Consumer spending in the U.S. fell during October for just the first time in the past five months. Growth in income stalled, which suggested that slower economic growth would take place during this year’s last quarter. On Friday, the Department of Commerce said consumer spending dropped 0.2% following a 0.8% unrevised increase for September. The Commerce Department said it was unable to quantify... 

Criminal cases related to the multibillion-dollar trading loss at JPMorgan Chase are being built by federal authorities.  The authorities are using taped phone conversations in which employees openly discussed how to value troubled bets in a favorable way to build their cases.  The phone recordings were turned over to authorities by JPMorgan.  Officials briefed on the case said that the phone recordings... 

Wells Fargo reported $4.9 billion in profit for the third quarter.  Results of $0.88 a share narrowly beat the estimates of analysts, who forecast earnings of $0.87 a share.  The bank’s revenue increased as well, with the company recording $21.2 billion in revenue.  This surpassed the $19.6 billion figure from a year earlier. Wells Fargo continues to churn out record profits.  The bank has... 

Less than a month ago, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were bitter foes during a close and difficult campaign for the presidency. However, today the two will share lunch in the White House. The idea is for the two to eye the mutual interests they have rather than the differences that defined the presidential race. The two have not met since the November 6 election and will have lunch in the... 

JPMorgan Chase reported a strong quarter of earnings resulting from a surge in mortgage lending.  The latest quarter’s profit was up 34%, to $5.71 billion.  The company reported earnings of $1.40 a share and revenue in the third quarter was $25.9 billion, an increase of 6% from the same quarter a year ago.  JPMorgan is the nation’s largest bank in assets. A multibillion-dollar trading... 

EBay’s results were strong in the third quarter.  EBay reported that net income rose $597 million, or $0.45 a share.  This was a 22% increase from the same quarter a year earlier.  The company’s operating profit margin increased to 19.6%, up from 18.1 percent in the same period last year. EBay’s stock is up 54% for the year, more than the 37% gain of its main rival, Amazon.  Colin Gillis,... 

At a suburban Kansas City police station, Micah Moore told police he killed a woman at the request of her husband, just three month after he had participated in their wedding as a groomsman. He said he met the two when they all were attending the same college in Texas. The husband, Tyler Deaton, is a charismatic prayer group leader. At first, police thought that Bethany Deaton had died from a suicide... 

Palestinian authorities on Tuesday opened Yasser Arafat’s grave to experts for samples of the remains of the former leader of the PLO. Foreign experts are trying to determine if the former leader was poisoned. Relatives of Arafat and his political successors believe Arafat had been poisoned and that caused his death eight years ago. Authorities started the exhumation prior to dawn behind large blue...