WSJ: Economy

Obama stressed that world leaders are committed to growth and stability as he opened a summit wrestling with Europe's debt crisis.

The Queensland government has withdrawn its support for a $8.86 billion coal port expansion in the northern part of the state, in a sign Australia's resources boom is losing steam.

Thanks to a devalued currency, the country has turned its trade deficit into a surplus and smoothed its recovery.

President Obama met France's new president, François Hollande at the White House to address the European debt crisis, Iran and Afghanistan.

U.S. regulators closed a bank in Alabama, bringing the nationwide tally of bank failures to 24 for the year.

Jittery U.K. customers of one of Spain's biggest lenders pulled out funds on Friday, and bad debts held by Spanish banks rose to a 17-year high, underscoring the challenges facing the country's financial sector.

Europe has begun to prepare for a possible Greek exit from the euro zone ahead of elections next month that are fast becoming a referendum on the country's membership in the common currency.

President Barack Obama hosts world leaders this weekend at a pair of summits that represent the first test of how upheavals among major economies stand to influence global policies on issues from the Afghanistan war to national budgets.

Banco Santander's U.K. unit lost about $316 million of deposits on Friday as jittery customers worried about the lender's financial health.

Alexis Tsipras, head of Greece's radical left party, said in an interview with the Journal that there is little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country and if it does, Greece will repudiate its debts.

Spain's government said 16 of the country's 17 regions are on track to meet this year's budget targets, a key part of its efforts to slash a towering budget deficit and ward off an international bailout.

The Senate confirmed Obama's two nominees to the Federal Reserve Board, filling the seven-member panel for the first time since April 2006.

Mongolia's parliament approved a new investment law Thursday that caps future foreign participation in certain strategic industries, reflecting a growing public push to keep profits from the mineral-rich nation's industries inside the country.

Returning to a national currency after more than a decade of using the euro and having its money managed by the ECB would catapult Greece into a financial, legal and political no-man's land.

New York's top financial regulator turned up the heat on banks and insurers that sell homeowners policies to struggling borrowers, accusing them of an "intricate web of relationships" that pushes distressed families "over the foreclosure cliff" and also hurts mortgage-bond investors.

Japan's economy grew an annualized 4.1% in the quarter ended in March, as resurgent domestic demand and government spending helped fuel recovery from last year's natural disasters and supply disruptions that depressed growth.

Mexico's economy expanded 4.6% in the first quarter, growing above expectations as gains in industrial production, and continued strength in domestic demand, were complemented by higher agricultural production.

The U.K. is unlikely to need another dose of central bank stimulus unless "worrying" tensions in the euro zone threaten to plunge its economy back into a deep recession, a senior Bank of England official said.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York postponed a planned auction of $1.67 billion of mortgage collateralized debt obligations from its Maiden Lane III portfolio.

The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits was essentially flat last week, suggesting that the recently volatile labor market is stabilizing.