NEW YORK - US STOCKS fell on Friday as investors digested a batch of better-than-expected earnings reports and braced for a likely big bank bankruptcy.
NEW YORK - TROUBLED US banking giant Citigroup said Friday it earned a profit of US$4.3 billion (S$6.22 billion) in the second quarter, resulting from a big one-time gain on a joint brokerage venture.
Citi's results rebounded from a US$2.49 billion loss in the same period a year ago, but the profit came from a one-time pretax gain of US$6.7 billion, or US$11.1 billion before taxes, from creating the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney joint brokerage.
WASHINGTON - CONSTRUCTION of new US homes rose in June to the highest level in seven months, a sign builders are starting to regain confidence as they emerge from the housing bust.
LONDON - BRITISH nline retail sales growth picked up in June, but will slow in the second half of the year compared with the first, according to IMRG, the industry body for online retailers, and consultants Capgemini.
IMRG/Capgemini forecast on Friday that online sales would rise 12 percent in the second half of this year on the same period of 2008, down from their previous estimate of 15 percent.
