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WASHINGTON - U.S. factories saw demand for their products improve in June - but not as much as some hoped.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that new orders placed with manufacturers rose 0.6 percent. That was better than the 0.5 percent drop registered in May. Economists, however, were forecasting a more robust, 1 [...]

NEW YORK - Corn prices climbed Thursday as traders bet on the potential for a smaller-than-expected crop this year, just when demand for the grain is running strong.

In other commodity markets, energy prices rose, while gold prices fluctuated and the market for industrial metals was mixed.

At the Chicago [...]

FRANKFURT, Germany - The European Central Bank held its benchmark interest rate steady at 4 percent on Thursday as inflation in the 13 nations that use the euro remains relatively tame.

Some analysts had said the bank would act cautiously amid the global market volatility that has been fed by worries about the [...]

NEW YORK - Oil prices retreated after jumping to a new record Wednesday on the government’s report of a steep drop in crude inventories and surge in refinery activity.

Crude prices initially rose after the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels last week, far more [...]

NEW YORK - While the U.S. manufacturing sector grew for the sixth consecutive month in July, expansion was the slowest since March, a survey said Wednesday, indicating that the economy is plodding along at a tepid pace.

The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index, which reflects the opinions of purchasing managers [...]

Wall Street’s huge plunge this past week showed that investors had finally become vulnerable to major economic problems and the struggles of the housing and lending industries - and that they had also developed a new respect for risk that had been absent in the stock market for some time.

Worries about [...]

NEW YORK - Oil prices closed over $77 a barrel, near an all-time high on Friday on technical buying and news of faster-than-expected economic growth.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices fell to their lowest level since late May.

A Commerce Department report on Friday showed the [...]

WASHINGTON - The economy popped out of its rut this spring and grew at the strongest pace in more than a year, giving President Bush something to crow about.

The best barometer of the country’s economic fitness - gross domestic product - increased at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the second [...]

WASHINGTON - Conflicts of interest may still be rampant on Wall Street, with a new study showing that nearly two-thirds of investment-firm analysts received favors from executives of companies they cover and suggesting that the companies get favorable ratings in return.

The academic study published Friday outlines a culture of blatant back-scratching on [...]

FRANKFURT, Germany - A surprise rebound in U.S. economic growth during the second quarter stabilized European stock markets on Friday but could not push them higher as they struggled to recover from a Wall Street-inspired malaise.

While many Asian markets ended sharply lower after Wall Street’s stunning drop on [...]