Grave business - my financial world

U.S. home prices dropped at the sharpest rate in two decades during the first quarter, a closely watched index showed Tuesday. It’s a somber indication that the housing slump continues to deepen.
Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller said its national home price index fell 14.1% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, to its lowest […]

The dollar sank against most major currencies on Friday, after oil prices rebounded from a brief decline and a private realty group reported that existing-home sales dropped for the eighth time in nine months.
The 15-nation euro rose to $1.5775 in late New York trading from $1.5699 late Thursday.
Oil prices rose again Friday, after tumbling […]

Companies that were sued over contaminated pet food linked to the deaths of perhaps thousands of dogs and cats have agreed to pay $24 million to pet owners in the United States and Canada.
The settlement is detailed in papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Camden. It still needs a judge’s approval.
"The […]

A former Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) manager who built a system of slush funds and fake contracts for the engineering giant told a court he later tried to stop the systematic bribery but top managers failed to act.
Defending himself against 58 charges of breach of trust, Reinhardt Siekaczek said on Monday he had […]

It’s being characterized as the worst natural disaster to strike the world’s most populous country in three decades and it has left an estimated 5 million people homeless.
So will the earthquake that devastated China’s Sichuan Province earlier this month — and the massive reconstruction to follow — improve the sales of construction equipment […]

Tibor Urbanek is down, but certainly not out.
The founder and president of Markham-based Woodbine Tool & Die, a supplier of components to the automotive sector, has seen better days during his three decades in business. Auto sales are declining. Parts suppliers from China, Korea and other cheap-labour markets are luring work away. The strong Canadian […]

Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. fell in April and the supply of unsold properties reached a record, signaling no let-up in the 27-month housing slump.
Purchases declined 1 percent to an annual rate of 4.89 million, higher than forecast, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median price […]

U.K. retail sales fell for a second month in April as slumping house prices, faster inflation and the dearth of credit discouraged spending.
Sales declined 0.2 percent from March, when they dropped by the same amount, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. Economists forecast a 0.5 percent drop, the median of […]

Investor confidence in Germany unexpectedly fell for a second month in May on concern faster inflation, the stronger euro and fallout from the U.S. housing slump will hurt economic growth.
The ZEW Center for European Economic Research said its index of investor and analyst expectations declined to minus 41.4 from minus 40.7 in April. […]

Financial investing is "like a foreign language to me," writes Carol (not her real name), who recently retired and sold her house.
"I most definitely want to take charge of my investments, but do not know where to begin."
In our latest Money 911 series, launched on April 6, we’ve been looking at how ordinary investors […]