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The Justice Department has filed a record 14 overseas-bribery cases so far this year - more than in the previous two years combined.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The underlying rate of U.S. inflation accelerated in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The consumer price index increased 0.8%, driven by a 5.7% gain in energy prices, the fastest increase in energy prices since March. This is the biggest gain in consumer prices in more than two years. Food prices rose 0.3%, and apparel, airline and drug prices also spiked. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, was up 0.3% in November, the biggest gain since January. Economists were expecting the CPI to rise 0.7% in November after a 0.3% gain in October. The core rate was expected to rise 0.2% after rising 0.2% in the previous month.

THE year-on-year growth rate of China's home prices last month hit a two-year high, a senior official in the nation's top planning body has said. The average home price in 70 major cities rose 10.5 percent last month compared with a year ago, and average new home prices grew 12.2 percent year-on-year, Cao Changqing, head of the pricing department at the National Development and Reform Commission, said yesterday in an online interview. But Cao did not reveal last month's growth rate over October. The average housing price in these cities has increased six consecutive months, including November. In the first 11 months of this year, home prices in 70 cities increased 7.3 percent from the previous year, while new residences jumped 7.9 percent. Shenzhen and Guangzhou's home prices began to drop gradually after hiking in previous months, while home sales in popular areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou have decreased, Cao said. Property policies will meet the

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Inventories at U.S. businesses rose 0.1% in October, below expectations and slower than the 0.7% increase in sales, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The inventory-to-sales ratio, an indication of demand, fell to 1.26 in October from 1.27 in the previous month. This is the lowest inventory-to-sales ratio since July. Economists had been expecting the nation's inventories to rise 0.3% in October. A new piece of data in the report was the 0.4% increase in October retail inventories, which follows a 0.1% gain in September.

The employment report for November, released Friday by the US Labor Department, showed a decline in job-creation over the previous month. Overall, non-farm payrolls rose by 94,000, sharply down from the 170,000 rise in October.

OIL futures retreated yesterday, giving back much of the previous session's big gain after the government's November jobs report was not as robust as some traders had hoped. The Labor Department report "wasn't a blockbuster number that would keep feeding the oil bull," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp, in Chicago. The report showed employers added 94,000 jobs to their payrolls in November following October's 170,000 gain. The data quashed the hopes of some oil investors that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by a half percent instead of the more widely expected quarter percent when it meets Tuesday, Flynn said. Interest rate cuts tend to weaken the dollar against other currencies. Oil futures offer a hedge against a weak dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling. Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell US$1.95 to settle at US$88.28 a barrel on the New

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures traded slightly higher Wednesday, after tumbling over 3% in the previous session, as traders awaited supply data from the Energy Department due later this morning.

CRUDE oil futures closed down in choppy trading yesterday, failing to breach US$100 a barrel after the government reported that crude oil inventories at a key Midwest oil terminal rose for the first time in weeks. The news helped offset the market impact of an overall drop in crude oil stocks. Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell 74 cents to settle at US$97.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Stocks of distillates, including heating oil, also dropped more than expected last week, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported. That could mean more bad news for heating oil customers already expecting costs to rise 22 percent this winter. Heating oil futures fell 0.27 cent to settle at US$2.6874 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier hitting US$2.7154, a new record. Crude prices -- which rose as high as US$99.29 on the New York Mercantile Exchange earlier Wednesday and broke the previous intraday record of US$98.62

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- First-time seasonally adjusted claims for state unemployment benefits fell in the latest week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The number of initial claims in the week ending Nov. 17 fell 11,000 to 330,000. Wall Street economists had expected claims to hit 330,000. Jobless claims in the previous week were revised to 341,000, compared with the initial estimate of a rise of 20,000 to 339,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial claims fell 750 to 329,750. Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits increased 7,000 to 2.57 million in the week ending Nov. 10. The four-week seasonally adjusted moving average of continuing claims rose 10,750 to 2.57 million.

