Dec. 30, 2010 at 11:53 a.m.
Filed under:
Housing,
Mortgages,
Real estate,
Updated
By CNN
The era of near 4 percent mortgage rates has ended after a quick rate rise since early November. But some industry experts think that may be a good thing for the flagging housing market.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has risen to 4.86 percent from 4.17%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market survey. In the Bankrate.com weekly survey, the rate has risen to 5.02 percent — crossing the 5 percent mark for the second time in three weeks — after being as low as 4.42 percent as recently as early November.
Rates haven’t been this high since May and forecasters now predict them to remain between 5 percent and 6 percent for all of 2011. Get the full story »
Dec. 29, 2010 at 9:45 a.m.
Filed under:
Energy,
Updated
By CNN
The former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, says Americans could be paying $5 for a gallon of gasoline by 2012.
In an interview with Platt’s Energy Week television, Hofmeister predicted gasoline prices will spike as the global demand for oil increases.
“I’m predicting actually the worst outcome over the next two years which takes us to 2012 with higher gasoline prices,” he said. Get the full story »
Dec. 28, 2010 at 1:01 p.m.
Filed under:
M&A,
Technology,
Updated,
Wireless
By Wailin Wong
Nokia Siemens Networks’ acquisition of Motorola Inc.’s network infrastructure business has been pushed to the first quarter of 2011 because the deal still needs regulatory approval in China.
The $1.2 billion transaction between Schaumburg-based Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks was announced in July and expected to close by the end of 2010. However, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau has yet to approve it. Regulators in the U.S., European Union, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey have given the green light. Get the full story »
By Dow Jones Newswires
Apple Inc. allowed personal information from users of applications for its iPad and iPhone devices to be transmitted to advertising networks without the users’ knowledge, according to a lawsuit brought against the technology giant last week, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Get the full story »
Dec. 28, 2010 at 11:10 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
International,
Jobs/employment,
Labor,
Updated
By Associated Press
Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn’t anyone hiring?
Many American companies are — overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat. Get the full story »
Dec. 28, 2010 at 10:40 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Updated
By Reuters
U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in December, while prices of U.S. single-family homes fell almost double the expected pace in October, tempering growing optimism on the economy’s recovery. Get the full story »
By Monica Eng | The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning Monday for consumers to avoid alfalfa sprouts and spicy sprouts that were grown on a farm in Urbana, Ill., because of a suspected link to salmonella. Get the full story »
Dec. 27, 2010 at 1:46 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Airplanes,
Airports,
Travel,
Updated
By Tribune staff report
A blizzard blanketing the East Coast this weekend has left thousands of fliers stranded at various airports across the country, including some at O’Hare International and Midway airports this morning.
As of 7:35 a.m., 130 flights at O’Hare had been canceled due to the East Coast weather, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. At Midway, there were 20 flight cancellations.
Today’s cancellations came on top of the 150 flights grounded yesterday at the two airports.
Dec. 27, 2010 at 5:46 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Updated
By Becky Yerak
Days after one publicly traded Wisconsin bank agreed to sell itself, another said it’s in negotiations on more than $500 million in new loans in the Chicago area and plans to crack the Top 10 in deposit market share here in the next five years.
Associated Bank, part of Green Bay-based Associated Banc-Corp., has had a Chicago presence for 26 years and has 27 branches here with 275 employees. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 2:28 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Airplanes,
Airports,
Travel,
Updated
By Julie Johnsson
Expedia is hiding pricing information for American Airlines flights on its Web sites in a display of solidarity with Chicago-based Orbitz Worldwide Inc., which is enmeshed in a contract dispute with the nation’s #3 carrier.
The online travel giants are warring with American over the airline’s attempts take greater control of the way it sells tickets and other services.
The new contract terms the Texas-based carrier seeks would drive down its costs and impose new technology on agencies like Orbitz and Expedia and the global clearinghouses that provide the ticket data they peddle over the Internet, analysts said. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 8:50 a.m.
Filed under:
Consumer news,
Economy,
Retail,
Updated
By Reuters
An employee at a store in New York, Dec. 6, 2010. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
New U.S. claims for jobless benefits dipped last week and consumer spending increased in November for a fifth straight month, reinforcing views of a solid economic growth pace in the fourth quarter.
Initial claims fell 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 420,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, matching economists’ expectations.
A separate report from the Commerce Department showed spending rose 0.4 percent after increasing by an upwardly revised 0.7 percent in October. Get the full story »
Dec. 22, 2010 at 4:52 p.m.
Filed under:
Pharmaceuticals,
Updated
By Andrew Zajac
Abbott Laboratories Wednesday announced a recall of as many as 359 million glucose test strips used to monitor diabetics’ blood sugar because they may give falsely low readings.
The strips may not absorb enough blood quickly enough to give a proper reading, which can lead users to try to raise sugar levels unnecessarily, or to fail to treat elevated glucose levels, the company said in a statement. Get the full story »
Dec. 22, 2010 at 3:03 p.m.
Filed under:
Internet,
Technology,
Telecommunications,
Updated
By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Internet phone and video service Skype went down in a global service outage on Wednesday, underscoring a weakness of the free online communication tool. Get the full story »
Dec. 22, 2010 at 11:21 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
TV,
Updated
By Alejandra Cancino
A CareerBuilder.com Super Bowl 2006 ad. (Chicago Tribune)
CareerBuilder’s 2011 Super Bowl ad is already drawing attention from PETA activists.
PETA said it learned earlier this month that the company was planning on using chimpanzees in the ad, which prompted actress Angelica Huston to write a letter to Matt Ferguson, the company’s CEO, urging him to watch her 2008 video on the abuse of ape actors.
Huston said chimpanzees are often physically and emotionally abused during training, and that when they grow too strong to handle, they are kept in small cages at roadside zoos or “warehoused in horrifying conditions on training compounds.” Get the full story »
Dec. 21, 2010 at 5:56 p.m.
Filed under:
Food,
Health care,
Updated
By Alejandra Cancino
Jimmy John’s has asked its franchises to pull alfalfa sprouts believed to be tied to outbreaks of salmonella in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The sandwich chain says it is pulling them as a “good faith and good will gesture.”
Illinois health officials have confirmed that 43 Illinois residents and one Wisconsin resident have salmonella. Get the full story »
