MARKETS / FINANCE

U.S. stocks headed for a lower open on Tuesday as a mixed data on June personal consumption and expenditures sparked caution, and investors set out to book profits a day after Wall Street rallied to a fresh nine-month closing high.

U.S. consumer spending rose slightly more than expected in June, a government report showed on Tuesday, likely pushed up by higher gasoline prices, and incomes saw their biggest drop in four-and-a-half years.

U.S. stock futures slipped on Tuesday as investors paused to gauge if the recent run-up will hold, while retreating oil prices looked set to weigh on energy shares.

U.S. stock futures fell on Tuesday as caution prevailed ahead of reports on June personal income data and pending home sales, a day after Wall Street rallied to a fresh nine-month closing high.

U.S. stock futures slipped on Tuesday as investors paused to gauge if the recent run-up will hold, while retreating oil prices looked set to weigh on energy shares.

Oil fell more than $1 to below $71 per barrel on Tuesday, paring three days of gains as expectations for a rise in U.S. crude inventories offset optimism over positive U.S. and Chinese manufacturing data.

French bank BNP Paribas's revenues from corporate and investment banking nearly doubled in the second quarter as robust investor demand boosted revenues from the bank's fixed income business unit.

U.S. manufacturing contracted at a much slower pace in July, while construction spending rose unexpectedly in June, according to data released on Monday that bolstered the view the economy was pulling out of recession.

Swiss bank UBS posted another big loss in the second quarter as wealthy clients were scared off by a U.S. tax row, but said it hoped to start winning back trust now that a U.S. deal was in sight.

BNP Paribas , France's biggest bank by market value, posted higher second-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by its purchase of Fortis assets, and expressed some optimism over prospects for financial markets.

Stock index futures point to a lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with the down S&P 500, the Dow and Nasdaq at 0.7 to 0.8 percent at 5:03 a.m. EDT.

Global stocks and commodity prices pulled back on Tuesday as investors paused to assess the state of the economy after pushing them higher in the past two weeks, while the U.S. dollar was broadly flat.

Asian stocks hit an 11-month high on Tuesday before profit taking pulled them back, while the Australian dollar also pared gains after the country's central bank left interest rates unchanged but offered no clues on when tightening would begin.

UBS said it remained cautious about its prospects after client withdrawals spurred by protracted U.S. tax litigation dragged the Swiss bank into another big quarterly loss on Tuesday.

Asian stocks climbed to an 11-month high on Tuesday on hopes a V-shaped recovery may be forming in the United States, while the Australian dollar hit its highest since late September after solid housing and retail sales data.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blasted top U.S. regulators in an expletive-laden tirade amid frustration over President Barack Obama's faltering plan to overhaul financial regulation, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday, citing people familiar with the meeting.

A U.S. bank regulator is expected to move quickly in finalizing guidelines on private equity investments in failed banks, possibly easing one of its most controversial proposals, sources said on Monday.

The 69th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is started with a bunch of live webcams offered for everyone who will miss the event. The event can be viewed live on webcams place on different hot spot.

A global consulting company that rose from the ashes of the destroyed accounting firm Arthur Andersen is now facing a scandal of its own.

The shares of private equity firm Blackstone Group LP rose 21 percent on Monday, a surge that one options analyst attributed to investors buying on speculation that upcoming earnings would be better than expected.

American International Group Inc said it had tapped former MetLife chief Robert Benmosche to be its new CEO, effective next Monday.

In an effort to abide with European Competition Law, Microsoft has proposed an alternative to Widows 7 'E' version of operating system which is dubbed as Consumer ballot screen but the move is hard to swallow, Microsoft said.

T-Mobile's second generation my Touch 3G – a Google Android power phone -- is set to go sale in Wednesdays with no physical keyboard.

Microsoft has changed its plans to shift its new European operating system Windows 7 E as it addresses EU's concerns. I'm pleased to report that we will ship the same version of Windows 7 in Europe in October that we will ship in the rest of the world, Dave Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

Shares of UBS rose sharply on Monday as attention turned to details of an agreement ending the Swiss bank's dispute with U.S. authorities over whether it should reveal the identities of thousands of American clients.

Stocks rose on Monday, pushing the S&P 500 index above 1,000 for the first time in nine months, as data on the manufacturing sector underscored optimism that the economy was recovering.

Oil rose more than $2 a barrel to hit a one-month high above $72 on Monday as positive manufacturing data in the United States and China raised optimism for an economic recovery that could bolster energy demand.

U.S. stocks climbed on Monday after data showed the hard-hit manufacturing sector edged closer to growth in July, pushing the S&P 500 above 1,000 for the first time in nine months.

Bank of America Corp has agreed to pay $33 million to settle charges that it made false and misleading statements to investors about bonuses at Merrill Lynch & Co, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday.