Falling commodity prices send stock indexes down Falling commodity prices punished materials and energy companies Wednesday, pushing Wall Street’s major stock indexes to a lower close. Crude oil lost nearly $2 to $105 a barrel, hurting energy stocks. Peabody Energy fell 3.4 percent, Chevron 1.1 percent and Exxon 0.9 percent. Materials fell the most among […]

LOS ANGELES — Toyota Motor Corp. has been saying it has a hit with its new Prius c five-door hatchback, which is the smallest hybrid in the Prius family. Now there’s some independent analysis that shows this is one of the hottest small cars to hit the market in many years. In its first three […]

The 2.2 percent increase in durable-product sales last month shows the economy growing at a moderate pace.

A survey finds CEOs have a sharply more optimistic view of the economy than they did at the end of 2011.

WASHINGTON — A former MF Global executive is refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions about more than $1 billion in customer money that vanished in the days before the firm collapsed, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Edith O’Brien, a former assistant treasurer at MF Global, was subpoenaed to testify before the House Financial Services […]