BUSINESS

BNY Mellon Corp is sticking with employee stock options, even as many major U.S. banks cut them, and despite its previous awards losing more than $850 million in value since 2008.

Consumer review website Yelp Inc made a sparkling market debut on Friday, buoyed by optimism ahead of Facebook's public listing and hopes for further successful public listings by Internet companies down the road.

Facebook Inc will add banks in coming weeks to help underwrite its initial public offering, two sources familiar with its plans said on Friday.

Facebook Inc will add more banks in coming weeks to help underwrite the company's initial public offering, two sources familiar with its plans said on Friday.

A senior Morgan Stanley investment banker was placed on leave after police accused him of hurling racial slurs at a taxi driver of Middle Eastern descent and stabbing him in the hand with a pen knife over a fare dispute.

Financier J. Ezra Merkin, accused of secretly steering $2.4 billion in client funds to Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, is close to settling a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general for about $400 million, according to a person close to the matter.

The S&P and Nasdaq notched their eighth week of gains out of the last nine, but momentum ran out on Friday as stocks ended the day lower in a thinly traded session.

Stocks slipped on Friday as a session with sparse economic data gave investors little reason to push indexes higher, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remained on track for their eighth positive week in the last nine.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is looking to sell its metal concentrates business due to U.S. regulatory restrictions following its acquisition of RBS Sempra Commodities, and currently faces a deadline of mid-year, industry sources told Reuters.

Calling it a sickness to this world, members of the formless 'hacktivist' group of computer programmers known as Anonymous informally declared war on religion on Friday, March 2, hacking the websites of three Christian organizations all based in and around Charlotte, North Carolina. The homepages for Bethel Outreach International Church, Charlotte International Church, and Crossfire Ministries were all replaced with the 30-minute long YouTube video, Richard Dawkins: An Atheist....

Barclays Plc tapped the European Central Bank for 8.2 billion euros ($10.8 billion) of cheap funding this week, marking a U-turn for the bank as it had previously been worried about the risk of political interference if it took funds.

A renewed drop in housing prices could thwart the U.S. economic recovery in the short term while Washington's lack of a credible, comprehensive fiscal plan poses a major medium-term risk, a top IMF official said.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), the world's biggest heavy machinery maker, will pay about $447 million to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to gain sole control of their joint venture, Caterpillar Japan Ltd.

Stocks slipped on Friday as a session with sparse economic data gave investors little reason to push indexes higher, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remained on track for their eighth positive week in the last nine.

Spain's highest court wants the top court in Europe to decide if requests by Spanish citizens to have data deleted from Google's search engine are lawful, in a case that could put more pressure on it to review its privacy policies.

Wall Street's biggest banks are locked in an increasingly frantic struggle with the Federal Reserve over the right to retain the jewels of their commodity trading empires: warehouses, storage tanks and other hard assets worth billions of dollars.

Dutch Prince Johan Friso, who was caught in an avalanche two weeks ago, was flown to a special clinic in London yesterday. Friso, who was buried in snow for 20 minutes, and had his heart stop beating for 50 minutes, has been in a coma due to major brain damage.

U.S. stocks edged lower on Friday in a session with sparse economic data, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remained on pace for their eighth positive week in the last nine.

Spain set itself a softer deficit target for 2012 than originally agreed under the euro zone's austerity drive, putting a question mark over the credibility of the European Union's new fiscal pact.

The U.S. economic recovery could be dented by a renewed drop in housing prices in the short term and the country lacks a credible, comprehensive fiscal plan, posing a major medium-term economic risk, a top IMF official said.

Consumer review website Yelp Inc's shares traded more than 60 percent above their initial public offering price in their market debut on Friday, as investors rushed to buy a piece of the growing local advertising market.

Blythe Masters, JPMorgan's global head of commodities, has steered the bank's expanded franchise to record revenues exceeding $2.8 billion in 2011, more than long-time industry leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the three banks' data showed this week.

European Union leaders met for a second day of talks in Brussels on Friday, where 25 of the bloc's 27 countries signed a fiscal compact enshrining common debt rules among the 17 members of the euro zone.

The euro zone will decide whether to increase its debt crisis firewall before the end of March after the European Central Bank said its extraordinary support measures would not be repeated, putting the onus squarely back on governments to act.

Futures on the S&P 500 edged lower in sparse volume on Friday in a light day on the economic calendar but were still on track to close their ninth straight week of gains, the longest such run since January 2004.

Wall Street was set to fall at the open on Friday in a light day on the economic calendar, but S&P futures were still on track to close their ninth straight week of gains, the longest such run since January 2004.

Facebook Inc plans to increase its $2.5 billion credit line to help cover a major tax hit when employee stock awards vest shortly after it goes public, according to two sources familiar with the company's plans.

For Facebook it must look like a no-brainer -- exploit its huge consumer loyalty and half a billion mobile phone users as a way of opening up the mobile market to blue chip advertisers.

Yelp Inc priced its initial public offering of class A common stock at $15 a share, above the expected price range, valuing the U.S. consumer review website at nearly $900 million.