MARKETS / FINANCE

Four days before the Olympic Opening Ceremony, in London's historic Horse Guards Parade courtyard where throngs will have just celebrated Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, United Parcel Service will ship in to set up scoreboards, umpire chairs, sand rakes, nets and other fixtures for beach volleyball.

Four days before the Olympic Opening Ceremony, in London's historic Horse Guards Parade courtyard where throngs will have just celebrated Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, United Parcel Service will ship in to set up scoreboards, umpire chairs, sand rakes, nets and other fixtures for beach volleyball.

It's not quite Easy Street, but more money is starting to flow along Main Street.

A federal watchdog faulted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies propped up with taxpayer funds, for questionable spending on a mortgage industry conference last year, in a report released on Thursday.

Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc is close to buying Swiss-based Actavis for around $7 billion, marking the latest deal between generics companies racing to achieve economies of scale, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Stocks mostly fell on Wednesday, weighed by the energy services sector, but gains in technology shares buoyed the Nasdaq and helped keep the S&P 500 near four-year highs.

Starbucks Corp said on Wednesday it would spend $180 million on U.S. factories, creating 150 manufacturing jobs, and that it would get into the $8 billion U.S. energy drink market with a new product.

Bank of America Corp has eliminated jobs in its equities, mortgage-backed securities and research divisions in recent weeks, two sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

Germany's Deutsche Bank AG changed the legal status of its main U.S. subsidiary, Taunus Corp, as a way to avoid injecting billions of dollars of capital into the unit by 2015.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21 - Hewlett Packard Co will merge its printer and PC businesses, combining two of its largest divisions as Chief Executive Meg Whitman tries to jumpstart growth at the technology company.

Allen Stanford, the financier convicted of running an estimated $7 billion Ponzi scheme, has asked for a new trial, citing the media's use of Twitter in the courtroom and a lack of time to prepare his defense.

Home sales fell in February, but upward revisions to the prior month's pace and the first yearly increase in prices in 15 months pointed to steady improvement in the housing market.

Starbucks Corp is expanding into the fast-growing energy drink category and plans to add manufacturing jobs in the United States, the world's biggest coffee chain said on Wednesday.

Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candidates said on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama must nominate a new President of the World Bank soon, ahead of its June annual meeting in Washington. Two Third World candidates have been mentioned but another American is the likely winner.

Stocks struggled on Wednesday to rise above recent highs, hampered by losses in risk-associated sectors like energy and financials.

Apollo Global Management LLC said on Wednesday it was doubling down on Bank of America Corp's European assets, agreeing to buy its Irish consumer credit card portfolio after acquiring its Spanish credit card unit last summer.

U.S. home sales fell in February, but upward revisions to the prior month's pace and the first yearly increase in prices in 15 months suggested the housing market recovery remained on track.

Stocks struggled on Wednesday to rise above recent highs, hampered by losses in risk-associated sectors like energy and financials.

Home resales unexpectedly fell in February and the supply of properties on the market rose, underscoring the many hurdles for the housing recovery.

Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candidates said on Tuesday.

Stocks edged lower on Wednesday after worse-than-expected housing market data for February and a soft outlook from oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc.

A proposed 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires backed by President Barack Obama - dubbed the Buffett tax after investor Warren Buffett who supports it - would raise about $47 billion over a decade, according to a congressional report.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), the No. 1 computer company, said it will merge its PC with its printers unit, amid other internal changes ordered by new CEO Meg Whitman.

The maker of the hit mobile game Angry Birds has struck a deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc to embed clues to a new version of the game in merchandise sold in Walmart stores, hoping to lure Angry Birds fans through the doors and shoppers to the game.

Activist hedge fund Third Point on Wednesday filed a proxy statement with regulators seeking to install its own slate of directors on Yahoo Inc's board after criticizing the Internet company's recent appointees to the board.

Gold traded broadly steady on Wednesday, as a boost from a modestly stronger euro against the dollar partly offset slow consumer demand and an erosion in holdings of the metal in exchange-traded products.

Stocks opened little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited data on the housing market a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak.

U.S. stocks were poised for a slightly higher open on Wednesday ahead of data on the housing market a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak.