jobs data supported views that the U.S. economy would avoid another recession. Speculation that …

West Virginia general tax revenues missed their mark by $42 million in November, their worst monthly performance in nearly two years, but officials don't see specific red flags for West Virginia's economy in the numbers.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's economy unexpectedly lost jobs for a second straight month in November, raising concern that weakness in other countries may do lasting harm to an economy that has so far been surprisingly robust. Net job losses totaled 18,600 jobs in the month following a hefty 54,000 drop in October, Statistics …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday that while the government's report on a lower jobless rate in November showed the U.S. economy was healing, the world economy remained in a "fragile state." "All economies are linked through trade and finance," top White House economic adviser Alan Krueger said in a …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top White House economic adviser Alan Krueger said Friday's report on November unemployment shows the U.S. economy is still growing but in need of any help it can get to create more jobs. "Overall I think that this report says in combination with data that we have ... over a period of months is that …

DALLAS (Reuters) - Federal deficits are complicating efforts by the Federal Reserve to help the economy, but using the central bank as a printing press to solve the problem "is not an option," a top Fed official said on Friday. "Our nation has a crying need for public leadership to correct what's wrong in the economy," …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Employment growth picked up speed in November and the jobless rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6 percent, further evidence the economic recovery was gaining momentum. COMMENTS: SETH SETRAKIAN, PARTNER AND CO-HEAD OF U.S. EQUITIES AT FIRST NEW YORK SECURITIES "I think the 8.6 percent headline was …

The U.S. unemployment rate fell last month to its lowest level in more than two and a half years as employers stepped up hiring in response to the slowly improving economy.