Eleazar David Meléndez

A leading survey of U.S. consumer confidence showed consumers were less optimistic in early March than they had been through most of 2012, as inflation worries put a damper on improving views of current wealth.

Continuing its delicate game of portfolio balancing, United Technologies said Thursday it will sell off several major business units as way to raise cash for a previously announced $16.5 billion acquisition of aerospace manufacturer Goodrich Corp.

The recent round of warm talks between U.S. and U.K. heads of government has yielded a huge political bonus for U.S. President Barack Obama, as the two leaders are set to announce a cooperative plan to released strategic oil stocks, something that is likely to help bring down the sky-high price of crude.

Paris-based credit rating agency Fitch warned the government of the United Kingdom Thursday that the country still stood to lose its sterling AAA rating were the economic situation in Europe to deteriorate further. The action came at a politically sensitive time for Britain.

Expectations that the euro zone will fall into recession this year or, at best, post anemic growth, are growing.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH), the biggest U.S. health insurer by revenue, said it was partnering with a Dubai-based insurance company to provide service throughout the Middle East. The announcement is further proof of an ongoing trend for U.S. health insurers, who are looking to expand internationally in the face of some business uncertainty at home.

JPMorgan Chase and Co. (NYSE:JPM) announced Tuesday afternoon it would be raising the dividend payout to shareholders and engaging in a sizable stock buyback program, in a show of balance sheet strength coming just days after the bank was green-lighted through the Federal Reserve's now-yearly "stress tests." The markets rallied.

JPMorgan Chase and Co. (NYSE:JPM) announced Tuesday afternoon it would be raising the dividend payout to shareholders and engaging in a sizable stock buyback program, in a show of balance sheet strength coming just days after the bank was green-lighted through the Federal Reserve's now-yearly "stress tests." The markets rallied.

Gold mining executives meeting in Toronto for an annual prospectors' convention have been buzzing about their stocks relatively weak valuatio and what they should be doing about it, the Financial Times reported.

Silver Standard Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRI) reported Monday the company had earned $2.6 million, or 3 cents per share, for the quarter ended December 31, a drastic drop of 99.3 percent when compared to the same period in the prior year, but better than analyst expectations which had assumed the company would post a loss for the quarter.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) hired a chief financial officer with extensive experience in cable broadcasting, particularly with that industry's spin-offs as well as mergers and acquisitions, the New York-based company said Monday.

Economists agree the current labor recovery is creating some jobs, but disagree as to which groups will benefit the most -- and what American society will end up looking like -- as a result. Their disagreements are full of useful insight that could be the base for future policies, if only policymakers were listening.

The economic picture got considerably messier this week, as positive data on job creation battled with gasoline-price-fueled inflation concerns in economists', policymakers' and consumers' minds. Joyous declarations that the economy is finally getting better have turned into more studious critiques of how the incipient recovery is actually affecting poor, working-class and middle-class people.

Wholesale businesses increased their inventories less than economists had expected in January, as firms across the U.S. sought to manage their supply chain in the face of weaker sales.

Central bankers around the world took their foot off the loose monetary policy throttle Thursday and kept benchmark interest rates steady on inflation concerns and the lack of new threats to gross domestic product growth.

Two of Europe's main central banks announced Thursday they would be keeping their benchmark interbank lending rates unchanged, in an expected move that analysts see as an acknowledgement of creeping inflation and policy exhaustion.

A union representing the support staff at Canada's largest airliner -- which includes 8,600 mechanics, cargo agents, baggage handlers and maintenance staff -- said it would strike against its patron starting Monday, after having rejected a government-mediated four-year contract deal for its members. Government intervention is seen likely

Peru's government will complete divesting itself from the country's sugar mill industry, completing the change in agrarian policy in the country started in 1997 and marking the end of government involvement that sector has seen since 1969, according to Bloomberg News. The development is expected to help boost sugar production in the country and, consequently, send world sugar prices down.

Equities worldwide were in sell-off mode Tuesday, as nagging uncertainty about Greece, sobering news about China's economy and traders' realization that U.S. and European central banks might be finished with cash infusions all seemed to weigh on investors.

A growing economy, a historically innovative banking sector and a large expatriate population looking for a trusted envoy to handle their money back home have all combined to make Bangladeshi banks amongst the fastest growing companies in the world.

New orders to U.S. factories fell less than economists had expected in January, according to data released Monday morning by the Commerce Department, in what is yet another data point suggesting the U.S. economy is on solid footing for a recovery this year.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) tagged Hong Kong investors in its Asian unit with a nasty surprise Sunday evening, announcing it will be selling a substantial amount of its stake in the subsidiary at a discount -- a move that will hurt current stockholders in the concern. AIG is pursuing the action in order to raise $6 billion, a small amount of the $182.3 billion bailout it received from the U.S. government in 2008 and is still to pay back in full.

Having built up fleets to unsustainable levels in recent boom years, some companies must now shrink fast to avoid losses in a down market. Compounding matters, banks that have typically provided a financing lifeline to the industry are shutting off the cash, forcing shippers to consider the rare step of selling off equity stakes.

Following a tightening of sanctions by U.S. and international institutions meant to hurt the ruling coalition there, the Iranian economy is feeling the bite. While reporting by Western news agencies is severely curtailed in the country, and official government statistics on economic growth are widely believed to be fictional, anecdotal reports from sources inside Iran talk of a populace that is financially strained and very worried.

Euro zone unemployment rose in January to 10.7 percent, the highest figure since 1999, as the ranks of the jobless continued to swell in Portugal, Italy and Spain, among others, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said Thursday.

Boosted by an increase in the number of breadwinners across the nation, raises to military personnel and the much-ballyhooed extension of the payroll tax cut earlier this year, average U.S. personal income rose in January by 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department said Thursday in a release. But a spike in other taxes and price inflation meant that increase was not enough to make people better off, on average, data from the same release showed.

Various developments across Europe boded ill for future fiscal integration in the Continent, a move many see as the only way to resolve the fundamental issues underlying the current sovereign debt crisis roiling the euro zone.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke played killjoy Wednesday morning, delivering a somewhat pessimistic assessment of the nation's economic condition in a semi-annual address to the House of Representatives.

The number of employed Germans declined slightly in February, but a statistical sleight-of-hand means the unemployment rate held steady at 6.8 percent, the lowest level since Germany became the republic that it is today.