INVESTMENT

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.61 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.55 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.73 percent at 3:44 a.m. EDT.

A hint of QE3 could usher in a very explosive global equity rally.

In early summer, before layoffs began sweeping across Wall Street, billboard-sized photos of employees were plastered on the walls, pillars and elevator banks of Credit Suisse Group AG's offices in the United States and abroad.

Micronations or libertarian utopias aren't conceptually new. They claim to be independent nations or states but which are not recognized by world governments or major international organizations. Many of these nations envisage a utopian society free of authoritarian control of any kind. These are non-existent except on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday rejected views that American power is waning and said Washington would never default, wrapping up a China visit that has played down tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

To say it's been a discomforting summer for U.S. stock investors would be an understatement. The Dow has been on a wild ride, with large market drops followed by sudden reversals. Look for market choppiness to continue until investors determine whether the Fed's latest monetary policy decision will be enough to rev-up U.S. GDP growth.

Gold buyers in India, the world's largest consumer of the yellow metal, are investing in it on expectations prices may rise, but imports are likely to fall as limited budgets buy less gold, the head of India's biggest importing bank told Reuters on Saturday.

The higher gold climbs the more intense the debate between bulls and bears, those who think the yellow metal has a long way to run before it even approachs its 1980 inflation-adjusted high of $2,400 and those who say the latest nominal record of $1,852.20 is just waiting to pop.

Large banks in the U.S. and Europe are undergoing a massive and painful re-organization in order to confront the gloomy new realities of the global economic landscape.

Peter Thiel, PayPal cofounder and an initial investor in Facebook, and a gay libertarian, is investing in what he calls his most ambitious project: Creation of artificial libertarian islands in international waters, free from international laws, regulations or moral codes.

Bain Capital has agreed to buy Australian software maker MYOB for about A$1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) after Sage Group plc's bid ran into last-minute glitches, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

Billionaire Edgar Bronfman Jr is stepping down as chief executive of Warner Music Group Corp, the world's third-largest music company, just two months after the company was bought by Len Blavatnik's Access Industries.

It goes without saying that a civilization and society as complex as the United States would have its share of myths and misnomers, so let's take a moment to dispel a few.

Bank of America Corp plans to cut 3,500 jobs in the next few weeks as CEO Brian Moynihan tries to come to grips with the bank's $1 trillion pile of problem home mortgages.

Oil trading data that exposed the extensive positions speculators held in the run-up to record high prices in 2008 were intentionally leaked by a U.S. senator, sparking broader concern about industry confidentiality as Congress moves on Wall Street reform.

Shares of business development companies have plummeted during the stock market crash and currently trade at 80 percent of their net asset value.

These banking institutions plan to let go tens of thousands of people around the world, the victims of a merciless economic climate and a brutal refiguring of the global banking industry.

Leadership is what America desperately needs because investors are trading more on fear instead of on facts.

It goes without saying that a civilization and society as complex as the United States would have its share of myths and misnomers, so let's take a moment to dispel a few.

Rick Perry reportedly invested thousands of dollars in Movie Gallery in 1995, a video rental store chain that was once the largest pornography distributor in the U.S.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday said China had nothing to worry about concerning the safety of its vast holdings of Treasury debt, while China's Premier Wen Jiabao gave a ringing endorsement of the resilience of the debt-ridden U.S. economy.