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Wall Street off on banks shares

U.S. stocks fell to session lows on Thursday as shares of major banks, including Bank of America ,skidded, and further deterioration in the labor market added to worries about the deepening recession. Bank of America dropped 12.47 percent to $4 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Citigroup tumbled 11.3 percent to $2.58. Uncertainty about how the Obama administration w...

Stanford probe widens, Venezuela seizes bank

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U.S., Latin American and European investigators widened probes on Thursday into the far-flung financial empire of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused of massive fraud, and Venezuela seized one of his banks.

Oil rises above $37 after U.S. crude data

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Oil rose more than $2 to above $37 on Thursday after United States government crude inventory data showed an unexpected fall in U.S. crude stocks. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed U.S. weekly crude stockpiles were off 200,000 barrels at 350.6 million barrels, against a forecast rise of 3 million barrels. A day ahead of expiry, U.S. crude futures for March delivery ros...
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P&G sticks to plans despite recession

Procter & Gamble Co said on Thursday it will continue to sell products at a wide variety of price points to keep consumers interested in its brands during the recession. We are focused on how consumers define value, regardless of the economic situation they're in, Chairman and Chief Executive A.G. Lafley said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference in Boca Raton...
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Stocks off session highs after data

Stocks edged below session highs on Thursday after a monthly measure of regional factory activity showed a sharp contraction, pointing to a deepening recession. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported its business activity index in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region at minus 41.3 in February, while economists had expected a reading of negative 25.0, according a Reuters poll. U.S. workers contin...
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Swiss bank secrecy threatened after UBS tax deal

Switzerland on Thursday embarked on a struggle to defend a landmark decision allowing bank giant UBS to transfer client data to the United States in a tax settlement that experts say will dilute bank secrecy laws. UBS, the world's biggest bank to the rich, agreed late on Wednesday to pay a hefty $780 million fine and disclose the identity of some clients after U.S. investigators accused it of he...
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Bargain hunters lift Wall St. at open

Stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors bet Wall Street might hold off from hitting fresh bear-market lows as a search for beaten-down shares provided support. The likely bounce from three-month lows faces a drag from fresh government data showing the number of U.S. workers continuing to claim jobless benefits jumped to a record in the first week of February. The Dow Jones industrial avera...
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Swiss bank secrecy under threat after UBS tax deal

Switzerland on Thursday embarked on a struggle to defend a landmark decision allowing bank giant UBS to transfer client data to the United States in a tax settlement that experts say will dilute bank secrecy laws. UBS , the world's biggest bank to the rich, agreed late on Wednesday to pay a hefty $780 million fine and disclose the identity of some clients after U.S. i...
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Bargain hunters to lift stocks at open

has not been well received. S&P 500 futures rose 15.10 points, and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures climbed 117 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 17.00 points. According to Reuters data, the benchmark S&P 500 shows the br...
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U.S. jobless on benefits at record high

The number of U.S. workers drawing unemployment aid jumped to a record high in early February according to data on Thursday that highlighted the deteriorating labor market as a 13-month recession deepens. A separate report showed prices received by U.S. producers rose last month, breaking a five straight month declining trend as energy costs rebounded. The number of people remaining on the benef...
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Venezuela seizes Stanford bank after online run

Venezuela seized a local bank owned by Allen Stanford on Thursday to stem massive online deposit withdrawals as the impact of a U.S. fraud case against the Texan billionaire spread through Latin America.
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Venezuela takes over local Stanford bank

Venezuela took control of a local bank owned by Allen Stanford, who faces U.S. fraud charges, the finance minister said on Thursday, as the impact of the American case spread through Latin America. We have taken the decision to take over, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said, adding that the government would seek to quickly sell the bank. In recent days, depositors had worried that the troubl...
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Sprint loses subscribers but results beat views

Sprint Nextel Corp posted a fourth-quarter loss as 1.3 million subscribers left its mobile phone service, but the results were not as bad as some had feared, and its shares rose more than 14 percent. The No. 3 U.S. mobile company, which has struggled with customer defections in the last few years, said on Thursday that its net loss narrowed to $1.6 billion, or 57 cents per share, from...
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Stock futures cut gains after jobless claims

S&P 500 stock index futures briefly pared gains on Thursday following a government report showing the number of U.S. workers continuing to claim jobless benefits jumped to a record in the first week of February. The data underscored the toll of the deepening recession on the labor market, and presented a hurdle for stocks attempting to bounce from three-month lows. S&P 500 futures rose 8...
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New jobless claims unchanged last week

The number of U.S. workers continuing to claim jobless benefits jumped to a record high in the first week of February, the Labor Department data showed on Thursday, while new claims for unemployment insurance last week was unchanged at a very high level. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits were a seasonally adjusted 627,000 in the week ended February 14 unchanged from an upwa...
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January producer prices rise 0.8 percent

U.S. producer prices rose faster than expected in January after falling for five straight months as energy costs rebounded, government data showed on Thursday, but inflation pressures generally remained benign. The Labor Department said the producer price index rose 0.8 percent in January, rising for the first-time since July, compared to a 1.9 percent drop in December. Analysts polled by Reuter...
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U.S. energy secretary blames his OPEC remark on naivete

Just hours after he said urging OPEC not to cut oil production was not in my domain, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that remark reflected more of my naivete than anything else and he would encourage OPEC members to promote stability in crude oil prices.
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Oil rises towards $36 ahead of U.S. crude stocks

Oil rallied toward $36 a barrel on Thursday ahead of key United States inventory data, while the dollar's weakness and a recovery in global stock markets offered support to oil prices. Crude stockpiles in the United States likely rose last week by 3.0 million barrels to their highest since May 1998, a Reuters poll of analysts ahead of the U.S. Energy Information Administration data due later on...
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Stock futures up on bargain search

has not been well received. S&P 500 futures rose 10.30 points, and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures climbed 67 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 7.75 points. But even with the bounce, there was caution ahead of a weekly report on jobless ...
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CVS Caremark profit in line as sales up

CVS Caremark Corp posted a higher fourth-quarter profit that matched Wall Street's expectations, helped by growth in its pharmacy services and retail drugstore units. CVS said on Thursday that it had earned $949.3 million, or 65 cents per share, compared with $811.2 million, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier. The results matched the analysts' average forecast, according to Re...
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Obama to talk protectionist fears on Canada trip

Barack Obama will seek to quell Canadian concerns about U.S. protectionism when he makes his first foreign trip as president on Thursday to the United States' biggest trading partner and energy supplier.
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Sprint posts quarterly loss and sees decline in subscribers

Sprint Nextel Corp , the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, posted a quarterly loss on Thursday and said a total of 1.3 million wireless customers had left its service during the quarter. Sprint, which has struggled with customer defections in the last few years, reported a loss of $1.6 billion, or 57 cents per share, compared with a loss of $29.3 billion, or $10.31 per share, in the same quar...
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UBS tax deal is Swiss bank secrecy's Waterloo

UBS's landmark settlement deal with U.S. tax authorities could be the final nail in the coffin for Switzerland's prized bank secrecy and will have far-reaching consequences for the whole offshore financial industry.

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