Wall Street has rewarded its most patient investors handsomely over the past 10 years. Is there more to come? The S&P 500, the U.S. market’s benchmark index, has gained about 309 percent since bottoming out at 676.53 points in March 2009 during the Great Recession, according to FactSet. The index …

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday called Venezuela one of the most “complex situations” it had ever seen.    IMF spokesman Gerry Rice described Venezuela and its economy as a combination of “food and nutrition crises, hyperinflation, a destabilized exchange rate, debilitating human capital and physical productive capacity, and a …

Chinese tech giant Huawei has sued the U.S. government, arguing that legislation Congress passed last year that restricts its business in the United States is “unconstitutional.” The case, which analysts see more as a public relations move, is but the latest in an intensifying effort by the telecommunications company to …

Marin Mendez leaned a shoulder into his rusty Chevy Malibu rolling it forward each time the line of cars inched closer to the pump. Waiting hours to fill up, he says, is the high cost he pays for gasoline that’s nearly free in socialist Venezuela. “You line up to get …

Celebrity chef Mario Batali on Wednesday said he had cut ties with his U.S. restaurants after being accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. Batali has sold his shares in the 16-restaurant operation, including Babbo and Del Posto in New York, to former partners Tanya Bastianich Manuali and her brother, …

U.S. officials have warned at an energy conference in Brussels that the Trump administration will take punitive action against European companies that are building the Kremlin-favored Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which will deliver energy from Russia to Germany while bypassing Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 (NS2) will largely replace …

Leaders of Mexico’s agricultural sector are urging “mirror measures” on U.S. farm imports in politically sensitive products such as yellow corn and poultry, in an effort they argue would counter decades of subsidized imports from the United States. The three-month-old government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is currently working …

It is Friday morning, and the southeastern fringe of Kibera slum comes alive as teams of women and youngsters converge on the edge of the Nairobi dam. There, on its northern perimeter, some rake and pile garbage for collection while others plant saplings on cleared terrain. Known as riparian land, …

Publication of a U.N. database of companies with business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has been delayed again, drawing the ire of activists who have campaigned for three years. The issue is highly sensitive as companies appearing in such a database could be targeted for boycotts …

Tax cuts and increased defense spending are among the measures China will introduce this year to boost its flagging economy.  Premier Li Keqiang announced the measures Tuesday on the opening day of China’s annual National People’s Congress in Beijing.  Li told the legislators that policymakers are targeting economic growth of …

The speed and elegant appearance of the Concorde inspired awe. Its ear-rattling sonic booms irritated people on the ground and led to restrictions on where the jet could fly.   The Concorde’s maiden flight was 50 years ago this month. Although the plane went out of service in 2003, its …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday extended by one year sanctions against Zimbabwe saying that the new government’s policies continue to pose an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to U.S. foreign policy. The renewal comes despite calls by African leaders, including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, for the sanctions to be …

Sharp differences have emerged between the United States and Britain over farming standards and practices in any post-Brexit trade deal.   The trans-Atlantic allies have already begun exploratory talks on a trade agreement after Britain’s EU exit, which is scheduled for March 29. Britain, however, is resisting U.S. demands to …

London and Washington are beginning exploratory talks over a trade deal after Britain leaves the European Union – which both sides say could deliver huge economic benefits. But already sharp differences have emerged over what might be included, as Britain resists U.S. demands to open its markets to agricultural products …

The Trump administration is preparing to tighten the six-decade trade embargo on Cuba on Monday by allowing some lawsuits against foreign companies using properties confiscated by the Cuban government after its 1959 revolution, U.S. officials say. Every president since Bill Clinton has suspended a section of the 1996 Helms-Burton act …

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average snapped a three-day run of losses on Friday as optimism about the prospects for a U.S.-China trade agreement countered downbeat U.S. and China manufacturing data.  The Nasdaq, meanwhile, marked its longest streak of weekly gains since late 1999.  Following President Donald Trump’s announcement last …

U.S. consumer spending tumbled 0.5 percent in December, the biggest decline in nine years, as the holiday shopping season ended in disappointment. Meanwhile, incomes rose sharply in December but edged down in January. The fall in consumer spending followed sizable gains of 0.7 percent in October and 0.6 percent in …

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed the nation’s first statewide mandatory rent control measure on Thursday, giving a victory to housing advocates who say spiraling rent costs in the economically booming state have fueled widespread homelessness and housing insecurity.      Brown, a Democrat, said the legislation will provide “some immediate relief …

Tesla says it is now taking orders for the long-awaited $35,000 Model 3, will close stores and move to online orders. Tesla says it is now taking orders for the long-awaited $35,000 Model 3, a car for the masses that is essential for the company to survive. The company says …

Gap Inc. said Thursday that it would separate its Old Navy brand into a publicly traded company in order to focus on its struggling namesake apparel business, sending its shares up 18 percent.  Old Navy has had a better success than the Gap brand in recent years as a wide range of budget apparel …

Online crafts retailer Etsy Inc will go green by offsetting planet-warming carbon emissions from its shipping activities, the U.S. company said Wednesday, joining a host of companies making public moves to battle climate change. Etsy will buy clean energy certificates supporting tree conservation in the United States, wind and solar …

The United States won a World Trade Organization ruling Thursday that China subsidized its wheat and rice producers too much in recent years. The WTO in Geneva agreed with the U.S. position that Beijing paid its farmers excessive amounts for growing wheat, Indica rice and Japonica rice from 2012 to …

As Walmart moves to phase out its familiar blue-vested “greeters” at 1,000 stores nationwide, disabled workers who fill many of those jobs say they’re being ill-treated by a chain that styles itself as community-minded and inclusive.    Walmart told greeters around the country last week that their positions would be eliminated …

Women around the world are granted only three-quarters of the legal rights enjoyed by men, often preventing them from getting jobs or opening businesses, the World Bank said in study published Wednesday.    “If women have equal opportunities to reach their full potential, the world would not only be fairer, it …

The Federal Reserve will stop shrinking its $4 trillion balance sheet later this year, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, ending a process that investors say works at cross-purposes with the Fed’s current pause on interest rate hikes.  “We’ve worked out, I think, the framework of a plan that we hope to be able to …