Australia’s central bank held its key cash rate steady at 3.75 percent on Tuesday, stunning investors who had confidently expected a rise to 4.0 percent and sending the local dollar tumbling.
However, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) did say that  further rate rise were likely to be needed over time if the  economy improved as [...]

forex, Interest rates Hide

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Evidence of a self-sustaining U.S. recovery is emerging on the factory floors of Texas Instruments Inc. The second-largest U.S. chipmaker will spend almost $1 billion this year to expand three factories and open a fourth to fill orders.
The need to rebuild industrial capacity after the largest decline on record in 2009 is boosting [...]

investor confidence, recovery, spending, US Hide

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Dubai Airports, the government-owned airfield operator, plans to seek approval for expansion plans costing “billions of dirham,” undeterred by the emirate’s need for a $20 billion bailout last year.
The company will make a recommendation on boosting capacity within the next few months, Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said today in an interview [...]

debt, Dubai, investments Hide

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion fiscal 2011 budget puts an emphasis on job creation with $100 billion in additional stimulus spending, along with higher taxes for the wealthy in an attempt to narrow the deficit.
The spending blueprint forecasts this year’s budget shortfall will hit a record $1.6 trillion, following a $1.4 trillion [...]

recovery, unemployment, US Hide

SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific region has overtaken North America as the world’s largest air travel market with 647 million passengers in 2009, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Monday.
By contrast, 638 million people flew on commercial flights in North America last year, IATA said at an aviation business conference on the eve of the Singapore [...]

Asia, market Hide

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled a budget projecting a record deficit this year, with billions of dollars to curb unemployment and tax hikes on the rich to tame big fiscal shortfalls.
“It’s a budget that reflects the serious challenges facing the country,” Obama said at the White House after sending the mammoth spending plan [...]

recovery, subprime, US Hide

WASHINGTON: The US manufacturing sector kicked off the year with gusto in January, a private survey showed on Monday, the sixth consecutive month of expansion in the sector leading the economic recovery.
The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index, also known as the purchasing managers index, climbed to 58.4 percent in January from December [...]

earnings, recovery, unemployment, US Hide