MORGAN STANLEY

An investor consortium led by U.S. buyout giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co announced on Wednesday that it poured a combined $160 million into a Chinese financial leasing firm to help it expand business.

Rallying commodity markets are adding to profits of Wall Street houses like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, and banks are ramping up commodity desks again, a year after the recession cut into operations.

U.S. stocks weakened on Tuesday as disappointing sales from Johnson & Johnson stirred jitters about the strength of earnings, threatening to break the S&P 500's six-day winning streak.

Demand for public stock offerings in Hong Kong and throughout the region remains strong, despite a few recent deals that struggled, according to a panel of three investment bankers and one hedge fund investor.

Citigroup Inc agreed to sell its Phibro energy trading business to Occidental Petroleum Corp for a pittance, allowing the bank to calm regulators who were outraged over a $100 million pay package the unit was obliged to pay a star trader.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, Credit Suisse Group and Morgan Stanley have agreed to pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit over their role in the collapse of a Philadelphia mortgage lender, an attorney said on Friday.

Morgan Stanley likely broke a string of three straight losses in the third quarter, while chief rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc extended its dominance.

Deutsche Bank began coverage of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) with buy, and said the two U.S. banks will stay well capitalized even under the likely increased regulatory capital requirements.

Hype about the swine flu vaccines, pent-up demand for cash and a push by major drugmakers to boost their flagging research pipelines has helped lift biotechnology fund-raising 36 percent so far this year.

West Corp, an operator of call centers and conference calls, filed plans on Friday to raise as much as $500 million in an initial public offering.

U.S. consumer spending rose at its fastest pace in nearly 8 years in August, but the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week, indicating a weak labor market would weigh on recovery.

U.S. consumer spending rose at its fastest pace in nearly 8 years in August, but the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week, indicating a weak labor market would weigh on recovery.

Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp priced shares in its initial public offering for $19 each, within the expected range, but increased the size of the share issue in the largest IPO by a biopharmaceuticals firm in three years.

(Corrects age of Staley to 52 in paragraph 8 and corrects paragraph 13 to show Winters was in London, Black in New York)

UBS AG said on Tuesday it hired a Morgan Stanley investment banker to head its insurance practice in North America, months after it lost two senior insurance bankers to Greenhill & Co.

Accretive Health Inc AH.N, a provider of technology and services aimed at helping hospitals manage their revenue cycles, plans to raise as much as $200 million in an initial public offering, according to a prospectus filed with U.S. regulators.

RailAmerica Inc, which owns and operates short-line and regional freight railroads in North America, has set the terms for its planned initial public offering, which is scheduled for October.

Citigroup Inc sued Morgan Stanley on Friday for breach of contract, saying the Wall Street firm owed it $245.4 million for protection it bought on a loan.

Morgan Stanley is outrunning archrival Goldman Sachs as 2009's busiest adviser on mergers as optimism grows that the crippling effects of the financial crisis on dealmaking may be easing.

Wall Street's biggest firms have seen their overall share of dealmaking erode over the past decade as boutique and mid-sized firms lure away rainmakers and provide niche expertise.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to take note of an improving economy at the close of a meeting on Wednesday, while cautioning that high unemployment puts the recovery at risk.