UNITED STATES

Home Sales Still Rising; Gold Hits Record; Soupmaker Campbell Beats Views

Goldman Sachs upgraded Nasdaq OMX Group to buy from neutral, citing underappreciated growth prospects. The brokerage said it sees the Nasdaq Stock Market parent company getting revenue of about $10 million a quarter from its new N2EX British wholesale power exchange, which the company runs along with Nord Pool.

People's United Financial Inc said it agreed to buy Financial Federal Corp for about $738 million in stock and cash to boost its equipment financing businesses.

Unsurprisingly, iPhone sales are booming across Europe as the end of exclusivity arrangements rev up the demand for Apple mobile phones. Broadpoint AmTech analyst predicts Apple will finally do the same in the US and will add Verizon as a carrier in 2010.

Ciena Corp agreed to buy the optical networking and ethernet equipment businesses of bankrupt Nortel Networks for $769 million after trumping a bid from Nokia Siemens Networks.

Dutch telecoms group KPN agreed improved terms for the takeover of iBasis, securing the control it needs to turn around the loss-making global top-three voice traffic carrier.

Burford Capital, the AIM-listed investor in corporate lawsuits -- said on Monday it has made its first two investments since raising 80 million pounds ($132.3 million) in an IPO last month.

Campbell Soup Co reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, helped by price increases and easing costs for ingredients including grains and tomatoes that offset a drop in sales.

Sales of existing U.S. homes likely rose for a second consecutive month in October, reaching their highest since July 2007, according to a Reuters poll, as buyers scrambled to take advantage of greater affordability and a first-time home buyer tax credit.

U.S. billionaire investor Wilbur Ross plans to buy shares of China Longyuan Power Group, Asia's largest wind power generator, which aims to raise up to $2.2 billion from its Hong Kong initial public offering, according to a preliminary prospectus.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the S&P on track to break a three-day sell-off, after data showed existing home sales rose to their highest level in 2-1/2 years and investors were reassured by a Fed official's comments.

Canadian fertilizer maker Agrium Inc said on Monday it would persist in its hostile bid for U.S. rival CF Industries Holdings, a move that could prolong the already drawn-out three-way merger battle in the sector.

Iraq's fractious parliament on Monday approved an amended version of a law needed to hold a general election next year, but sidestepped a veto by Sunni Arab Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, lawmakers said.

The Twilight sequel scored the third-biggest opening weekend of all time at the North American box office on Sunday, as millions of young women swooned over the complex love triangle involving a high school girl, a vampire and a werewolf.

As U.S. health officials struggle to vaccinate tens of millions of Americans against the pandemic of swine flu, some are looking regretfully at one easy way to instantly double or triple the number of doses available -- by using an immune booster called an adjuvant.

The H1N1 flu is moving eastwards across Europe and Asia after appearing to peak in parts of western Europe and the United States, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday after comments by a Fed official reassured investors the government is committed to helping the economy recover from a deep recession.

A French attorney for Roman Polanski who said the film director would not return voluntarily to the United States to face child sex charges is not authorized to speak in the case, Polanski's U.S. attorneys said on Friday.

Past the security man and his pit bull and through a haze of eye-watering smoke, two youths load up a pipe next to a row of shiny glass jars with two dozen varieties of marijuana bud displayed like candy.

The pandemic of swine flu may be hitting a peak in the Northern Hemisphere, global health officials said on Friday, but they cautioned it was far from over.

Campbell Soup Co reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, helped by prices increases, easing costs for ingredients like grains and tomatoes and efforts to cut overhead costs.