INVESTMENT

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed opening on Wall Street on Wednesday as investors await U.S. inflation and housing start figures.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc, facing criticism over its outsized profits and bonuses, will contribute $500 million to programs that help small businesses, the company said on Tuesday.

John Thain, former Merrill Lynch & Co Inc chief executive, wants the world to know that he has never thrown a chair.

Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Morgan Stanley will merge only part of the U.S. firm's Japan brokerage operation with MUFG's, revising their earlier pact, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.

BlackBerry holds its ground;Fed remains vigilant on inflation;EU's 'Dark Pools' review

U.S. stocks rose to fresh 13-month highs on Tuesday as upbeat broker views on improving prospects for two Dow components offset disappointing holiday spending outlooks from Target and Home Depot.

Lazard Ltd on Tuesday named insider Kenneth Jacobs as CEO and chairman, succeeding legendary Wall Street dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein, who died last month.

Most of the thousands of rich people whose UBS bank accounts are to be handed over to U.S. authorities are suspected of serious fraud rather than simple tax evasion, Swiss authorities revealed on Tuesday.

European Union securities regulators will complete their review of dark pool share trading venues by year end and may ask the bloc's executive to take speedy action, a top supervisor said on Tuesday.

Some 14,700 rich Americans worried about a U.S. government crackdown on offshore tax cheats came forward to participate in a tax amnesty program, the top U.S. tax official said on Tuesday.

Target Sees Price War; Obama's Economic Campaign; Tame Inflation Ahead

New York Stock Exchange member firms earned a record $35.7 billion for their broker-dealer operations in the first six months of this year, which is 1-1/2 times above the previous high-water mark set in 2000, the state comptroller said in a report on Tuesday.

Switzerland will hand over the names of wealthy U.S. clients of UBS suspected of tax evasion or fraud, to settle a bitter row that cut through bank secrecy and threatened to bring the bank to its knees.

Rothesay Life, the Goldman Sachs-owned insurer, said it would insure pension benefits worth 370 million pounds ($623 million) for private equity firm CDC Group Plc, boosting a long-stagnant pensions derisking market.

Britain's top share index was 0.5 percent lower in mid-session trade on Tuesday as investors paused for breath after a four-day winning streak, with falls in banks and miners offsetting gains in some defensive issues.

UBS boss Oswald Gruebel set an ambitious target for annual pretax profit of $15 billion, vowing to rebuild the loss-making bank and win back clients after the subprime crisis and a bitter U.S. tax row.

UBS boss Oswald Gruebel is targeting an annual pretax profit of 15 billion Swiss francs ($14.9 billion) as he aims to put the subprime crisis and a U.S. tax row behind the loss-making bank and win back clients.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower opening on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.27 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.18 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.25 percent.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has filed a lawsuit against Barclays Capital Inc alleging the British bank took control of excess assets in collusion with Lehman executives when it bought its U.S. brokerage business a year ago, court documents show.

Billionaire investor George Soros' hedge fund reported holdings of $6.2 billion during the third quarter, an increase of $2 billion, after taking a stake in automaker Ford and boosting his holdings in communications services stocks.

U.S. mall owner Developers Diversified Realty Corp snapped a dry spell of nearly a year and a half by selling $400 million of new commercial mortgage bonds on Monday, with help from an emergency Federal Reserve lending program.