Financial Market News

WALL Street stocks wobbled before ending with slender gains today as investors shrugged off disappointing US data showing unemployment above 10 per cent, to end a strong week on an upbeat note.

As unemployment in the United States edges above 10 percent, anxious investors will look to earnings reports from major retailers for signs of life in the beaten-up consumer.

The jump in US unemployment above 10 percent for the first time since 1983 will pressure President Barack Obama to find additional stimulus to keep a fragile economic recovery on track, analysts say.

At a McDonalda s Corp . test kitchen in an unmarked Illinois warehouse, next yeara s menu plan for the U.K. has hit a snag.

The Toronto stock market advanced Friday as investors dealt with dismal employment data from Canada and the United States and as gold stocks continued to run ahead amid record high bullion prices.

A businessman takes an escalator as a stock quotation board is reflected on a window in Tokyo in this June 23, 2009 HONG KONG: Asian stocks rose ahead of the latest U.S. payrolls report on Friday, expected to show the fewest job losses since August 2008, while oil prices recovered to $80 a barrel after a sharp drop on high U.S. fuel inventories.

U.S. stocks were set to fall Friday after the government reported higher-than-expected payroll losses for October and an increase in unemployment.

Stock markets rose today ahead of the release of key U.S. jobs data, which markets use to gauge the health of consumer spending in the world's largest economy in the run-up to the year-end holiday season.

Nov. 5 -- Bloomberg's Deborah Kostroun reports on the performance of the U.S. equity market today.

Mining stocks have had nice runs but even with a few bumps in the road, the trend is still clearly higher for miners and the metal.

The Toronto stock market was little changed early Thursday morning as commodity stocks retreated amid some positive U.S. employment data that came a day before the release of the government's unemployment report.

Big bonuses could be back in store for some top executives and traders on Wall Street as profitability returned to the investment banking industry in 2009, according to a new study released Thursday.

And again it is the U.S. currency that is getting most of the blame. The U.S. dollar gave up more ground against the euro early Wednesday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that the U.S. economic activity has continued to "pick up," and decided to keep a key interest rate unchanged at a record low of between zero to 0.25 percent to prop up the economy.

Nov. 4 -- Bloomberg's Deborah Kostroun reports on the performance of the U.S. equity market today.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday expressed growing confidence that an economic recovery was building, even though it stuck to its commitment to keep borrowing costs near zero for "an extended period." As expected, the central bank closed out a two-day meeting with a decision to keep benchmark overnight interest rates in a range of zero to 0.25 ...

A worker walks past the building "Guangzhou International Finance Center IFC" in the Central Business District CBD in Guangzhou, southern city of China Wednesday, Nov.

An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Chengdu, Sichuan province December 8, 2008.

Stock futures are indicating a higher opening Wednesday on Wall Street as investors await the Federal Reserve's latest assessment of the economy.

Gold prices surged to a new high Tuesday on news that India's central bank bought $6.7 billion worth of gold from the International Monetary Fund.