COMPANIES

South Korean policymakers on Sunday played down any likely impact on the economy following the downgrade in U.S. credit ratings and told local investors not to panic when financial markets reopen.

Unions representing 45,000 Verizon Communications (VZ.N) workers called for a strike as negotiations failed for a new labor contract that expired at midnight on Saturday.

The fact that U.S. Treasury bonds managed to cling to their coveted triple-A rating this week failed to impress several prominent bond fund managers, who say they are lightening up on Treasuries and stocking their portfolios with corporate bonds instead.

The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, drawing a blast of criticism on Saturday from its biggest creditor China and deepening investors' alarm over the euro zone's debt crisis.

Guidewire Software Inc, which sells software to the insurance industry, is gearing up to go public and has selected JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) to underwrite the deal, people close to the matter said.

France has complete faith in the solidity of the U.S. economy and in the U.S. government's determination to implement the Congress's plan, a source close to France's Finance Minister Francois Baroin said on Saturday.

Where can investors hide when even gold and cash look dicey?

Self-proclaimed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace of Las Vegas pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday, according to a report.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman would have preferred to keep the focus squarely on the media giant's robust third-quarter profits.

Stocks closed out their worst week in more than two years on Friday in a volatile session that saw the major indexes whip back and forth before the S&P 500 ended down less than a point.

U.S. sales of Blu-ray movie and television discs rose this year as overall spending on home entertainment dropped and viewing habits shifted, new figures from an industry group showed.

Wells Fargo & Co may have to buy back an additional $1.8 billion in toxic mortgages from outside investors on top of claims it already received, the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets said in a securities filing on Friday.

Investors scrambling for cover during the U.S. deficit and debt ceiling talks and Europe's ongoing sovereign debt crisis sold stock funds and bought emerging market debt and commodities, data from EPFR showed on Friday.

Gold jumped more than 1 percent and metals market plunged on Friday as investors sought safe havens and fled riskier assets on worries over slowing global economic growth.

Gold held firm after upbeat U.S. labor market data soothed immediate fears of a recession, but longer-term uncertainty about economic growth and concerns about the euro zone debt crisis supported demand for the precious metal.

U.S. President Barack Obama hailed a positive jobs report on Friday but said more job growth is needed and predicted the situation will improve over time.

Priceline's stock surged in trading Friday, up more than 10 percent, after the company raised its third-quarter guidance on Thursday.

The U.S. Post Office is warning it could default on payments to the federal government if Congress does not step in with help.

Despite posting strong quarterly earnings on Thursday, LinkedIn saw its stock yo-yo downwards on Friday, at one point dropping down over 8 percent.

More than $2.5 trillion have been wiped off the value of world stocks this week on mounting concerns the global economy is heading toward another recession and Italy and Spain are being engulfed by the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.

Mohamed El-Erian has the best explanation of what happened in the markets yesterday. First and foremost, there were ?technical factors?. This doesn?t mean lines on charts and head-and-shoulders patterns and similar astrological nonsense, but rather the dynamics of where investors? money was being held and the amount that the market would fall given a modest downward nudge. Sometimes that number is tiny, but it can fluctuate a lot, and yesterday it just happened to be huge.

Magna International (MG.TO) (MG.TO) (MGA.N), one of the world's biggest auto-parts makers, said on Friday quarterly profit dropped on a weak performance in Europe and it cut its profit margin outlook, sending the shares tumbling.

U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, a development that could ease fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession.

When Charles Berry started his career as a bonds trader in 1993, he used to draw "point and figure" charts on pieces of paper. He checked his old charts recently to remind himself how calm markets were in those days. Back then, it took three months for a price to move 200 ticks -- the measure traders use to show changes in futures or currency markets. Now the market moves 400 ticks in a week.

A Texas jury has begun to deliberate the punishment for polygamist Warren Jeffs, a day after he was convicted on two counts of sexual abuse of a child.

There?s no getting around it: In much of the country, this is a terrible time to unload your home.

Getting a lot of out-of-office emails and feeling some vacation envy? You may feel like you?re the only one left in town during these dog days of summer, but that?s not the case.

It's the time of year when new college students start buying notebooks, but after paying the year's tuition bills, notebooks could suddenly become unaffordable.

Army officer Donna Bachler has not had a regular paycheck since she left active duty four years ago, even though she boasts the kind of skills employers vie for.