MARKETS / FINANCE

Siemens AG , Europe's largest engineering group, cautioned that global economic risks were increasing as its healthcare unit dragged quarterly results below expectations.

Swish bank UBS said on Thursday it has set up an asset management unit in Beijing to tap China's rapidly-growing $650 billion private equity market.

Asian stocks slid more than 1 percent in thin volume on Thursday as investors trimmed positions with just three trading days to go before a deadline to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, while the Australian dollar showed resilience in the face of global sovereign risks.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse said it would cut about 2,000 jobs as it reported second-quarter net profit that missed expectations, dented by weak trading activity and the strong Swiss franc.

Google Inc said the Department of Justice has asked for more information regarding its acquisition of online advertising company AdMeld.

HSBC Plc is close to announcing that it will cut thousands of jobs as it embarks on a cost-cutting drive, Sky News reported, citing people close to Europe's biggest bank.

Lehman Brothers Holdings has made a preliminary deal to sell most of a commercial real estate property in Rosslyn, Virginia, to a Goldman Sachs unit, raising at least $385 million to help pay back creditors, according to court documents.

Top former executives of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc lost their bid to throw out a securities fraud lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for billions of dollars of investor losses tied to the Wall Street investment bank's 2008 collapse.

The euro struggled to find any friends in Asia on Thursday, on renewed fears of contagion in Europe, while the U.S. dollar remained on the defensive as Washington showed no signs of progress in debt agreement.

Visa Inc's quarterly profit rose by 40 percent, and the world's largest payment processor said it would introduce a new fee structure for U.S. merchants.

Google Inc said the Department of Justice has asked for more information regarding its acquisition of online advertising company AdMeld.

AT&T Inc's $39 billion plan to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile unit got support from a Louisiana regulator and 11 state attorneys general on Wednesday.

Symantec Corp, the top maker of computer security software, beat Wall Street's profit estimates for a fourth consecutive quarter, saying it is benefiting from a surge in hacking activity.

Two top U.S. defense contractors posted sales that missed Wall Street's expectations on Wednesday in a sign that federal efforts to rein in military spending are starting to take a toll.

Visa Inc's quarterly profit rose by 40 percent and the world's largest payment processor said it would buy back $1 billion in class A common stock shares over the next year.

Investors eagerly bought the shares of Dunkin' Donuts parent Dunkin' Brands Group Inc , sending them up as much as 56 percent on their first day of trading on Wednesday.

Moody's Corp , owner of one of the three major debt-rating agencies, reported a 56 percent rise in second-quarter profit, but cautioned that the second half of the year would be more difficult.

Wall Street suffered its worst day in eight weeks on Wednesday, hit by weak earnings, lackluster economic data and no movement in Washington talks as the deadline for a U.S. default looms.

Visa Inc said on Wednesday quarterly profit rose by 40 percent, on a higher volume of global payments and a gain from revaluing its Visa Europe put option.

MERS, the electronic mortgage registry that faces multiple investigations for its role in thousands of problematic foreclosure cases, changed its rules to lower its profile in court-supervised foreclosures.

The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sued UBS AG to recover more than $900 million of losses after the Swiss bank misled the housing agencies into buying $4.5 billion of risky mortgage debt.

The operator of the Nasdaq Stock Market is under constant attack from would-be hackers and will spend more on security as a result, its top executive said.

MERS, the electronic mortgage registry that faces multiple investigations for its role in thousands of problematic foreclosure cases, changed its rules to lower its profile in court-supervised foreclosures.

Speculating on Greece defaulting is a sure way to lose money, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was quoted as saying in remarks released on Wednesday.

Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday as investors dumped technology shares after their recent strong performance and as faltering debt talks kept the market on edge.

Demand for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods fell in June and economic activity across much of the nation slowed through mid-July, casting doubt over how quickly the economy might escape its soft patch.

There may be a way-out of the U.S. debt deal impasse, if rationality prevails inside the beltway. True, rationality and 'inside the beltway' are not usually linked, but the path to impasse resolution still exists, even at this late stage.

France Telecom's Orange mobile unit is teaming up with Google to offer SMS-based chat in Africa, Orange said in a statement on Wednesday, targeting the fast growth of wireless services on a continent where computers remain scarce.

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut Greece's sovereign credit rating further into junk territory, lowering it to CC from CCC, saying the European Union's proposed debt restructuring would put the country into selective default.