Crude oil futures rose yesterday as traders closed out December contracts and also on investors' belief that supplies are not as plentiful as a government report at first suggested. Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $1.67 to settle at $95.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But January crude, which now becomes the front-month contract, closed $1.26 below that, settling up $1.77 at $93.84 a barrel. December crude had lost 66 cents in the previous session after the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected 2.8 million barrel increase in inventories last week. But much of that supply build occurred on the West Coast, where the energy infrastructure is largely isolated from the rest of the U.S., analysts said. "I think the market may have realized overnight that that EIA report wasn't that bearish," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois. Reports that ministers from

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures closed with strong gains on Friday, rebounding from their decline in the previous session when the Energy Department reported an unexpected rise in crude inventories. Crude oil for December delivery rose $1.67 to end at $95.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Net foreign acquisition of long-maturity U.S. securities totaled $5.8 billion in September, recovering from record sales the previous month, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report released Friday.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The consumer price index increased 0.3% in October, driven by a 1.4% gain in energy prices, the Labor Department said Thursday. This was the fastest increase in energy prices since May. Food prices rose 0.3%. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, was up 0.2% in October. Economists were expecting the CPI to rise 0.3% in October after a 0.3% gain in September. The core rate was expected to rise 0.2% in October after rising 0.2% in the previous month.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - First-time claims for state unemployment benefits jumped in the latest week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The number of initial claims in the week ending Nov 10 rose 20,000 to 339,000. It's the highest level since the week ended Oct. 13. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists was for claims to rise to 325,000. A spokesman for the Labor Department said there were no special factors but anecdotal evidence suggested that the strike by Hollywood writers may have impacted claims. Jobless claims in the previous week were revised to a decrease of 10,000 to 319,000 compared with the initial estimate of a fall of 13,000 to 317,000. The four-week average of initial claims remained steady at 330,000. Meanwhile, the number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits fell 7,000 to 2.57 million in the week ending Nov. 3. The four-week moving average of continuing claims rose 11,000 to 2.56 million.

WASHINGTON Retail sales managed a small increase in October as consumers struggle to cope with a steep slump in housing, tighter credit conditions and soaring energy costs. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that retail sales edged up 0.2 percent in October compared to the previous month. It was the weakest showing since a 0.1 percent rise in August and represented a significant slowdown from a 0.7 percent jump in September sales. The weakness last month reflected a 0.5 percent drop in sales at department stores, where merchants were hurt by a wamer-than-normal October which depre

The average weekly wage increased 8.1 percent in Allegheny County in the first quarter of 2007 from the previous year, the largest advance in the commonwealth, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday.

CORN fell the most last week on speculation that higher supplies in China, the world's largest consumer of the grain, will cut demand for imports. China will produce 145 million metric tons of corn this season, up from 143 million estimated in October, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report on Friday. That would push the country's reserves to 28.1 million tons before the next harvest, up from 25.7 million estimated a month ago. Still, the stocks would 14 percent off from the previous year, Bloomberg News said. "The trade is unlikely to think that the Chinese are going to import corn anytime soon," said Mike Zuzolo, president of Risk Management Commodities Inc in Lafayette, Indiana. Speculation that China would become a net importer of corn for the first time in 12 years helped push corn prices up 12 percent in the past two months, he said. Corn futures for December delivery fell 2.75 cents, or 0.7 percent, to US$3.8675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade,

As the price of oil gets close to the totemic $100 mark there’s much talk about whether an all time high has been reached this week. According to the US Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration a record has been set this week as the previous inflation-adjusted high was $93.48 a barrel, which was reached in January 1981. But the International Energy Agency says that the previous record was $101.70 in April 1980 while Cambridge Energy Research Associates has yet another figure, $99.04 again in April 1980. What’s certain is that oil is very close to being the most expensive

NINE senior officials at China's biggest liquor maker have been handed over to prosecutors on charges of corruption and bribery, Xinhua news agency reported today. Wang Xiaojin, former chairman of Anhui Gujing Group Co, has been expelled from the National People's Congress, the report said. Illicit money involved in the case ranged from 300,000 yuan (US$40,214) to five million yuan, the report said. Guo Xinmin, deputy manager of the sales department of Gujing Distillery Co, allegedly received more than five million yuan in bribes and Zhu Renwang, former general manager of the department, received a total of two million yuan from more than 30 clients, Bozhou prosecutors said. Vice president Li Yunjie received more than two million yuan, the prosecutors said. Other involved officials are Ruan Kunhua, Gan Shaoyu and Li Wanlin, the prosecutors said. Wang and his wife were taken from their home by the Party's disciplinary personnel in April. Previous reports said that

World oil prices aimed higher Wednesday after shedding around US$3 the previous day on profit-taking as traders bet on rising energy reserves in the United States. Later Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) publishes its weekly snapshot of American crude oil inventories at 1430 GMT.