COMPANIES

U.S. stocks plummeted for the second straight session, driving the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq down 6 percent on Monday in the first session since Standard & Poor's cut the nation's perfect AAA credit rating.

Texas billionaire Charles Wyly, a co-founder of Michaels, a chain of arts-and-crafts stores that was sold in 2006, was killed in a car crash near Aspen, Colo., over the weekend, police said Monday.

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 500 points on Monday, banking giant Bank of America saw its share price get hammered.

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) shares fell as much as 9.5 percent to their lowest level since April 2009 on Monday morning over fears of a slowing U.S. economy and challenges to a multi-billion dollar mortgage settlement.

American International Group Inc is suing Bank of America Corp to recover more than $10 billion over a "massive fraud" on mortgage debt, deepening the litigation morass facing the largest U.S. bank.

Bank of America's stock tumbled Monday, down 16 percent as investors reacted to a lawsuit filed against the bank by AIG.

President Robert Mugabe said on Monday Zimbabwe would punish firms from Western states who have slapped sanctions on senior officials in his ZANU-PF party, warning that global miners including Rio Tinto could be hit.

U.S. stock index futures tracked a sharp drop in global equity markets on Monday after rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the top-tier AAA credit rating of the United States, rattling already-jittery investors.

Gold vaulted above $1,700 an ounce for the first time on Monday after pledges by the G7 and the European Central Bank to quell the turbulence in the financial markets did nothing to put investors at ease.

Thousands of striking Verizon workers are joining picket lines and rallies at locations from New York to Massachusetts to Virginia.

About 45,000 employees of Verizon Communications went on strike after contract talks failed.

McDonald's same-store sales rose 5.1 percent in July, the company says, beating internal forecasts. The company continues to outperform competitors globally after the recession.

Auriga USA has upgraded the shares of EMC Corp (NYSE:EMC) to 'buy' from 'hold', saying that the company would increase its margins and profits by gaining market share in the storage space.

U.S. gold futures and cash gold struck records in early Asian trade on Monday after the United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's in an unprecedented blow to the world's largest economy.

Bullion roared to record highs above $1,700 an ounce on Monday as an unprecedented downgrade to the U.S. credit rating sent investors scrambling out of riskier assets, hammering equity markets and the dollar.

Japan's Nikkei stock average slid more than 2 percent on Monday as weak sentiment following Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating was exacerbated by futures selling after Asian markets tumbled.

A weekend contest at the world's largest hacking convention in Las Vegas showed one reason why big corporations seem to be such easy prey for cyber criminals: their workers are poorly trained in security.

A downgrade of United States' top-tier credit rating has Wall Street scrambling to figure out the knock-on effects for the financial system, from mortgages to banks to markets that rely on U.S. Treasuries for collateral.

The European Central Bank said on Sunday it would "actively implement" its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone's debt crisis, signaling it will buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to halt financial market contagion.

Tel Aviv shares closed nearly 7 percent lower on Sunday in the first response of a developed market to Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating that has sparked fears of another global recession.

South Korean policymakers on Sunday played down any likely impact on the economy following the downgrade in U.S. credit ratings and told local investors not to panic when financial markets reopen.

Unions representing 45,000 Verizon Communications (VZ.N) workers called for a strike as negotiations failed for a new labor contract that expired at midnight on Saturday.

The fact that U.S. Treasury bonds managed to cling to their coveted triple-A rating this week failed to impress several prominent bond fund managers, who say they are lightening up on Treasuries and stocking their portfolios with corporate bonds instead.

The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, drawing a blast of criticism on Saturday from its biggest creditor China and deepening investors' alarm over the euro zone's debt crisis.

Guidewire Software Inc, which sells software to the insurance industry, is gearing up to go public and has selected JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) to underwrite the deal, people close to the matter said.

France has complete faith in the solidity of the U.S. economy and in the U.S. government's determination to implement the Congress's plan, a source close to France's Finance Minister Francois Baroin said on Saturday.

Where can investors hide when even gold and cash look dicey?

Self-proclaimed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace of Las Vegas pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday, according to a report.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman would have preferred to keep the focus squarely on the media giant's robust third-quarter profits.