EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) ― Former British Open champion Karen Stupples of England shot a 5-under 67 for a share of the first-round lead with Sweden’s Maria Hjorth and South Korea’s Ahn Shin-ae at the Evian Masters on Thursday.Ahn Shin-ae of South Korea hits a drive during the Evian Masters Golf Tournament in Evian-les-Bains, French Alps on Thursday. (AFP-Yonhap News)Stupples, who won her only

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― The changing face of the computer industry was on display Wednesday as two companies representing the old guard and the new issued strong results for the latest quarter.Intel, a bedrock of the PC business, and Qualcomm, a vanguard in mobile computing, showed how companies at opposite ends of the computing spectrum are adapting to a market that’s in intense upheaval. The Intel

 

 

 

 MILAN (AFP) ― Italian financial markets fell sharply on Monday, with investors finding no reassurance in the adoption of a huge austerity budget as the eurozone debt crisis savaged confidence.Milan’s main index, the FTSE MIB, fell steadily through the day and closed down 3.06 percent at 17.885,74 points, with bank shares the worst hit. A man looking a stock exchange board monitor is reflected in

NEW YORK (AP) ― Gold’s reputation as a safe place for your money sent it above $1,600 for the first time.Investors are worried about debt problems on both sides of the Atlantic. So they bid gold up $12.30 an ounce Monday to settle at $1,602.40. That’s a record for the market price for gold, but below its 1980 peak after adjusting for inflation. An ounce of gold at that time cost $850, or about $2,

 

NEW YORK (AP) ― Time is running out for Washington to raise the country’s borrowing limit and avoid a default. Wall Street isn’t panicking yet. But if the unthinkable happens, a default could strike financial markets like an earthquake.“If we just get higher longer-term interest rates, we’d be lucky,” said John Briggs, Treasury strategist at the Royal Bank of Scotland.What might markets look like

 

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Regulators on Friday shut down four small banks in three states, boosting to 55 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.The overall pace of closures, however, has slowed this year as banks work their way through piles of bad debt. A slow, but improving U.S. economy also has helped stem the number of bank casualties this year. By this time last year, regulators had closed 96 ba

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ― Eight of 90 European banks flunked stress tests projecting how they would fare in another recession, and 16 more barely passed ― but analysts doubted Friday’s results would succeed in restoring confidence in the continent’s shaky financial sector.Some countries challenged the results as inaccurate and overly pessimistic, saying they would not force their weaker banks to r

On debt crisis, Obama makes direct appeal to U.S. public: ‘We are all in this together’WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama appealed for public support Saturday to push Congress to avert an unprecedented default on America’s national debt as lawmakers worked on dual tracks to reach an elusive deal.Obama wants lawmakers to approve a giant package that would not only prevent a default by raising

 

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may feel surrounded when he testifies before Congress this week.From his left, Democrats will demand to know what the Fed can do to create jobs, especially after the government reported last week that unemployment rose to 9.2 percent in June and the economy generated just 18,000 net new jobs.From his right, Republicans will likely question th

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde conducts a press conference in Washington, D.C. on July 6. (AFP-Yonhap News)WASHINGTON (AP) ― The International Monetary Fund’s new chief foresees “real nasty consequences” for the U.S. and global economies if the U.S. fails to raise its borrowing limit.Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the lending institution, said in an interview broadcast Sunday