MARKETS / FINANCE

A New York money manager has been arrested and charged with running a $40 million Ponzi scheme over three decades, diverting some investor money to a pornography mail-order business, investigators said.

Bernard Madoff's whistle-blower and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's top enforcer will testify before Congress this week on how the SEC failed to uncover Madoff's $65 billion fraud, a congressional panel said on Monday.

American International Group Inc is interviewing banks this week on managing a planned initial public offering of a life insurance unit, American Life Insurance Co, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks advanced on Tuesday, led by gains from oil and materials companies, while an uptick in M&A activity spurred recovery hopes, making equities more appealing to investors.

Hedge fund returns rose for the sixth straight month in August but underperformed the broader stock market, where hopes of a quick economic recovery fueled strong gains last month, according to data released on Tuesday.

American International Group Inc is interviewing banks this week to manage a planned initial public offering of life insurance unit American Life Insurance Co, sources familiar with the matter said.

Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday U.S. credit card losses declined in July, but forecast bad loans would soon resume their upward trend as thousands of Americans lose their jobs.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as natural resource shares gained from higher commodities while Kraft Foods Inc's offer for confectioner Cadbury raised hopes about more mergers and acquisitions.

Stocks climbed on Tuesday as natural resource shares rose alongside commodities and Kraft's bid for Cadbury buoyed hopes that more merger and acquisition activity was on the horizon.

Oil traded higher on Tuesday by nearly $3 at one point as investors quenched a growing risk appetite for tangible commodities against the background of a weakening dollar and the looming prospect of inflation.

Banking is supposed to be boring.That's the quip that lobbyists and congressional aides use, only half-jokingly, to explain what's in store for the banking industry as governments crack down with tighter regulation.

Global banking giant HSBC and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway should be paying staff the biggest bonuses, according to a new bonus model from a management consultant.

The Obama administration's ambitious plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation was bogged down in Congress as it returned from a long recess on Tuesday.

Wall Street was set to open nearly 1 percent higher on Tuesday as rising commodity prices and an uptick in merger and acquisition activity fueled hopes the economy is strengthening.

Emerging markets stocks hit a new year high on Tuesday, rising to levels last seen before the Lehman Brothers collapse, and world stocks headed firmly toward a new 2009 peak.

Brookfield Incorporacoes, the Brazilian real estate unit of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO)(BAM.N), plans to sell about 600 million reais ($326 million) of stock, Valor Economico newspaper reported, without citing a source for the information.

A major shareholder in China's Lenovo , the world's No. 4 PC maker, plans to sell 292 million shares at HK$3.55-3.57 per share, according to sources with knowledge of the deal, a discount of 2.5-3 percent from Tuesday's close.

A forward-looking measure of hiring intentions dipped slightly in the United States even as it improved in many other countries, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc.

Oil prices rose above $69 a barrel on Tuesday ahead of an OPEC meeting, which analysts said would see more target compliance rhetoric but no change in output limits.

AOL Inc, the Internet unit of Time Warner Inc, said on Tuesday it has appointed former Yahoo Inc executive Brad Garlinghouse as president of its Web and mobile communications group.

Airlines and their suppliers are reporting tentative signs that a severe industry recession is bottoming out, sending shares higher on Tuesday.

Wall Street was set to enjoy a positive return to trading on Tuesday after the Labor Day holiday, according to stock index futures.

Data in the coming week should deliver more proof that a global recovery is at hand, but policy-makers are facing up to how sub-par growth over the long haul might constrain their policy choices.

When Richard Fuld was pressed about why he wouldn't defend himself and try to preempt some of the negative press before the anniversary of his former firm's collapse, he said: No. Because I don't want to. I promised myself I wouldn't.

Emerging markets stocks hit a new year high on Tuesday, rising to levels last seen before the Lehman Brothers collapse, and world stocks in general headed toward a new 2009 peak.

MF Global Ltd , a futures and options broker that has just launched a Japan equity research-led team, said on Tuesday it will expand its operations in Japan to as many as 55 staff or a 28 percent rise by March.

Oil prices rose toward $69 a barrel on Tuesday, underpinned by comments by delegates from an OPEC meeting starting Wednesday, which analysts believe may see more rhetoric on compliance but no change in output targets.

U.S. gold futures hit a six-month high of $1,000 and spot gold also rose to six-month high on Tuesday as the dollar's weakness, concerns about the sustainability of the global economic recovery and worries about inflation underpinned sentiment.

Asian shares touched their highest level in a year on Tuesday, while gold futures hit $1,000 an ounce for the first time in six months on investor concerns about the sustainability of the global economic recovery.