TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan’s electronics giants Sony and Sharp on Thursday indicated better times ahead after announcing improved quarterly results thanks to an overhaul of their businesses and a weaker yen.Sony said it had swung back to a net profit of $35 million for the April-June quarter, reversing a year-earlier loss as it boosted its annual sales forecast. It also saw a small operating profit in its dented television business.And Sharp served up some rare good news, saying it had shrunk its net l

The U.S. Federal Reserve left unchanged near-zero interest rates and its massive bond-buying program on Wednesday, citing modest growth in the world‘s largest economy.Wrapping up a two-day policy meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee said it would continue to buy $85 billion in bonds per month to help tamp down longer term interest rates that have been supporting the economy, and especially the housing market recovery.The bond-purchase program has filled a gap in the Fed’s toolkit after the

The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat said he would “have a lot of questions” if former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is chosen to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.Senator Richard Durbin’s comments in an interview at the Capitol reflect anxiety within the Senate that President Barack Obama may nominate Summers. Durbin is among 19 Democratic senators and one independent who signed a July 26 letter to the White House praising Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen and urgi

Germany’s unemployment rate held near a two-decade low, potentially buoying support for the government before September elections, while the rate in the euro area stayed at a record high. The number of people out of work in Germany decreased by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 2.93 million in July and the adjusted jobless rate was unchanged at 6.8 percent, according to the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency today. The rate in the 17-nation euro area was 12.1 percent in June, unchanged from a rev

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans' confidence in the economy fell only slightly in July but stayed close to a 5 1/2-year high, a sign that consumers should continue to help drive growth in the coming months. The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index dipped to 80.3 in July. That’s down from a reading of 82.1 in June, which was revised slightly higher and the best reading since January 2008. Despite the slight drop in July, confidence

NAIROBI (AP) ― United Nations investigators hoped they would get some help from Facebook when they asked to see information on suspected pirates operating in Somalia. But Facebook refused. A report by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea this month pointed out that while many private companies helped in the group’s investigative work on matters such as piracy, al-Qaida-linked militants and government corruption, Facebook provided no such assistance. “Despite repeated official corresp

MADRID (AFP) ― Spain’s recession eased in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday, raising hopes the eurozone’s fourth largest economy may finally be on the road to recovery.Gross domestic product shrank by 0.1 percent in the three months ending June as booming exports helped to offset weak domestic demand, compared to a 0.5 percent contraction in the first quarter, data from the national statistics institute showed.The improved data came just days after the country reported that unempl

BERLIN (AFP) ― Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, said on Tuesday its net profits were halved in the second quarter, as it made massive provisions to meet litigation costs.The bank’s net profits fell to 335 million euros ($444 million) for the three months ending June, down from 666 million in the second quarter last year.This missed market expectations by a wide margin. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast about 869 million euros in profits.But 630 million euros set aside by

MADRID (AP) ― Spain’s Banco Santander SA said Tuesday that a sharp reduction in write-offs to cover toxic real estate loans helped second-quarter net profit jump to 1.1 billion euros ($1.45 billion) from 123 million euros for the same period last year. Santander, along with many Spanish banks, had to write off huge amounts from the value of loans following a 2008 collapse of Spain’s property market that has led to nearly four years of recession and an unemployment rate of 26.3 percent. The large

BERLIN (AP) ― Swiss bank UBS says it plans to buy back a fund set up during the 2008 financial crisis into which it offloaded high-risk assets. UBS AG says it expects to exercise an option to buy the so-called StabFund from the Swiss National Bank in the fourth quarter. It says the move will boost its capital position. The fund purchased $38.7 billion in UBS assets using money provided by the central bank ―less than foreseen in the bailout package originally designed by the government, which res

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said two senior executives will leave and others will get new responsibilities, part of a management shake-up 13 months after he took over the institution as he prepares a new global poverty-reduction strategy.Caroline Anstey, a managing director who worked for 18 years at the Washington-based bank, will step down after the member countries’ annual meetings in October, Kim said in an email to staff obtained by Bloomberg. Pamela Cox, a veteran of 33 years who mos

LONDON (AP) ― Barclays, Britain’s second-largest bank, plans to issue new shares worth 5.8 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) to shore up its capital and satisfy new regulatory requirements meant to prevent a repeat of the 2008 crisis. Its stock price plunged as investors worried dividends would be cut and share value diluted. The sale of stock to existing shareholders was announced Tuesday along with the bank’s first half earnings, and came after the Prudential Regulation Authority told Barclays and

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The Federal Reserve opened a two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday expected to steer a steady course and provide little insight into the eventual reeling back of enormous stimulus.The Federal Open Market Committee’s post-meeting statement will be parsed for clues on when, and how quickly, the Fed will begin to taper its $85 billion-a-month asset-purchases program.The FOMC meeting opened at 2:00 p.m., a Fed spokesman said.The policymakers gathered after news that consumer

BEIJING (AP) ― President Xi Jinping called Tuesday for authorities to curb financial risks as concerns mount in China about rising debts owed by companies and local governments.Xi’s order, in a speech at a cabinet meeting, came after the government this week announced a nationwide audit of local government debts.The rare public comments about the economy by China’s president and Communist Party leader come as Beijing faces pressure to reverse a downturn that depressed growth to a two-decade low