Shares in Gap jumped 6.8% after it reported strong February sales. Unusually warm weather has encouraged US shoppers and Gap said its spring products have been selling well. With sales growth of 12%, the company’s Banana Republic chain had a particularly good month.

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Collection of early comic books has sold for $3.5m (£2.2m) at auction in New York. The trove of 345 comics had been bought by the late Billy Wright from Virginia when he was a boy. A copy of Detective Comics No. 27, which sold for 10 cents in 1939 and featured Batman’s debut, got the [...]

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price of oil has reached its highest level since May last year as concerns mount over Iran’s nuclear program. Benchmark US light crude rose by $1.67 to $105.27 a barrel and Brent crude futures rose 44 cents to $120.49. It marks the second day in a row of rises after Iran announced on Sunday oil [...]

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Viacom’s profit beat Wall Street forecasts on Thursday helped by a double-digit growth in fees paid by cable, satellite and phone companies for its stable of networks, including MTV and Nickelodeon. Fiscal first quarter net income from continuing operations fell 5 percent to $591 million from $620 million in the year-ago

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Qualcomm delivered quarterly results and an outlook for the current quarter that beat analysts’ expectations on Wednesday, sending its shares higher in after-hours trading. The company, which makes chips used in cellphones and other wireless devices, posted fiscal first-quarter earnings excluding items

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International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of a 20-30% oil price spike if Iranian exports are disrupted. The IMF warned that if the West imposed financial sanctions on Iran, it would be tantamount to an oil blockade, and the shock to the

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The pace of the US service sector’s growth picked up in last month, according to a new report. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its services index rose to 52.6 last month from 52 in November. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. The ISM survey of US services covers industries ranging from

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Samsung Electronics has said it expects to report a big jump in profits for the final three months of last year, thanks largely to record smartphone sales. The South Korean firm said it expects operating profits for the period to be $4.5bn, 73% higher than a year a earlier.

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Chinese oil firm Sinopec has agreed a $2.2bn deal with Devon Energy, giving it access to shale deposits in the US. Sinopec will get a one-third stake in five new shale projects, with the firms expecting to drill 125 wells this year.

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US consumer confidence rose for the second month in a row, to an eight-month high in December, new data suggests. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose almost 10 points to 64.5 in December, up from a revised 55.2 in

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