Exxon Posts Record (Stock Trading) Profit
Exxon Posts Record Profit
Exxon Mobil Corp. yesterday reported the highest profit in U.S. history: $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the entire year.
Justin Blum
Search for Finer Yarn Becomes a Trade Tangle
This is a yarn about yarn, one that has a Georgia textile manufacturer tangled up with other domestic mills in an international trade dispute about its quest for a particular type of fine-spun cotton yarn.
Cindy Skrzycki
UPDATE 2-U.S. Senate confirms Bernanke as Fed chief
Post
Reports Indicate Glut of Condos in D.C. Area
The Washington area housing market has softened but is still in relatively decent shape except for what appears to be a glut of condos, according to two studies released yesterday. But the researchers came to different conclusions about the potential for problems stemming from condo overbuilding.
Sandra Fleishman
Lawyer: Enron Never Infested With Fraud
HOUSTON — Lawyers for former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling insisted Tuesday the men were guilty of no crimes, arguing the company was never infested with fraud and instead fell victim to a sudden crisis of market confidence.
KRISTEN HAYS and ERIN McCLAM
Consumer Confidence Higher Than Expected
NEW YORK — Americans became more optimistic about the economy in January, sending a widely followed measure of consumer confidence to the highest level in about three and a half years, a private research group said Tuesday.
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
Contacts With Lobbyists Curbed
Republican and Democratic lawmakers are canceling their regularly scheduled meetings with lobbyists as the fallout from the Jack Abramoff scandal continues to roil Capitol Hill.
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Federal Mine Agency Considers New Rules To Improve Safety
After one of the deadliest months for coal mining in years, federal mine regulators last week began formally considering safety improvements to help miners survive underground fires and explosions. Among the proposals: mandatory caches of oxygen tanks and breathing masks inside every coal mine.
Joby Warrick
With New Leader, Foreign Aid Program Is Taking Off
After getting off to a painfully slow start, President Bush's signature foreign aid program is poised to begin ramping up the amount of money it spends on development projects in poor countries, according to its new chief executive — who vows that the impact will be "transformative."
Michael A. Fletcher and Paul Blustein
Federal Reserve officials, meeting for the last time with Alan Greenspan as their chairman, raised their benchmark short-term interest rate today and signaled that they may nudge it higher in coming months to make sure economic growth does not fuel higher inflation.
Nell Henderson
Markets Can't Agree on Greenspan's Last Message
Wall Street's final afternoon with Alan Greenspan was like so many of the previous ones.
Jerry Knight
Ebbers's Prosecutors Questioned on Tactics
NEW YORK, Jan. 30 — Federal judges hearing former WorldCom Inc. chief executive Bernard J. Ebbers's appeal of his fraud conviction sharply questioned prosecutors Monday about whether the government used the immunity process to take an unfair tactical advantage.
Brooke A. Masters