Yeshiva World News

For the first time in seven years, most U.S. homebuilders are optimistic about home sales, a sign that construction could help drive stronger economic growth in coming months. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Monday leaped to 52 this month from 44 in May. It was the largest monthly ...

A rise in food and gas costs drove a measure of wholesale prices up sharply in May. But outside those volatile categories, inflation was mild. The Labor Department said Friday that the producer price index rose 0.5 percent in May from April. Gas prices rose 1.5 percent last month, and food costs increased 0.6 percent. The increase last month ...

Microsoft’s Office software package is coming to the iPhone for the first time Friday, offering people the ability to read and edit their text documents, spreadsheets and slide presentations at the doctor’s office or at a soccer game. The company isn’t making an iPad version, though, nor is it offering the app on Android devices. Microsoft ...

Yahoo is trying to breathe new life into inactive email accounts by giving away the identifications beginning next month. The program announced Wednesday will give Web surfers an opportunity to claim a new handle that had previously been unavailable. It also represents a last chance for Yahoo users who haven’t logged in for at least a year ...

Google Inc.'s $1.03 billion purchase of Israeli navigation software maker Waze marks an important milestone for the country that affectionately calls itself "Start-Up Nation." The acquisition is not only among the largest-ever purchase prices for an Israeli start-up. It also cements a recent push by the local high-tech industry into the ...

Google Inc bought Israeli mapping startup Waze on Tuesday for an undisclosed sum, acquiring an online real-time mapping service to safeguard its own lead in one of the most crucial aspects of smartphone usage. A source close to the matter told Reuters on Monday that the Internet search leader was putting the finishing touches on a deal ...

Apple is throwing out most of the real-world graphical cues from its iPhone and iPad software, like the casino-green "felt" of its Game Center app, in what it calls the biggest update since the iPhone's launch in 2007. The new operating system, called iOS 7, strives for a clean, simple, translucent look. Apple is redesigning all its applications ...

Google Inc. has agreed to acquire map-software provider Waze Inc. for about $1.1 billion, a person with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to keep competitors such as Facebook Inc. from eroding its lead in mobile-navigation programs. The deal for Waze, based in Palo Alto, California, may be announced as early as today, said the person, who asked ...

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, a gain that shows employers are hiring at a still-modest but steady pace despite government spending cuts and higher taxes. The unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April, the Labor Department said Friday. The rate rose because more people began looking for work, a healthy ...

The airline industry is set to allow consumers to see more details of what they are booking using a new online reservation platform, a project that poses a threat to many travel technology firms working with older systems. Almost two thirds of global tickets sales are made via travel agents, online travel agencies and travel management ...

U.S. stocks sold off in late trading to close sharply lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 posting consecutive weekly losses for the first time since November, as investors retreated after a seven-month run of gains. Traders attributed some of the selling to global index rebalancing and reallocation of investments to bonds from stocks, ...

Auto companies are hoping lower lease prices can put a charge into sluggish electric car sales. Honda announced Thursday that it's slashing the monthly lease cost of its tiny Fit EV by one third, following similar moves by other automakers. Honda also is throwing in other goodies, such as a free home charging station and unlimited ...

Microsoft is trying to fix what it got wrong with its radical makeover of Windows. It's making the operating system easier to navigate and enabling users to set up the software so it starts in a more familiar format designed for personal computers. The revisions to Windows 8 will be released later this year. The free update, called Windows ...

U.S. home prices jumped 10.9 percent in March compared with a year ago, the most since April 2006. A growing number of buyers are bidding on a tight supply of homes, driving prices higher and helping the housing market recover. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday also showed that all 20 cities measured by the ...

With predictions of selling over 110,000 electric cars, the folks at Better Place appear to have come to an end of their vision for an environmentally friendly electric car gaining momentum in Israel. The company fell very short of its goal, having sold less than 2,000 vehicles. Israel Corporation, the controlling share holder in Better Place, ...

The U.S. stock market's break in its recent rally last week left investors wondering if they were seeing a turning point or just a blip in the upward path. This week could make it harder to figure out, considering that the long Memorial Day weekend typically signals the start of the summer. The three major U.S. stock indexes posted a ...

Yahoo Inc said it is acquiring blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash, a bold bet by Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to revitalize the struggling Internet pioneer by co-opting a Web property with strong visitor traffic but little revenue. The deal, which will use about a fifth of Yahoo's $5.4 billion in cash and marketable securities, is ...