Joseph Lazzaro

U.S. housing starts fell in February, but permits for future construction jumped to their highest level since October 2008, according to a government report on Tuesday that showed steady improvement in the housing market.

At least 16 near-simultaneous explosions struck cities and towns across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and wounding more than 200, despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week's Arab League summit.

The European Commission is widening its regulatory sweep to include "shadow" banking, heralding new controls over the sprawling and largely unchartered 46 trillion euro ($61 trillion) sector blamed for helping trigger the financial crisis.

Early bids at an auction to decide the payout due to Greek bondholders who are insured against default showed investors fear for the country's financial future even after a debt restructuring and aid packages.

Collapsing natural gas prices have yielded an unexpected boon for North Dakota's shale oil bonanza, easing a shortage of fracking crews that had tempered the biggest U.S. oil boom in a generation.

To date, the 2012 Republican Party presidential-nomination process has been dominated by a faction that wants to nominate a conservative, but the least conservative candidate remains the GOP’s strongest: Mitt Romney.

You can't blame investors for feeling a bit squeamish regarding deploying new money in the U.S. stock market these days, despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average's (DJIA) recent rise to 13,000. Where's the Dow headed in the next three months?

The euro zone may raise the combined lending power of its bailout funds to close to 700 billion euros from 500 billion in a trade-off between German opposition to committing more money and calming markets, euro zone officials said.

Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral agreement to release strategic oil stocks, two British sources said, in an effort to prevent high fuel prices from derailing economic growth in an election year.

A senior Republican senator on Thursday warned the White House that passing legislation to bolster trade relations with Russia won't be a slam dunk because of concerns over that country's record on human rights and foreign policy actions.

The United States sought on Thursday to allay concerns over delays and escalating costs for its new F-35 fighter, telling its eight partner nations there would be no further delays in the rollout of the radar-evading aircraft.

The U.S. staff sergeant who killed over a dozen Afghan villagers this week has been flown out of Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Developed economies will pick up steam this year thanks to an array of ultra-loose monetary policies from major central banks and amid new signs of progress in the euro zone's debt crisis, a Reuters polls found.

The Obama administration is leaving open the possibility of giving Moscow certain secret data on U.S. interceptor missiles due to help protect Europe from any Iranian missile strike.

The Federal Reserve will try to make it clearer whether new banking rules apply to small lenders, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in remarks on Wednesday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co became the first bank on Tuesday to say regulators have completed stress tests of its balance sheet and approved a dividend increase and stock buybacks.

The United States is pressing Saudi Arabia to boost oil output to fill a likely supply gap arising from sanctions on Iran, Gulf oil officials said, adding that an increase in production is unlikely to be needed before July.

The world's largest accounting and auditing firms, known as the Big Four, have been pumping more money than ever before into U.S. lobbying and political campaigns as they confront new challenges from their regulator and Congress.

Greece will have to slash a further 5.5 percent of GDP in government spending in 2013 and 2014 to meet agreed fiscal targets underpinning the second international bailout for Athens, a European Commission report said.

Retail sales recorded their largest gain in five months in February as Americans snapped up motor vehicles and bought a range of goods even as they paid more for gasoline, government data showed on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday of cynically launching new military assaults while meeting with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan over the weekend.

The World Trade Organization has broadly upheld a ruling that Boeing Co (BA.N) took billions of dollars of unfair subsidies, breathing new life into an epic trade spat that has already faulted European aid to Airbus, people familiar with the matter said.

Europe's debt crisis and an oil price rally are the biggest threats to global oil demand this year, OPEC said on Friday, adding it was still pumping above its target despite a slide in Iranian production.

Greece moved closer on Thursday to concluding a bond swap deal with private creditors that it desperately needs to stave off a messy default and buy time to repair its exhausted economy.

The European Central Bank held interest rates at 1.0 percent for the third month running on Thursday, pausing to assess the impact of a dramatic sweep of measures that has unsettled some at the bank.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested three suspected members of the hacker group LulzSec and charges will be made public against two more, a law enforcement official told Reuters on Tuesday.

A collapse in household spending, exports and manufacturing sucked the life out of the euro zone's economy in the final months of 2011, the EU said on Tuesday, showing the scope of the downturn that looks set to become a fully fledged recession.

With the U.S. economy showing signs of strengthening due to Keynesian economic policies, the Republican Party should do itself a favor: stop offering ineffective economic policies and quit while it's behind.

Facebook Inc will add more banks in coming weeks to help underwrite the company's initial public offering, two sources familiar with its plans said on Friday.