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Wall Street has lost a net 1,200 jobs since the start of 2012, New York’s state comptroller said on Thursday, and is likely to shed even more with Citigroup’s announcement that it will cut 11,000 jobs worldwide. While he did not know the number of New York-based jobs Citigroup Inc plans to cut, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the impact of the layoffs on Wall Street and New York City is “not going to be anything good.” “It probably doesn’t come, unfortunately, as a surprise to what we’ve been projecting — that you’re going to see continued downsizing in financial [...]

LOS ANGELES Japanese stocks fell in early Wednesday trading, dragged by overnight losses in the U.S. and with auto makers hit by some weak China sales data. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.4% to 9,398.09 in early moves, while the Topix lost 0.5%, with the dollar moving below the 82-yen level to weigh on exporters. Among the top auto names, Honda Motor Co. lost 1.4% and Nissan Motor Co. fall 1.7% after the pair reported large drops in their China sales for November, though losses improved from the previous month. Toyota Motor Corp. , which reported its China sales earlier, [...]

With rising food prices, consumers need to be savvy shoppers in the grocery store to protect their wallets. “Food costs are going up in the U.S. as a direct result of the drought,” says Suzanna de Baca, vice president of wealth strategies at Ameriprise Financial. Consumers can expect the biggest rise in prices in beef and poultry. As of September, the consumer price index rose 5.4% for beef and 4.8% for poultry from last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Cattle take a long time to raise,” says James Dunn, professor of agricultural economics at Pennsylvania State University. He explains that [...]

LOS ANGELES Weak economic data and a slightly stronger yen hurt Japanese stocks early Monday, with tech exporters and retailers among the leading decliners. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.4% to 8,718.96, with the Topix down 0.5%, after data showed Japan’s economy contracting 0.9% in July-September, or 3.5% on a price-adjusted annualized basis, its worst drop since just after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. With the U.S. dollar remaining below the �79.50 level, many major exporters took a hit, as Sony Corp. lost 1.4%, Hitachi Ltd. down 1.2%, Toshiba Corp. lower by 1.1%. and Toyota Motor Corp. weaker by 0.6%. [...]

The U.S. unemployment rate probably rose in October as employers stepped up hiring only slightly, underscoring President Barack Obama’s vulnerability in next week’s presidential election. Employers likely added 125,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists. That would be up from 114,000 in September, but would fall short of what is needed to quickly cut the jobless rate. Indeed, economists expect the unemployment rate — a key focus in the neck-and-neck race for the White House — to tick up by a tenth of a percentage point to 7.9 percent, reversing part of a [...]

SEOUL Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s top technology firm by revenue, forecast on Friday global computer memory chip shipments would increase by 10 percent or slightly more in the current quarter and said it plans to grow faster than the broader market. The world’s top memory chipmaker sees global shipments of NAND chips growing in the mid-20 percents in the current quarter sequentially, led by new mobile product launches, and Samsung again plans to grow faster than the market. (Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by John Mair)

If you remember the slogan, “This is not your father’s Buick,” read on. As a baby boomer, the life you live in your later years is also not going to be “your father’s retirement.” Baby boomers face a different reality and environment in which their parents retired, and it’s going to be tougher for many boomers to enjoy a similar standard of living post work life. The chart below comes courtesy of the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College, and is based upon national data going back to 1983. Each line represents a different year and illustrates the [...]

Continued tough economic times and high unemployment may lead to more financial scams, including credit card fraud and other types of identity theft, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center and renowned security consultant Robert Siciliano.Desperate Times Lead to More Credit Card FraudDesperation leads some people with no criminal background to commit their first scams. After maxing out credit cards and ruining their credit scores, these folks resort to stealing credit card numbers. Identity Theft Resource Center executive director Jay Foley predicts they’ll resort to low-tech methods, such as swiping credit card information from trash barrels, or they’ll use the [...]

Mortgage rates inched up this week as investors were warned that the United States may slide into recession in 2013 if Congress doesn’t get its act together. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.91% from 3.86%, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. The mortgages in this week’s survey had an average total of 0.45 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index stood at 4.41%; four weeks ago, it was 3.75%. The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.12% from 3.05%. The benchmark 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 2.9 from 2.93%. Rates jumped off [...]

The good news is the housing market is beginning to perk up. The bad news is some apartment rents are going through the roof. Rents increased an average of 5.4% between June 2011 and June 2012, according to new findings by real estate website Trulia, and in cities such as San Francisco, Boston, Denver and Miami, rental prices have jumped more than 10% over the past year. A Reuters article reports that recent data from real estate research firm Reis shows rents increasing at the highest rate since 2007. The average asking rent is now $ 1,091 per month nationwide. In the most [...]