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Research In Motion (RIMM) is gearing up for a series of make-or-break releases that could be considered the most important device launches in the company’s history. Everything is riding on the success of the RIM’s BlackBerry 10 platform, which will be unveiled in its finished state on January 30th next year. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins is on record confirming that BlackBerry 10 will launch in the first quarter and company COO Kristian Tear previously stated new BlackBerry devices will be available “not too long after” the platform is unveiled late next month, but exact timing is still a mystery. According [...]

U.S. home prices bounced higher for a second month in June, according to an index released Tuesday which showed the strongest back-to-back monthly advance in the more than decade-long history of the price gauge. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite registered a 2.3% advance in June, matching upwardly revised gains in May and taking the year-on-year move to positive territory for the first time in close to two years with a gain of 0.5%. All 20 cities managed monthly gains, including a 6% surge in hard-hit Detroit and a 4.8% advance from Minneapolis. Prices in the second quarter gained 6.9% compared to [...]

Home prices climbed 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis in June, following a revised 0.6% increase in May, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Thursday. In the 12 months through June, prices rose 3.6%, the agency said. FHFA also reported that prices rose 1.8% in the second quarter from the first quarter, and are up 3% from the prior year. The FHFA purchase-only index is based on transactions bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

MADRID Spanish banks’ bad loans rose to a record high in June as assets tied to the country’s deflating property market soured further, keeping the financial sector at the forefront of investor concerns about the country’s fragile economy. In the same month that Spain sought a European bailout of up to 100 billion euros for its struggling lenders, their non-performing loans rose to 9.42 percent of outstanding portfolios from 8.95 percent in May, central bank data showed on Friday. Loans that fell into arrears increased by 8.4 billion euros ($ 1.03 billion) to 164.4 billion euros. Bad loan rates have [...]

Foreign investors bought a net $ 5.5 billion of long-term U.S. securities in June, down from the $ 50.9 billion purchased in the prior month, Treasury Department data released Wednesday showed. In the key Treasury sector, overseas investors were net buyers of $ 32.5 billion in June, down from net purchases of $ 45.9 billion in May. They were net sellers of $ 600 million of government agency bonds in June compared with purchases of $ 12.4 billion in May. International investors were net sellers of corporate bonds in June. They purchased a net $ 4.3 billion of U.S. equities [...]

Inventories at U.S. businesses rose 0.1% in June compared with a 0.3% rise in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The gain was roughly in line with economist’s forecasts. Business sales fell a sharp 1.1% in June, for the biggest monthly drop since March 2009. As a result, the inventory-to-sales ratio, an indication of demand, increased to 1.29 in June from 1.27 in the prior month. This is the highest ratio since November 2009. One new piece of information was retail inventories, which were up 0.6% in June compared with a 0.8% decrease in sales. The inventory-to-sales ratio in retail [...]

U.S. consumer credit posted its weakest growth in eight months in June as Americans reduced credit card debt, a potentially negative sign for an economy that has struggled to create jobs. Consumer credit grew by $ 6.46 billion in June, the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday. That was well below the $ 11 billion advance Wall Street economists had forecast in a Reuters poll. The Fed also said credit climbed slightly less during May than originally thought. Credit has been expanding since late 2010 as the country recovered from the 2007-2009 recession. The expansion in June, however, was the smallest [...]

LOS ANGELES Japan’s price-adjusted gross domestic product grew 0.2% during the month of June, its second straight increase, according to a Nikkei news report citing research by the Japan Center for Economic Research. The growth marked a slowdown from a 0.5% rise in May, according to the JCER data. Japan is due to release preliminary GDP growth numbers for the April-June quarter on Aug. 13.

Spending by American consumers fell in June for the first time in nearly a year when accounting for inflation, suggesting the economy lost momentum as it ended the second quarter. Consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, f ell 0.1 percent when adjusted for rising prices, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Before making price adjustments, spending was flat. That was just b elow the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 0.1 percent i ncrease. Pressure is rising on policymakers at the U.S. Federal Reserve to do more to help the sputtering U.S. economy. [...]

Orders for U.S.-made durable goods rose 1.6% in June on stronger demand for airplanes and defense equipment, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The overall increase in June was stronger than expected. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a 0.6% rise in durables. Orders in May were revised up to a 1.6% gain from the previous estimate of a 1.3% increase. Details of the report were weaker than the headline suggested. Most other categories of orders were lower. Excluding defense goods, orders were down 0.7%. Excluding transportation equipment, orders were down 1.1%. Shipments rose 0.1% in June. Inventories rose 0.3%. Orders for [...]