MARKETS / FINANCE

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Brian Moynihan has a tough assignment for the company's investor day next week: convincing shareholders he has a blueprint for the bank's future.

A veteran Cigna Corp (CI.N) manager sued the U.S. health insurer on Thursday, saying it unfairly blocks female employees from promotions and higher-paying jobs. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, seeks $100 million in damages and asks for class-action status.

A frustrated Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was poised on Friday to issue layoff notices to 1,500 state workers, blaming the move on a two-week standoff over his bill to curb union collective bargaining rights.

A sweeping insider trading case that shook the hedge fund world is finally set for trial, with onetime billionaire Raj Rajaratnam fighting to stay out of prison in a courtroom drama over corporate secrets, tapped telephones and friends-turned-government witnesses.

Rising oil prices and tumbling bank shares dragged Wall Street lower on Friday, with stocks surrendering the previous session's hefty gains.

Wall Street erased most of its weekly gains on Friday as fears of more geopolitical turmoil and higher oil prices threaten to stifle rallies in coming weeks.

U.S. stocks closed down and erased most of gains for the week on Friday as fears of more geopolitical turmoil and higher oil prices threaten to stifle rallies in coming weeks.

The jobs outlook is growing dimmer and dimmer for the public sector.

Wall Street erased all of its weekly gains on Friday as fears of more geopolitical turmoil and the impact of high oil prices drove investors to sell risky assets like stocks.

Federal prosecutors said they plan to introduce audiotape evidence at next week's trial of Raj Rajaratnam showing that the Galleon Group founder conspired with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta to get inside tips about the Wall Street bank.

Ireland's new prime minister in waiting pleaded with fellow European conservative leaders Friday for easier terms on Dublin's financial bailout loans but was told there would be no free lunches.

European leaders must deliver a convincing response to the euro zone's debt crisis regardless of a European Central Bank threat to raise interest rates, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.

(Corrects Reuters instrument code in 1st paragraph)

Employers hired more workers in February than in any month since May last year and the unemployment rate fell to a near two-year low, raising hopes the economic recovery has gathered critical momentum.

New orders received by factories leaped 3.1 percent in January, marking their biggest increase since September 2006 on a massive surge in aircraft orders as the manufacturing outlook signaled a continuing improvement.

Long outgunned by Wall Street's big brains and big budgets, U.S. financial regulators are hoping to close the gap -- if they get the money to do it.

Goldman Sachs Group Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has agreed to testify for the U.S. government at the upcoming trial of Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Days ahead of its official launch, Doximity -- a LinkedIn-style application for healthcare professionals -- already has the backing of the venture capital community and thousands of U.S. doctors.

(Corrects paragraph two of Christopher Low's comment to say the unemployment rate fell one-tenth.)

Stocks fell on Friday, weighed by rising crude prices and after Wall Street posted its best one-day rise in three months on expectations February's payrolls would grow more than they did.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Thursday recommended teachers be rated on the basis of student performance, adding to the debate over job evaluations as states look to layoffs to address budget gaps.

White House economist Austan Goolsbee said on Friday the February jobs report showed President Barack Obama's policies were working to improve the economy, but he said more needed to be done to create jobs.

BofA Merrill Lynch expects subdued client activity and geo-political risks to weigh on the first-quarter earnings of large U.S. banks and downgraded shares of Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to neutral from buy.

Days ahead of its official launch, Doximity -- a LinkedIn-style application for healthcare professionals -- already has the backing of the venture capital community and thousands of U.S. doctors.

Investment bankers have been villified by the public since the financial crisis, and regulators are cracking down on their pay, but Britain's university graduates still aspire to become them. At the country's top universities, the generation of students who started their degree just as Lehman Brothers collapsed are still pursuing lucrative

A legal tussle between defunct Lehman Brothers and investors in highly complex debt vehicles has drawn attention from financial professionals and British football clubs alike.

Employers hired more workers in February than in any month since May last year and the unemployment rate fell to a near two-year low, the strongest sign yet the recovery has become self-sustaining.

Investment firm General Atlantic is investing in Facebook, valuing the leading social network at $65 billion, representing a 30 percent boost from its last big investment in January, according to a report on CNBC.

Mystery solved? For the first time in months, the Labor Department's job market assessment matches up with private surveys showing a pick-up in employment that is finally fast enough to put a substantial dent in the unemployment rate.