Fred Business News - Economic growth picked up in the fourth quarter, the government said Wednesday, a surprisingly strong showing given the ongoing slump in the housing market.

The reading means the economy grew at a slightly stronger pace in 2006 than in 2005, but that's unlikely to spur the Federal Reserve to change its recent policy of holding interest rates steady, economists said.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, grew at an annual 3.5 percent rate in the quarter, according to the ...   more »

Fred Business News - Six years and $6 billion later, Microsoft's Vista finally hit store shelves Tuesday - the software company's first upgrade to its dominant computer operating system since Windows XP in 2001.

Also new from Microsoft: overhauled versions of its popular Office software that includes Word, e-mail and other applications used by hundreds of millions of people around the world every day.

The software giant has a lot riding on the new products as it battles a resurgent Apple in the entertainment software business and Google ...   more »

Fred Business News - Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates boasted to CNN Monday that Vista, Microsoft's widely anticipated new version of its Windows operating system, will make the personal computer the "place where it all comes together" for multimedia applications such as photos, music and videos.

Gates' comments were from an interview on CNN's "American Morning," which will air on Tuesday January 30 to coincide with Vista's release.

Vista is the first update of Windows since Windows XP was released in 2001. Microsoft invested $6 billion ...   more »

Fred Business News -  Supporters of increasing the federal minimum wage contend it will offer significant changes to the lives of millions of working-class Americans.

Opponents insist the measure will cost the economy hundreds of thousands of jobs and provide only marginal help to a relatively small group of wage earners.

The numbers suggest the answer lies somewhere in between.

Increases in the minimum wage sometimes have been followed by dramatic spikes in the nation's unemployment rate, as was the case in the early 1980s, as ...   more »

Fred Business News - Turning from his contentious decision to increase the number of troops committed to battling insurgents in Iraq, President Bush used his weekly national radio address Saturday to urge bipartisan support for his plans to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and expand access to health care.

"Our nation's dependence on oil leaves us vulnerable to hostile regimes and terrorists who can hurt our economy by disrupting our oil supply," Bush said.

In addition to asking that Congress double the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, ...   more »

Fred Business News - General Motors Corp. said it would delay its fourth-quarter financial report and restate past results due to tax accounting issues.

The world's largest automaker said it expected to be profitable in the fourth quarter of 2006, with net income expected to "improve significantly" over year-earlier levels.

GM had been scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year results next Tuesday. After the close of regular trade on Thursday, GM said it will provide further information on the progress of its financial reporting next week and expects ...   more »

Fred Business News - Ford Motor Co. Thursday will detail a record loss for 2006, the first U.S. automaker to report on a troubled year when the Detroit-based carmakers are forecast to have lost some $15 billion on a combined basis, according to analysts.

Ford, which will report fourth-quarter and full-year results Thursday, was also the U.S. automaker hardest hit by rising interest rates, higher gas prices and a shift away from high-margin trucks.

Ford, which lost $7 billion through the first nine months of 2006, is expected ...   more »