INVESTMENT

Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Japan's second-largest bank, posted a 17 percent drop in its first-half profit and cut its full-year forecast on Wednesday, after the subprime-market turmoil sparked losses at its brokerage unit and increased credit costs.

UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank, said on Wednesday third-quarter net profit rose an underlying 19 percent to 1.122 billion euros ($1.6 billion), although its investment banking profits were hit by the credit markets crisis.

Bear Stearns Cos Inc expects to write down $1.2 billion of assets linked to mortgages in the fourth quarter, resulting in an overall loss, the Wall Street bank's chief financial officer said on Wednesday. Investors were relieved the write-down was not bigger, and sent Bear Stearns shares up 6.6 percent in pre-market trading.

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, said its third-quarter profits were ahead of last year's and revenue growth across the group offset a jump in its charge for bad debts in the United States. The trading update on Wednesday reassured investors that HSBC was not further exposed to big debts in mortgage-related financial products and was benefiting from its broad spread, and its shares jumped over 4 percent.

Money manager BlackRock Inc is launching more distressed securities funds to take advantage of the current credit market troubles, Chairman and Chief Executive Laurence Fink said on Tuesday.

Shares of E*Trade Financial Corp rebounded on Tuesday as investor fears eased a day after an analyst said mounting credit losses of the online banking and brokerage company could put it at risk of bankruptcy.

U.S. stocks snapped a four-day losing streak on Tuesday with Nasdaq notching its biggest gain in more than four years after news that Apple Inc was in talks to offer iPhones in China sent investors bargain hunting among battered technology stocks. years after news that Apple Inc was in talks to offer iPhones in China sent investors bargain hunting among battered technology stocks.

Bank of America Corp, the second-largest U.S. bank, said on Tuesday it expects to write down $3 billion of debt in the fourth quarter as fallout from the nation's housing slump deepens.

Bank of America Corp, the second-largest U.S. bank, said on Tuesday it has suffered a $3 billion loss stemming from its exposure to collateralized debt obligations. The pretax loss would be reflected in fourth-quarter results, and could grow if market conditions worsen, according the Merrill Lynch Chief Financial Officer Joe Price.

Stocks, rebounding from a string of losses, rose 1 percent on Tuesday on higher-than-expected profit at Wal-Mart Stores Inc and oil prices below $93 a barrel.

Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings is expected to report another big hit from its exposure to the U.S. mortgage crisis on Wednesday, when it will also release a group trading update.

Citigroup Inc, the largest U.S. bank, on Tuesday overhauled the structure of its investment bank, combining equity and debt capital markets activities.

Merrill Lynch is resorting to its trademark bull logo to convince the world it is in good shape, despite taking its biggest quarterly loss ever.

Goldman Sachs has 6.9 percent, or $72 billion of its $1.05 trillion in assets in hard-to-value Level 3 assets, according to securities filings.

Former US vice president Al Gore is taking on a new role as he joins forces with a Silicon Valley venture capital firm to invest in green business and eco-friendly technology.

E*Trade Financial shares lost more than half their value on Monday after Citigroup downgraded the company’s shares from ‘hold’ to ‘sell’ and indicated that there is a 15 percent chance that the firm could file for bankruptcy.

E*Trade Financial Corp told customers on Monday it can absorb a writedown of as much as $1 billion and it is well capitalized, after a Citigroup analyst said credit woes put the online brokerage is at risk of bankruptcy.

World stocks hit 8-week lows while the yen raced to 18-month peaks versus the dollar on Monday as fears about credit-related losses at financial firms prompted investors to reduce bets on risky trades.

Gold fell more than 2 percent on Monday, as weaker oil prices and recovery in the dollar prompted investors to take profits from the metal's recent 28-year highs.

S&P 500 and Dow industrials were little changed and the Nasdaq fell on Monday as investors looked for bargains in financial shares, while a big drop in oil prices weighed on major energy company shares.

Banks worldwide may lose as much as $400 billion from subprime mortgages, as at least one in four of the risky home loans go into default, analysts said on Monday. Mike Mayo, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, estimated $150 billion to $250 billion of losses based on $1.2 trillion of U.S. subprime loans, and an additional $150 billion of losses on derivatives linked to subprime debt.