MARKETS / FINANCE

Italian prosecutors have called for Google Inc executives to be jailed in a case related to a video of a taunted youth with Down's Syndrome posted on its Italian website, judicial sources said on Wednesday.

Tiffany & Co , which resisted the temptation to deeply discount its jewelry in the recession, posted earnings showing its upscale shoppers around the world are coming back to life.

U.S. stocks edged up on Wednesday after data pointed to stabilizing labor and housing markets, considered two big headwinds slowing down a recovery.

Deere & Co , the world's largest maker of tractors and harvesters, reported a quarterly net loss on Wednesday on weak equipment sales and a series of one-time charges.

General Motors cast around for fresh options for Sweden's loss-making Saab on Wednesday after the collapse of its sale added another dimension to tortuous European restructuring plans.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, lifted by positive data on the labor market and housing sector, considered two of the biggest headwinds facing the economy.

Deere & Co , the world's largest maker of tractors and harvesters, reported a quarterly net loss on Wednesday on weak equipment sales and a series of one-time charges.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected data on the labor market.

The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for jobless insurance tumbled last week by a surprisingly large amount to the lowest level in more than a year, according to government data on Wednesday that gave fresh evidence the battered labor market is improving.

Brazil officials are worried a tumbling U.S. dollar is luring investors into risky currency derivatives contracts a year after the country grappled with massive losses from wrong, one-way wagers on the real (BRBY), O Estado de S. Paulo reported on Wednesday, citing a finance ministry aide.

The dollar hit a 15-month low against a currency basket on Wednesday after Federal Reserve minutes showed policymakers saw the U.S. currency's recent decline as orderly. Traders dumped the dollar across the board, pushing it to a 10-month low against the yen, as the minutes also reinforced the view U.S. interest rates will stay essentially at zero until around mid-2010.

The U.S. economy grew more slowly than first thought in the third quarter, but a fifth month of gains in house prices in September and an improvement in consumer morale signaled the anemic recovery was intact. In its second estimate of third quarter gross domestic product published on Tuesday, the Commerce Department said the economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate, probably ending the most painful U.S. recession in 70 years.

Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, as the dollar fell and investors awaited data that could offer insight into how firmly a recovery is taking hold.

Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, as investors awaited a new round of economic data that may offer insight into the strength of a recovery.

World stocks rose while gold hit another record high and the dollar weakened on Wednesday after Federal Reserve minutes expressed confidence in the durability of the U.S. economic recovery.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street on Wednesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, with investors awaiting a slew of economic data.

U.S. private equity investor JC Flowers is circling Britain's weakened banking industry, prepared to swoop on forced divestments over the next 12 months, according to the firm's new European and Asia Pacific boss.

Google is putting thousands of images of ancient artifacts at Iraq's National Museum online, the Web search leader said on Tuesday, part of a U.S. bid to entice foreign firms to invest in Iraq.

Swift interest rate hikes aimed at containing inflation in product and asset prices could cause another downturn in the slowly recovering economies of the United States and Europe, the head of the World Bank said.

J Crew Group Inc reported a quarterly net profit far above Wall Street estimates due to strong autumn sales of clothing and expanded profit margins from depressed year-ago levels.

J Crew Group Inc reported a quarterly net profit far above Wall Street estimates due to strong autumn sales and expanded profit margins from depressed year-ago levels.

The government-run fund that safeguards U.S. bank deposits tumbled to a negative balance of $8.2 billion in the third quarter, as the number of problem banks surged by a third to 552.

American International Group Inc , the insurer that received billions of dollars in a U.S. bailout, has been authorized by its board to pay Chief Executive Robert Benmosche's $7 million compensation, after it laid to rest concerns that he may quit the post.

U.S. central bankers, meeting in early November, said they expected consumers to continue or even boost savings in the next few quarters while anticipating an elevated unemployment rate over the next few years.

J Crew Group Inc said on Tuesday that quarterly net profit surged above Wall Street estimates due to strong autumn sales at the upscale apparel retail and expanded profit margins from depressed year-ago levels.

A federal judge has barred the promotion of a scheme designed to help clients evade taxes on more than $1.25 billion in asset sales, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.

Half of the losses suffered by banks could still be hidden in their balance sheets, more so in Europe than in the United States, the International Monetary Fund's chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Federal securities regulators won an insider trading case when a jury in Boston ruled that a former Fidelity employee illegally profited from trading stocks that the mutual fund giant was buying for itself.

Federal Reserve officials are increasingly confident the U.S. economic recovery will be durable, but do not see employment or inflation picking up soon, minutes from their November meeting showed.