UNITED STATES

General Electric Co shares climbed more than 7 percent on Thursday after a powerful U.S. lawmaker said he saw no great need for the largest U.S. conglomerate to spin off its finance arm.

Stocks Rebound, Exxon's Profit Sinks, MasterCard Beats

MasterCard Inc , the world's second-largest credit card network, reported better-then-expected quarterly earnings Thursday as it raised fees charged to banks and cut expenses, sending its shares up 6.5 percent.

The number of Americans collecting long-term unemployment aid fell to the lowest in three months in mid-July, according to government data that implied a slowing pace of layoffs as the economy stabilizes.

In the past week the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose to numbers slightly above the expected numbers according to government data on Thursday. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000 in the week ended July 25.

Jonathan Spicer and Daisy KuAggressive cost cutting helped NYSE Euronext beat earnings expectations for a second straight quarter Thursday, and the company expects staff reductions to yield more savings.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week, but the number of workers staying on jobless rolls fell to the lowest in three months, government data showed on Thursday.

The corporate bond market is signaling trouble ahead for those U.S. regional banks that are facing rising loan losses from commercial real estate.

The Federal Reserve seems to be volunteering to be top bubble burster. In a recent speech, Bill Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,

U.S. banks' losses from loans to homebuilders should start to taper off in about six months, a Standard & Poor's analyst said on Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks, driven by a drop in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates climbed, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage rates rose for a second consecutive week as Treasury yields climbed, a move that does not bode well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market.

Primus Financial Holdings, founded by former top Citi Asia banker Robert Morse, plans to team up with a Hong Kong-listed battery maker to bid for AIG'sTaiwan unit Nan Shan Life, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

It took Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc several years to find common ground on the best way to team up in the Internet search market. Now comes the hard part.

It took Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc several years to find common ground on the best way to team up in the Internet search market. Now comes the hard part.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, which buys distressed home loans and is run by several former Countrywide Financial Corp executives, on Wednesday raised $320 million from an initial public offering, $80 million less than planned.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge is likely to rule on Thursday whether auto parts supplier Delphi Corp can go ahead with its plan to sell its assets to a group of lenders and bring an end to its near four-year bankruptcy case.

Dubai's Emaar Properties EMAR.DU, the builder of the world's tallest tower in the Gulf Emirate, made a loss of 1.29 billion dirhams ($351.2 million) for the second quarter after it wrote off the complete book value of its U.S. unit.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that General Motors Co [GM.UL] and Chrysler Group were companies worth saving, but he expects both to repay their government loans.

Outbreaks of the H1N1 flu among children attending U.S. summer camps presage a surge in cases this fall as students return to school, an official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Wednesday.

General Electric Co shares climbed 5 percent on Thursday after a powerful U.S. lawmaker suggested a planned financial regulatory overhaul would not force the largest U.S. conglomerate to spin off its hefty finance arm.