By Claudia Hirsch

NEW YORK, April 22 (MNI) - U.S. consumers are venturing back into home appliance showrooms and are beginning to buy big-ticket items again, according to manufacturers and retailers.

By Courtney Tower

OTTAWA (MNI) - Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said Thursday he goes to the Group of 7 and G20 meetings in Washington with the strong view that proposals for taxes or levies on banks are "a major distraction" in the way of real reforms.

By Brai Odion-Esene

WASHINGTON (MNI) - President Barack Obama returned to Wall Street Thursday to stress the need to move forward on financial regulatory reform, arguing reform will restore trust in the U.S. economy and ensure it remains the premier attraction for investors worldwide.

In a speech prepared for delivery at Coopers Union in New York, Obama said part of what led to the turmoil of the past two years was that with no clear rules and sound practices, "people did not trust that our system was one in which it was safe to invest or lend."

By Heather Scott

WASHINGTON (MNI) - China is moving in the right direction as it shifts to more domestic-led growth and will "contemplate" a move in it's currency policy, but that won't happen in the very near term, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Thursday.

"I'm not expecting that it's going to happen overnight, but I think that's the medium-term strategy," he said, noting that the move is "in their own interest."

By Brai Odion-Esene

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The U.S. Treasury official responsible for overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program said Thursday the government now expects to profit on the capital injected into banks via various programs.

In written remarks prepared for a hearing by the House Appropriations Committee, Herbert Allison, Treasury's assistant secretary for Financial Stability, said the financial system has experienced a partial but significant recovery over the past year.

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) - Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Republican critic of China's currency policies, said Thursday there is strong bipartisan support for legislation that would allow the U.S. to pressure nations that use misaligned currencies to dominate the global trading system.

By Denny Gulino and Ian McKendry

WASHINGTON (MNI) - U.S. sales of existing single-family homes, town homes, condominiums and cooperatives jumped 6.8% in March to a 5.35 million annual rate, while inventories of unsold houses improved after a February surge, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday morning.

By Courtney Tower

OTTAWA (MNI) - The Bank of Canada continued Thursday to keep financial markets guessing about when policy rate increases may begin, but said their time has come. Likely dates are June 1 or July 20 for the first of a series of increases.