Industries

Wal-Mart Brings Back 300 Items to U.S. Stores After Losing Shopper Visits Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, returned about 300 items to its U.S. stores after their removal last year hurt shopper traffic.

Myer First-Half Earnings Slump on Expenses From Initial Public Offering Myer Holdings Ltd.’s first-half earnings fell 74 percent on costs from the November initial public offering of Australia’s biggest department-store chain.

MORE 

Crude Oil Falls on Concern China May End Stimulus Spending, Slow Demand Crude oil fell on speculation Chinese demand will slow as the government may end stimulus programs amid an increase in inflation and concern that recent price gains outpaced demand growth in the U.S.

BP to Pay $7 Billion for Devon's Assets in Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Caspian BP Plc, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, will pay Devon Energy Corp. $7 billion for assets in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and Azerbaijan, adding fields that may extend its production lead over Exxon Mobil Corp.

MORE 

Fed Shoulders AIG Japan Mortgage Losses to Ease Sale of Alico to MetLife The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Group Inc. agreed to shoulder as much as $450 million in losses tied to the insurer’s Japan real estate bets as part of the sale of a division to MetLife Inc.

HSBC Private Bank Says Data Were Stolen on 15,000 Accounts in Switzerland HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private bank said it suffered “serious data theft” affecting about 15,000 Swiss-based accounts.

MORE 

Obama Vows to Curb Waste, `Massive' Insurer Subsidies to Fund Health Bill President Barack Obama made his case for an overhaul of the U.S. medical system to Missouri voters, emphasizing his efforts to curb waste and fraud in government health programs.

Personalized Genetic-Based Medicine Spurred by Medco's Cost-Saving Tests Medco Health Solutions Inc., the second-biggest U.S. manager of drug benefits, is encouraging doctors to use genetic tests to determine whether drugs will work for particular patients -- saving money and reducing harm caused when prescriptions are wrong.

MORE 

MetLife Expands Beyond `Slow Growth' U.S. With Alico Buy, Henrikson Says MetLife Inc., the insurer spending $15.5 billion to buy an overseas unit from American International Group Inc., said lower growth in the U.S. market is prompting expansion abroad.

AIG's `Money in the Door' Asset Sales Garner $3.2 Billion for Bondholders American International Group Inc. bondholders reaped at least $3.2 billion after the bailed-out company announced deals to sell its two largest non-U.S. life insurance divisions for $51 billion.

MORE 

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rise at Slowest Pace in Four Years on State Aid U.S. foreclosure filings rose at the slowest pace in four years in February as the government sought to reduce record bank seizures, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Home Equity Lending That Fueled U.S. Consumer Spending Starts to Recover John Hale’s four-bedroom house near Seattle is worth about $2 million and is 90 percent paid for. It still took him nine months to find a bank that would give him a $250,000 home equity line of credit.

MORE 

FTC Said to Ask Google Rivals for Statement on AdMob, May Signal Challenge U.S. regulators are seeking sworn declarations from Google Inc. competitors and advertisers as part of their probe of the Internet company’s bid to buy AdMob Inc., indicating the government may challenge the deal, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Global Box-Office Sales Rose to a Record $29.9 Billion in 2009, MPAA Says Global box-office sales increased 7.6 percent to a record $29.9 billion last year, helped by 3-D movies and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

MORE 

Geely May Need to Invest `Minimum' $1.4 Billion to Revive Volvo Auto Brand Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. may have to spend at least 10 billion kronor ($1.4 billion) to revive Volvo Cars after buying the Swedish brand from Ford Motor Co., Volvo union officials and board members said.

China's Vehicle Prices Rise Most in at Least Four Years Amid Higher Demand China’s vehicle prices rose the most in at least four years in February as consumers took advantage of government incentives to buy new cars and trucks, contributing to a 16-month-high rate of inflation.

MORE