Sponsored by Merrill Lynch

Following the announcement of Adobe's next generation Acrobat software last Friday, the San Jose Calif.-based company showcased upcoming features and developments at several industry events, giving consumers and investors a look at its anticipated software.

Shares in JetBlue Airways Corp. fell on Friday after the discount carrier lowered its earnings forecast amid weaker demand.JetBlue was the latest U.S. airline to highlight softening demand because of security concerns and a seasonal drop-off in traffic.

Norwich Union has announced that it will be adding 29 funds to the Portfolio investment bond.

U.S. shares are expected to rise again on Monday, underpinned by hopes that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at its policy-setting meeting on Wednesday, and as oil prices stayed below $64 a barrel.

European investors will focus on the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision next week and clues about the U.S. economy, while a smattering of company results will also roll on in Europe and the United States.

Several of the world's top drugmakers may weigh acquiring Bristol Myers Squibb Co. after it fired its chief executive, although suitors seem unlikely to bid before next summer, analysts said.

High oil prices and the bumper profits they bring mask major underlying threats to the biggest oil companies from higher taxes, difficulties in gaining access to new fields and soaring costs, analysts say.

Fund managers remain convinced the dollar is expensive and will fall against the Japanese yen

Business travel company Hogg Robinson set a wide indicative price range on Tuesday for its planned return to the London stock market

Intel Corp., the world's biggest maker of microchips, is expected to announce major job cuts on Tuesday as part of a plan to trim $1 billion in costs and regain its competitive edge, analysts and media reports said.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported on Thursday the worldwide sales of semiconductors are up to $19.6 billion in June, up over 9% from June 2005, however Wall Street analysts remain unimpressed.

Microsoft, the worlds largest software maker, said on Thursday that it sees no reason for a delay in its highly anticipated operating system, Windows Vista, but stopped short of saying it would be on time as well.

During the quarterly earnings conference call with analysts last Thursday, Microsoft said any delay in its new Windows operating system could cost the company upwards of $400 million.

The quickening flow of capital out of the country may be a sign that recent weakness in Canadian markets could deepen, particularly if, as looks likely, the Canadian dollar's four-year upward charge is losing steam.

Merrill Lynch, the largest U.S. Brokerage firm, beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday as it reported a better than expected net quarterly income attributed to high equity trading revenue growth.

Was the dollar's recent sharp run higher against a backdrop of conflict in the Middle East a pure geopolitical safe-haven play? Not quite, some say.

Investors have turned increasingly pessimistic about the future and now widely expect a weaker global economy and deteriorating corporate profits, a notably bearish Merrill Lynch poll showed on Tuesday.

Car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said on Friday it is planning an initial public offering of as much as $1 billion in common stock.

Premier Foods has agreed to buy the UK and Irish businesses of Campbell Soup for 460 million pounds ($846 million), adding Oxo stock cubes, Batchelor soups and Homepride flour to its stable of brands. Premier Foods, which already owns household names such as Angel Delight desserts and Smash instant mashed potato, said on Wednesday it would finance the deal mainly from a fully underwritten rights issue to raise 450 million pounds.

A U.S. Treasury market rally that has driven bond yields below the key inter-bank overnight lending rate may be the strongest signal yet from the bond market that the Federal Reserve has gone too far in its campaign to raise interest rates.

After years of paltry yields in the high-yield junk bond market, of all places, investors are back in the sector with a vengeance, taking advantage of rising coupons.

How easily global equities bounce back from May-June losses is in large part dependent on how much of a bargain shares have become for investors, and that depends on what measure you choose to determine value.

Hedge funds and other money managers are moving more money out of the market amid short-term problems.

More than 20,000 blue-collar workers at General Motors Corp. have accepted buyout offers, surpassing the automaker's internal target, with a month to go before the deadline, the Detroit News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation.

Britain's FTSE 100 index closed sharply higher on Friday as fresh bid talk buoyed mortgage bank Alliance & Leicester, while the Midcap 250 index hit a fresh high led by brewer Greene King.

Industrial leaders United Technologies Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but their shares headed in opposite directions, with investors keying off profit forecasts.

U.S. stocks climbed on Tuesday as strong corporate earnings and evidence of tame inflation in March countered a rise in the price of oil to a record high.

A Merrill Lynch analyst, two Goldman Sachs employees and a worker at a plant that printed Business Week magazine have been charged in an insider trading scheme that netted more than $6.7 million, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The London Stock Exchange and Euronext have held secret talks about a all-shares merger of equals to create a European super exchange valued at about 6 billion pounds ($10.5 billion), the Observer newspaper said on Sunday.