UNITED STATES

Stocks ended little changed on Thursday, recouping losses late in the day, led by a sudden turnaround in Goldman Sachs and BP.

New U.S. claims for jobless benefits tumbled to a near two-year low last week, but a modest gain in industrial output and a third monthly drop in wholesale prices in June confirmed a slackening in the economy's recovery.

Carlyle Group struck a $3.8 billion deal on Thursday to buy U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc , beating several other buyout firms to clinch one of the biggest private equity deals so far this year.

U.S. regulators proposed easing restrictions on satellite companies in a move aimed at freeing more airwaves to feed the growing demand for wireless broadband services.

Vivus Inc, hoping to win approval to sell the first new prescription diet drug in more than a decade, told U.S. medical advisers on Thursday its weight-loss pill gives patients a safe option for shedding pounds and improving their health.

U.S. health advisers narrowly rejected Vivus Inc's experimental weight-loss pill, saying there was not enough data to merit approval.

JPMorgan Chase & Co posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday as it wrote off fewer bad loans in the second quarter, but executives warned they were uncertain about the economic outlook for the rest of the year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co raised its commodity trading risk in the second quarter, the first time in nine months, but earned less from the sector as prices fell and the bank lost out on a large coal bet.

The first potential U.S. prescription weight-loss pill in more than a decade could move closer to market on Thursday if it can overcome safety hurdles that have plagued diet drugs for years and led to tepid sales despite the growing number of obese Americans.

(Corrects share price in last paragraph from $2.11 to $12.11)

The Senate on Thursday by a vote of 60 to 39 approved the most sweeping overhaul of bank and capital market regulation in decades, sending it on to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.

Hassan Nemazee, an Iranian-American businessman who raised money for the political campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for defrauding Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc out of $292 million.

Vivus Inc, hoping to bring to market the first new prescription diet drug in more than a decade, told U.S. medical advisers on Thursday that its weight-loss pill gives patients a safe option for shedding pounds and improving their health.

The broadest overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression was on its way to becoming law on Thursday after it cleared a crucial hurdle in Congress.

U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc said it agreed to be bought by Carlyle Group for $3.8 billion in one of the biggest private equity deals so far this year.

A U.S. judge handed a 12-year prison sentence on Thursday to Hassan Nemazee, a former fundraiser for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who admitted to a $292 million fraud of three major banks.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it will extend warranties on about 235,500 RAV4 vehicles and address steering complaints on as many as 500,000 late model Matrix and Corollas in the United States.

Ford Motor Co has named Jim Farley its first head of global marketing, sales and services and appointed the head of Volvo to run its European operations when it completes the sale of the unit to China's Geely

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday on anemic economic data that overshadowed solid earnings results from banking bellwether JPMorgan Chase & Co .

South Korea is ready to consider creative solutions to open its market to more U.S. beef and auto imports to help win U.S. approval of a bilateral free trade agreement

The death of a parent is always hard, but for Julie Smolyansky it was compounded by having to quickly take over her father's successful food company, which makes a cultured milk product called kefir.