Mark Brooks

The group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro will recover gradually later this year, he said -- if governments get moving on making their economies more business-friendly.

Buffett says the banks have largely cleared out the bad assets that hurt their balance sheets. And the current low interest rates have helped them.

ECB President Mario Draghi says that all members of the central bank's policy committee agreed to keep rates unchanged.

The March contract for palladium, a metal which has industrial uses including making catalytic converters for automobiles, jumped $20.35 to settle at $688.20 per ounce Wednesday.

The ECB is meeting Thursday to set interest rates. Most economists don't expect the central bank to lower its rates.

The cheaper iPhone could come out as early as this year, or the idea could be scrapped, as has previously happened.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also said the nine-member group called on North Korea to put a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests that have prompted U.N. sanctions.

In afternoon trading benchmark oil was down 23 cents to $92.92 a barrel in New York.

As a result, about 90 percent of filers will either pay a tax preparer or use a computer software service to help with their federal tax returns this spring, according to a report Wednesday by an independent government watchdog.

Governors are warning Congress that lingering uncertainty over raising the nation's debt limit could hinder their state budgets and job growth.

White House officials would not confirm that a final decision has been made. But aides did not dispute that Lew is emerging as the consensus choice.

In a letter published in the Financial Times Wednesday, Virgin Group's Richard Branson, London Stock Exchange head Chris Gibson-Smith, WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell and seven other business leaders challenged Cameron's plan to renegotiate the U.K.'s membership terms of the 27-country EU and put the matter to a referendum.

Dan Akerson told reporters Wednesday that the company is working with credit rating agencies to raise its status from junk, where it's been since 2005.

Corn for March delivery rose 3.25 cents to settle at $6.8875 a bushel Tuesday.

"Find New Roads will enable the whole company to rally around a consistent theme for the brand, and at the same time serve as an external message that works in all markets," GM marketing chief Alan Batey said in a statement.

The network will be available free to about a 10-block area surrounding Google's offices in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, where Google has more than 3,000 employees.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that rates fell in November from October in 215 of the 372 largest metro areas.

The agency said Tuesday that more than 120 million taxpayers -- about 80 percent of all filers -- should be able to start filing their federal returns on Jan. 30.

Google's Eric Schmidt got a first look at North Korea's limited Internet usage when an American delegation he and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson are leading visited a computer lab at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang.

Indications are now that Timothy Geithner will leave that post by the end of the month, regardless of whether the president and Congress have reached a deal on the debt ceiling -- the next potential economic crisis facing the government.