BUSINESS
March 7, 2012 | By Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times
Renewed fears of a European recession are threatening to derail the stock market's 2012 rally. Stock indexes around the world experienced their sharpest drops of the year Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average logging its first triple-digit loss since December. Over the last five months the blue-chip index has risen more than 20% to its highest point since before the financial crisis, driven by good economic data in the U.S. and growing hope that European leaders had contained the debt crisis there.
BUSINESS
February 10, 2012 | By Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times
Wall Street logged its worst week so far this year as investors worried that negotiations over a Greek bailout have unraveled, sending major U.S. stock indexes lower. Investors had mostly shrugged off worries about Europe's efforts to contain its debt crisis, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 4.6% since January. However, the blue-chip index shed nearly half a percentage point this last week after European leaders turned down the latest plan to bail out Greece. That pushed the Dow to its worst one-day drop in 2012 as it fell 89.23 points, or 0.7%, to 12,801.23 on Friday.
BUSINESS
January 3, 2012 | By Nathaniel Popper
Stocks rose sharply on the first trading day of 2012 as upbeat U.S. economic data overshadowed continuing concerns about the European debt crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 240.45 points, or 2%, to 12,458.01 in early trading Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 2%. The market opened higher after the Institute for Supply Management reported Tuesday that its monthly index of manufacturing activity rose in December, marking its third straight increase and providing more evidence that the U.S. economy is in recovery mode.
WORLD
November 29, 2011 | By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times
In the white-knuckle game of chicken that the euro crisis has increasingly become, three players are staring one another down: the markets, the masses and Merkel. As time runs out to save the shared currency and avert global economic pandemonium, the question of who will blink first is likely to become clear over the next few days while European leaders prepare for a crucial summit. All three players are refusing to budge, making it difficult to tell who will yield or whether their intransigence will result in mutually assured destruction.
NEWS
November 28, 2011 | By Christi Parsons
President Obama pushed European officials today to take quick action to end their debt crisis, highlighting the growing concerns about the impact their troubles could have on the U.S. economy. But while Obama announced that U.S. is “ready to do our part” to help Europe resolve its problems, the leaders didn't detail new plans as they emerged from a series of meetings at the White House. Much of the annual summit between the U.S. and the European Union focused on the euro-zone crisis, Obama told reporters after his meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
WORLD
November 10, 2011 | By Anthee Carassava, Los Angeles Times
Lucas Papademos, a banker and visiting professor at Harvard University, on Thursday landed one of the world's least popular jobs: prime minister of Greece. After days of haggling, Greece's two main political parties named Papademos, a trained economist and former governor of the Greek central bank, as the financially strapped country's new prime minister for at least the next few months. In his first public statement, the soft-speaking 64-year-old tried to allay public concerns and instill some semblance of hope.