MARKETS / FINANCE

Two U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyers are under investigation by federal criminal authorities for allegedly using insider information to trade stocks, a report by the SEC's internal watchdog said.

A former partner at accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP was guilty of securities fraud for an insider trading scheme but not guilty of conspiracy charges, a U.S. jury ruled on Friday.

Hedge fund and traditional money management firms hard hit by last year's market meltdown are poised for a surge of mergers and acquisitions to bolster depleted assets and widen sources of revenue.

Regulators are looking at ways to protect investors from losing funds backing their derivatives trades in the event of a Lehman-style bank failure.

Hmmmmmm... how interesting. I've just been contacted by a firm who says the UK Telegraph story yesterday misquoted Mark Patterson and that the newspaper pulled down its piece. Considering it was the #1 viewed story on the Telegraph yesterday that is quite interesting. The story has now disappeared into the Error 404 ether on the Telegraph website. I won't speculate on the role of the Invisible Hand reaching out to certain parties ... but a grassy knoll type of person could connect so...

U.S. stocks stumbled on Friday as energy shares dropped along with oil prices on worries about weak demand, overshadowing fresh reassuring economic data.

A U.S. jury found a former partner at accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP guilty of a securities fraud charge on Friday, according to a court document.

U.S. economic data offered more evidence on Friday that the recession's worst phase may be over, with April consumer prices unchanged and industrial output declining at a slower pace than in March.

U.S. stocks stumbled on Friday as energy shares dropped along with oil prices on worries about weak demand, overshadowing fresh reassuring economic data.

The greenback edged higher against the euro on a combination of better than expected US economic reports and continued risk aversion flows.

U.S. stocks fell on Friday as energy shares dropped on worries about weak oil demand, and banks slipped as investors took recent profits in the sector.

The U.S. economy has pulled back from the edge of the abyss but the recovery will be very slow as Americans' find an equilibrium between the often voracious consumption of past years and a new-found focus on savings, Federal Reserve policy-makers said on Friday..

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp disputed on Friday a report that said Chairman Sheila Bair believes some U.S. bank chief executives will be replaced in the next couple of months as regulators assess lenders' financial strength.

Stocks stumbled in choppy trading on Friday as energy shares dropped on worries about weak demand, offsetting stronger-than-expected economic data.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp chairman Sheila Bair said some U.S. bank chief executives will be replaced in the next couple of months as regulators assess lenders' financial strength, Bloomberg News said on Friday, citing a television interview to be broadcast this weekend.

Every now and then, someone will ask me the age-old question: “Is it OK to lie on my resume?”

General Motors Corp said Friday it will drop about 1,600 U.S. dealers as it struggles to slash billions of dollars in operating costs and debt ahead of an anticipated bankruptcy filing by the end of the month.

GMAC LLC, stung by billions of dollars in losses at its auto finance and mortgage units, on Friday scrapped its own name from its banking unit, which it will now call Ally Bank in an effort to gain customers.

Shares of several life insurers, including Hartford Financial and Lincoln Financial Group , rose on Friday after the companies got a preliminary green light to participate in a U.S. funding program.

Stocks slipped in choppy trading on Friday, as sliding crude oil prices prompted some selling in the energy sector and bank shares fell following a two-month run-up.

U.S. consumer confidence rose in early May to its strongest since the September failure of Lehman Brothers, with rising expectations the economy may be in the last stages of the recession, a survey showed on Friday.

Regular readers know that American Idol is my guilty pleasure and last night, the show provided a rare surprise - despite the fact that producers and judges had been hyping a finale between Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert all season, a dark horse contestant sneaked in under the wire, beat one of the two the judge’s favorites and made it into the finale.

First Data Corp., an international electronic payments processor, said its sales were steady in the first quarter, but generated a loss overall.

Stocks rose on Friday as unchanged consumer prices, a slower pace in the decline in industrial output and stronger-than-expected data on consumer sentiment reinforced hopes the recession is easing.

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged last month and industrial output declined at a slower pace, reports showed on Friday, providing more evidence that the worst phase of the recession may be over.

Europe sank to what may have been the recession's low point in the first quarter of this year as tumbling German exports and investment plus further sharp drops in output elsewhere hastened the pace of a year-old contraction.

Corrects penultimate paragraph to say France's performance was notably stronger than that of Germany, Italy or Spain, not that it was France's worst quarter in six years

KKR Private Equity Investors LP reported Friday that its net asset value rose slightly for the quarter which ended March 31.

Europe sank to what may have been the recession's low point in the first quarter of this year as tumbling German exports and investment plus further sharp drops in output elsewhere hastened the pace of a year-old contraction.