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US stocks advanced in early trade on Monday, the first trading day of 2011, on speculation that the economic recovery will continue after stocks ended with double digit gains in the previous year.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is preparing for a potential onslaught of embarrassing and perhaps damaging information about the bank from Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, according to a report in the New York Times.

Bank of America Corp agreed to settle outstanding claims on poorly underwritten mortgages it sold to government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and said it will put aside $3 billion in the fourth quarter related to the claims.

Many investment banks and commodity analysts have taken a highly bullish stance on crude oil prices for 2011, based largely on economic recovery in the U.S., continued money-printing by the Federal Reserve (thereby, weakening U.S. dollar) and persistent high demand from the emerging markets, particularly China and India.

Wall Street appears to be almost universally bullish about U.S. stocks for 2011.

Top Ten Predictions for U.S. Economy/Markets in 2011. These predictions come from Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment strategist of YCMNET Advisors Inc. in Walnut Creek, Cal.

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, has accused Bank of America (BofA) and its lending unit, Countrywide Financial, of misrepresenting the risk associated with mortgage-backed securities it bought from them beginning 2005, and is suing them for more than $700 million.

US stocks advanced in early trade on Wednesday with S&P 500 Index advanced 1.63 points, or 0.13 percent, to trade at 1,260.14 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 24.86 points, or 0.21 percent, to trade at 11,600. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.10 percent.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to modestly higher opening on Wednesday with futures on the S&P 500 up 0.10 percent, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.10 percent and Nasdaq100 futures up 0.25 percent.

Allstate Corp has sued Bank of America Corp and 18 other defendants over losses it said it suffered on more than $700 million of mortgage debt it bought from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Even as world leaders are still trying to cope with the recent flood of global political secrets leaked by the whistle-blower site Wikileaks, its founder Julian Assange is all set to write his autobiography promising more in the offing. Speaking to the Sunday Times, the 39-year-old Australian announced that he had signed deals worth $1.5 million for publishing his memoirs.

MBIA Inc won a key ruling that will sharply reduce the time and cost of gathering evidence to prove that Bank of America fraudulently induced it to insure billions of dollars of mortgage bonds.

The revelations produced by WikiLeaks will remain a big issue in the coming years, not only for governments, diplomats and journalists, but especially for corporations.

Although some progress appears to be being made in the euro zone sovereign debt crisis – including the passage of an austerity budget by the Greek Parliament today and a capital injection into Allied Irish Bank (NYSE: AIB) – the most important member of the euro currency bloc, Germany, is unlikely to foot the total bill that will be required to truly resolve this issue.

Bank of America Corp said on Saturday it will not process payments intended for WikiLeaks, which has angered U.S. authorities with the mass release of U.S. diplomatic cables.

Bank of America has banned transactions to whistle-blower site Wikileaks since Friday, according to media reports. The Obama Administration earlier urged financial organizations to sever ties with the site for illegally releasing confidential US diplomatic cables.

U.S. companies are turning profitable again, they have stockpiles of cash and the economy is teetering on its new 'recovery' legs as the government pumps in billions of dollars trying to keep it afloat. Yet, the one thing that is crucial to the recovery is not happening - job creation - as companies remain reluctant to hire.

The state of Arizona has sued Bank of America Corp alleging the lender consistently misled consumers about its home loan modification process, a source familiar with the situation said.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Thursday are Office Depot, Accenture, Salesforce.com and American Express. The top after market NYSE most active stocks are Citigroup, Boston Scientific, Sprint Nextel Corporation and Bank of America.

Bank of America Corp has started negotiating with powerful mortgage investors that accused the bank of failing to buy back bad home loans, in an apparent shift in the lender's stance.

Bank of America Corp on Wednesday said investors delayed a technical default on the bank over its mortgage servicing unit, allowing more time for talks about alleged contract violations.

Bank of America Corp is in talks with a group of six investors to settle charges that it mishandled $16.5 billion in mortgages packaged into bonds, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Investors are increasingly attracted to U.S. stocks as the fiscal/sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone deepens, according to a fund manager survey by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BoAML)

Bank of America Corp has put up for sale at least $1 billion worth of toxic mortgage assets, the New York Post said on Monday, citing sources.

China has stubbornly refused to cede to U.S demands to let the yuan rise against the dollar. The question is, among the US and China who will gain and who will lose if China ever agreed to appreciate its currency?

Longer-term, the potential impact of the tax cuts upon the stock market and economy remain rather fuzzy, given the multitude of other issues facing investors, including perpetually high unemployment in the U.S., a seemingly never-ending sovereign debt crisis in Europe and constant friction with China over trade and currency.

Bank of America Corp will pay $137 million to settle a municipal bond bid-rigging probe which is likely to result in more cases being filed in the coming weeks and months.

Bank of America Corp will pay $137 million to settle allegations by federal and state authorities that it defrauded buyers of municipal bond derivatives.

A Pennsylvania-based law firm has been sued for using non-lawyers to review, sign and file foreclosures that caused people to lose their homes.