The international airport in the capital of Costa Rica, will be too small to meet the air traffic needs of Costa Rica in the next 10 years. In 1996 the U.S. consultancy firm TAMS Inc. "recommended the Civil Aviation authority to move the administration of Juan Santamaria Airport into private hands, while a new terminal was being built", which should be operational in 2020. Nacion.com reports...

NEW YORK | Thu Nov 15, 2012 11:19am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said it likely would increase its production rate on 737 jets beyond its current forecast, which calls for 42 a month starting in the second quarter of 2014. The company is currently building a third production line at its factory in Renton, Washington, to accommodate the 737 M...

NEW YORK | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:36am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed at the open on Thursday as weak results from Wal-Mart and a rise in initial jobless claims gave investors little reason to buy after declines in the prior two sessions. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 13.22 points, or 0.11 percent, to 12,557.73. The Stand...

CINCINNATI | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:15am EST CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) now plans to cut another 2 percent to 4 percent of its non-manufacturing staff, on top of a continuing 10 percent reduction, and said it may increase stock repurchases to $6 billion from $4 billion. The world's largest maker of household products laid out its l...

By Jason Lange WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:10am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Superstorm Sandy drove new claims for jobless benefits to a 1-1/2 year high last week, a sign the deadly storm could hold back economic growth by leaving tens of thousands of people temporarily out of work. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 78,000 to ...

By Brad Dorfman Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:58am EST (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported quarterly sales below analysts' expectations on Thursday, while sales at established U.S. discount stores trailed Wall Street estimates and traffic fell in China. The company also saw sales in Japan sag as the economy weakened."Across all of our markets, we are seeing the...

Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:53am EST (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) said on Thursday it is replacing Jan Fields, president of its U.S. business. The move comes a week after the world's largest hamburger chain reported its first monthly decline in global restaurant sales in nine years.Fields, 57, will be succeeded by Jeff Stratton, currently the company's global chief...

Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:40am EST (Reuters) - Target Corp's quarterly profit beat Wall Street forecasts as the discount chain lured shoppers with a wider variety of food products and 5 percent discounts for its cardholders. Target said it had earned $637 million, or 96 cents per share, in the third quarter ended on October 27, up from $555 million, or 82 cents a share,...

Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:28am EST (Reuters) - Viacom Inc (VIAB.O) reported a rise in quarterly profit, defying weak box-office sales and a challenging advertising environment. The company said on Thursday that fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 12 percent to $643 million even though revenue fell 17 percent."At the end of the day, I think they are really focused on o...

By Sarah Young LONDON | Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:11am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Commodity trader Glencore's $32 billion takeover of Swiss miner Xstrata looked set to go ahead after winning the backing of Qatar Holdings, the bid target's second-largest shareholder. Qatar, an unexpected kingmaker in Glencore's bid for Xstrata, said on Thursday it would vote...

By Robin Emmott and Michelle Martin BRUSSELS/BERLIN | Thu Nov 15, 2012 7:13am EST BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The debt crisis dragged the euro zone into its second recession since 2009 in the third quarter despite modest growth in Germany and France, data showed on Thursday. The two leading economies both managed 0.2 percent growth in the July-to...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:36pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poor management decisions by MF Global former CEO Jon Corzine triggered the brokerage firm's collapse, while lax protections for customer funds contributed to the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion of customer money, congressional investigators have determined. Evidence unearthed by the House...

By Lisa Baertlein and Martinne Geller Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:23pm EST (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) on Wednesday announced plans to buy Teavana Holdings Inc (TEA.N) for $620 million in cash, with the goal of replicating the success it has had with its namesake coffee shops. Teavana has about 300 shopping mall stores that sell loose-leaf, exotic teas. In...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 5:58pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slid on Wednesday with declines accelerating after President Barack Obama set up a drawn-out fight over the fiscal cliff when he stuck to his pledge to raise taxes on the wealthy, and as violence increased in the Middle East. Obama, in his first press conference ...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:46pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - MF Global's collapse and the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion in customer money was triggered by former CEO Jon Corzine's poor management decisions and lax protections for customer funds, a congressional investigation has determined. The findings...

By Nick Brown NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:44pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co (EKDKQ.PK) won court permission on Wednesday to retain exclusive control of its bankruptcy case through February 28 as it tries to execute a $793 million financing offer from a group of bondholders. Judge Alan Gropper approved the extension at a hearing in ...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:41pm EST (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc named 70 new partners to its 2012 partnership class, the smallest number since the investment bank went public in 1999. Goldman's partner naming, a relic from its past as a private investment bank, occurs every two years and is a closely watched event on Wall Street. The prior partner class in 2010 i...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:21pm EST (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp has been accused in a $250 million lawsuit of continuing to bill and failing to offer refunds to more than 1 million customers who lost TV, Internet or phone service because of Hurricane Sandy. The complaint, filed on Tuesday with the New York State Supreme Court in Nassau County, said Cablevision h...

NEW YORK | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:53pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks briefly trimmed losses on Wednesday as President Barack Obama pushed for his proposal to have the wealthy pay more in taxes as a way to tame the federal deficit. Taking a hard line in his opening bid before he begins fiscal talks with U.S. lawmakers later in the week, the president also s...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:24pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retail sales fell in October for the first time in three months as superstorm Sandy slammed the brakes on automobile purchases, suggesting a loss of momentum in spending early in the fourth quarter. Other data on Wednesday showed little inflation, with wholesale pr...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 11:04am EST (Reuters) - Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF.N) teen clothing retailer posted a higher quarterly profit on Wednesday after improved demand in foreign markets, prompting the company to forecast yearly earnings above Wall Street's estimates. Shares of the company, which hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) in September to help ward off p...

By Keith Weir LONDON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 10:23am EST LONDON (Reuters) - A strong start to the season and new sponsorship deals have reinforced English Premier League soccer club Manchester United's confidence it will hit this year's financial targets despite lower first-quarter earnings. United, English champions a record 19 times, said they had c...

Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:51am EST (Reuters) - Staples Inc's (SPLS.O) quarterly profit edged past Wall Street's estimates as the largest U.S. office supply chain cut costs and sales in North America held up, although weakness in Europe and Australia hit overall revenue. Shares of the company, which also reiterated its full-year profit and sales forecasts, rose 4.5 perce...

By Sonali Paul PERTH | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:48am EST PERTH (Reuters) - BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) expects to expand its iron ore capacity by nearly a fifth just by working its mines, rail lines and port harder as it looks to control costs in a softer iron ore market, the global miner's iron ore chief said on Wednesday. Uncertainty over iron ore ...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:20pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks sold off late in the session on Tuesday, led by a slide in Microsoft shares, though retailers were a notable bright spot after Home Depot raised its outlook. Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) was the most actively traded on Nasdaq, weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composi...

FRANKFURT | Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:06am EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Ford's (F.N) decision to close three factories and cull 5,700 jobs in Europe will not serve as a blueprint for General Motors' (GM.N) Opel unit, where upcoming cuts will be far milder, the German carmaker's top labour leader said. Mass market carmakers Ford, Opel, Peugeot (PEUP.PA) and Fiat (F...

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK | Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:45am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Tuesday amid investor concern about the looming U.S. "fiscal cliff" debate and how a lack of agreement in Congress could hurt the nation's economy. Equities have been pressured in recent sessions by worries over the cliff - a series of budge...

By Andrew Callus and Douglas Busvine LONDON/MOSCOW | Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:37am EST LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - British oil company BP (BP.L) took a further step towards closer ties with Russian state oil company Rosneft (ROSN.MM) on Tuesday as the partners in its existing venture in the oil-rich country dropped their opposition to the tie-up. AAR, th...

By Martinne Geller Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:24am EST (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc (HD.N) reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday and raised its full-year outlook as the world's largest home improvement chain benefited from a recent uptick in the U.S. housing market. The nascent recovery in housing has encouraged professional contractors to buy...

By Jan Strupczewski and Annika Breidthardt BRUSSELS | Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:17am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A public clash between Greece's international lenders over how Athens can bring its debts down to a sustainable level has reignited fears that the crisis could flare up anew. Euro zone finance ministers suggested that Greece, where the euro zone...

LONDON | Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:51am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone (VOD.L) wrote down the value of its business in Spain and Italy by 5.9 billion pounds ($9.4 billion) and lowered its full-year outlook on Tuesday after reporting its first fall since 2010 in its key organic service revenue metric. The British company posted a 1.4 percent fall in group organ...

By Braden Reddall Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:21am EST (Reuters) - Albert Einstein once wrote that he would rather have been a plumber than a physicist because of the independence it would allow him. Faced with the growing power of big oilfield service firms - playfully derided as "plumbers" by some in the industry - many oil men might now feel the same way. Break...

By Sinead Carew NEW YORK | Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:09pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless said on Monday that its board agreed to pay a total dividend of $8.5 billion to its two parent companies, Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L). The announcement follows months of investor speculation as to whether Verizon Wireless ...

By Nick Brown NEW YORK | Mon Nov 12, 2012 7:28pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co (EKDKQ.PK) said on Monday it has reached a $793 million financing deal with bondholders that could take the one-time photography giant out of bankruptcy. The deal, which still needs bankruptcy court approval, will come in the form of new loans from Centerbr...

By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Mon Nov 12, 2012 7:10pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed in a lightly traded session on Monday, with investors limiting bets ahead of what could be a drawn-out battle over the "fiscal cliff." Volume was light, with the U.S. bond market and government offices closed for the Veterans Day holiday. Tradin...

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK | Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:43pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barclays Bank Plc (BARC.L) has won a dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit brought on behalf of creditors of energy transport and storage company SemGroup LP SEMGP.UL. The lawsuit had sought repayment of a $143 million fee that SemGroup paid the bank to take over its commodities tr...

By Lauren Tara LaCapra Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:41pm EST (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) is due to name new partners on Wednesday, but the benefits of receiving the title are not what they used to be. Goldman is the only major Wall Street bank to retain this relic from its private partnership days, when senior investment bankers owned the firm, contr...

NEW YORK | Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:03pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) suspended trading in over 200 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday due to a technical problem with a server, although the stocks in question continued trading on other markets. There were no closing auctions in the affected stocks and a list of the official closi...

WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 12, 2012 1:31pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pulling out of the global financial crisis may at times clash with the goal of making sure that it does not happen again, making the whole process more difficult, the International Monetary Fund's No. 2 official said in a speech in London. Ending the crisis means boosting demand and restorin...

NEW YORK | Mon Nov 12, 2012 1:26pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday rejected Deutsche Bank AG's (DBKGn.DE) bid to dismiss a federal regulator's lawsuit accusing it of misleading Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) into buying billions of dollars of risky mortgage debt. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the Federa...