NEW YORK — The number of people applying for a mortgage rose last week as lower rates lured more borrowers to refinance. The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday its overall mortgage application index increased 2.2 percent from the previous week. ...

Tagged with: application Banking Economy interest rates loans mortgages new york rose stock exchange

For the third year in a row, Maryland public schools have been ranked No. 1 in the nation by Education Week magazine. Maryland’s K-12 system again achieved this top-of-the-class status with a B+ grade (87.6), edging out New York and ...

Tagged with: Education Martin O'Malley maryland massachusetts new york states virginia

NEW YORK — Duke Energy Corp. is buying Progress Energy Inc. for more than $13 billion in stock in a deal that would create the utility with the most customers in the United States. The new company’s size will allow ...

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WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Monday charged the co-founder of a New York hedge fund and three other individuals with insider trading, the latest action in what the government has called the biggest insider-trading case in U.S. history. The Securities ...

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NEW YORK — Americans spent more on clothes, shoes, luxury goods and electronics in December than a year earlier, extending retail sales momentum that had been building since August, according to data released Wednesday. Figures released by MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, ...

Tagged with: cash clothes consumers electronics gifts new york retailers shoes spending

CHICAGO — The bar is buzzing on a busy night at Chicago Cut steakhouse as regulars Keith and Peg Bragg sit at a high table scanning the wine list. Within seconds, they have all bottles under $40 at their fingertips ...

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NEW YORK — Tourist in my own city? Ack. I learned within days of moving to New York City earlier this year that a) Times Square must be avoided at all costs and b) you don’t want to look like ...

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NEW YORK — Stocks were higher at midday Wednesday in thin trading as the market approached the end of the year. In the absence of any fresh economic data, traders’ moods appear to be buoyed by the spate of mostly ...

Tagged with: Barack Obama Business consumers dow jones Economy fiscal year growth Nasdaq new years eve new york NYSE RBC Wealth Management Recession s&p stock market Stocks trading wall street

Lori Biancofiori has been looking forward to 2011 for a long time. That’s when she hopes to leave 2009 behind for good. Her husband was laid off, her salary shrunk, the transmission blew on their car and they racked up ...

Tagged with: Business Economy new years eve new york Recession Retail sales Unemployment

NEW YORK — Even a winter storm that shut down stores along parts of the East Coast won’t be enough to blow retailers off course from their best holiday sales in three years. Retail analysts are calling the blizzard a ...

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