Palash Ghosh

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is urging the European Union (EU) to expand the size of its rescue fund in the wake of weakening market performance in the euro zone’s peripheral members.

A late-session rally pushed stocks modestly into the black after a very disappointing November jobs report battered equities earlier in the day.

While the Great Recession has raised the unemployment rates for virtually all Americans, it has served to heighten what has already existed as a long-term trend: the declining employment levels of American men, particularly those who are less educated.

Brazil's Central Bank raised reserve requirements on bank deposits in order to slow down consumer lending and prevent the potential risk of asset price bubbles in the country’s surging economy.

Stocks rallied for a second straight session as traders sentiment was buoyed by some strong November chain-store retail sales figures and by the European Central Bank (ECB) to maintain liquidity safety measures for troubled banks.

Almost one-third (30 percent) of British people think their financial situation will worsen over the next six months, a 7 percent increase from the prior quarter, according to a quarterly survey by R3, the UK insolvency trade body.

The lower house of Brazil's Congress has amended laws related to the nation’s oil industry which may lead to accelerated development of its vast offshore oil fields.

A growing demand for nuclear energy across much of the globe will undoubtedly make uranium a prized commodity, as new power plants proliferate. Investors seeking to capitalize on this evolving energy trend might consider a new exchange-traded fund, the Global X Uranium ETF (NYSE: URA), one of the very few investment vehicles in the world that can be regarded as a pure play on uranium.

Stocks rallied sharply on a slew of good economic data, including jobs, productivity and regional growth.

The full-text of the speech given by Fed Vice Chairman Janet L. Yellen at the Committee for Economic Development 2010 International Counterparts Conference in New York on Dec. 1, 2010

The U.S. economy continued to improve, on balance, during the period from early/mid-October to mid-November, according to the Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book,” a compendium of economic reports from the central bank’s twelve districts.

Among the many juicy tidbits revealed by the recently published Wikileaks documents were Bank of England chief’s Mervyn King’s concerns about Prime Minister David Cameron’s inexperience.

Consumers spent $1.028-billion online during Cyber Monday, up 16 percent from a year ago, and first time such spending surpassed the billion-dollar level. It was also the busiest online shopping day ever.

Credit card delinquencies are falling in the U.S. as millions of consumers have simply stopped using their credit cards.

Despite the recent frenetic declarations by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero that Spain does not need a bailout, the bond markets strongly disagree with him as traders continue to unload Spanish (as well as Portuguese and Italian) bonds, driving up the financing costs for the nation’s lenders to all-time highs.

Stocks dropped again over fears of spreading euro zone debt crisis, although equities seemed to stabilize somewhat on mid-afternoon reports that Republic politicians agreed to compromise with President Obama on extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts.

As investors continue to shovel mountains of cash into U.S. Treasuries and U.S. bonds, investors seeking yield and price outperformance are advised to look at bonds issued by the emerging markets nations.

U.S. home prices fell by 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7 percent in the second quarter, according to data from S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Online retail sales soared 19.4 percent through the afternoon of Cyber Monday from the prior year, according to data from Coremetrics, a division of IBM (NYSE: IBM).

After enjoying nearly two decades of an unprecedented economic prosperity at home, many Irish are now seeking to leave for greener pastures elsewhere as the nation finds itself on the brink of an economic collapse.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) said that 212 million U.S. shoppers visited stores and websites over the Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million last year. Moreover, the average shopper spent $365.34 this weekend, up from last year’s $343.31 figure.

Stocks fell, but finished significantly above intra-day lows, as the market recovered somewhat from early losses triggered by renewed fears that the euro zone debt crisis could spread beyond Ireland to Portugal and Spain.

While investors currently grapple with a number of very troubling geopolitical and economic issues -- namely the threat of war in Korea and the potential sovereign debt contagion in Europe, interest rate hikes by China, among others – some might take solace in the fact that December has consistently been the best-performing months for U.S. going back more than sixty years.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), an independent economic forecasting entity of the British government, raised its UK GDP forecast for this year to 1.8 percent from the previous 1.2 percent estimate.

Despite the big build-up, retail sales on Black Friday were rather tepid. According to data from ShopperTrak, sales edged up a mere 0.3 percent from the same day last year.

Stocks tumbled in a holiday-shortened session on worries over threats of war by North Korea and pervasive fears that the euro zone sovereign debt crisis may spread to Spain and Portugal. Apparently, traders saw little solace in what appears to be shaping up as a strong Black Friday on the retail front.

Railroad companies are probably not at the top of most investors’ wish list, but these stocks have performed superbly this year and likely represent a solid long-term investment theme.

Standard & Poor’s said it cut its long-term sovereign credit rating on the Republic of Ireland to 'A' from 'AA-' and its short-term rating to 'A-1' from 'A-1+'.

As the stock market focuses its gaze upon the holiday shopping season, two of the most prominent companies in the retail sector that may attract much attention are Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT).