MARKETS / FINANCE

Credit card giants MasterCard and Visa came under intense cyber attack on Wednesday as supporters of WikiLeaks retaliated for moves against Julian Assange after the release of U.S. diplomatic cables that angered and embarrassed Washington.

The shares of two companies considered to be China's YouTube and Amazon.com soared in their U.S. debuts on Wednesday, as investors bet they could become dominant in a still-nascent market.

Municipal bond prices slid again on Wednesday, extending a sell-off that had been ignited on Tuesday by steep losses in Treasuries and anxieties about the possible end of a popular bond program.

For Kathryn Confer, refinancing the mortgage on her home in Erie, Pennsylvania, became a race against time -- first because she was drowning under a 10.5 percent interest rate and then because of Congress.

Securities regulators are probing whether traders have intentionally exacerbated volatility or unlawfully exploited the deeply fragmented stock markets, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said on Wednesday.

Salesforce.com Inc agreed to buy Heroku, a privately held cloud-platform company, for $212 million in cash, to expand into the fast growing social media and mobile space.

The Federal Reserve is expected to unveil a proposed rule next week that would limit the transaction fees that banks can charge retailers when a customer uses a debit card, according to two industry sources familiar with the matter.

Failure by the Congress to pass a tax cut deal soon would materially increase the risk of the economy stalling and a double dip recession, White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Wednesday.

The bond market's horrific two-month stretch is teaching U.S. investors who poured some $700 billion into fixed income mutual funds in recent years a harsh lesson about risk.

The shares of two Chinese companies considered that nation's YouTube and Amazon.com soared in their U.S. debuts on Wednesday as investors bet they could become leaders in a still-nascent market.

U.S. online holiday sales are up 12 percent to more than $17.5 billion till date this year, with more than half of that making use of free shipping, according to research firm comScore Inc.

Financial literacy has become a huge catchphrase -- the one idea upon which consumer advocates and bankers, borrowers and lenders, even Republicans and Democrats all agree.

U.S. stocks edged higher on Wednesday as gains in financial and technology stocks offset declines caused by a recent surge in bond yields.

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Stocks were little changed on Wednesday, with investors staying cautious on a strong dollar and higher bond yields, but analysts didn't rule out a year-end rally.

Stocks were little changed on Wednesday, with investors staying cautious on a strong dollar and higher bond yields, but analysts didn't rule out a year-end rally.

From keeping the WikiLeaks site alive to helping British anti-austerity protesters outmaneuver riot police, Twitter is entering the Western political mainstream as a powerful tool for dissent.

Major-economy government bonds fell further on Wednesday, extending Tuesday's sharp losses and driving 10-year US Treasury yields above 3.20%, causing liquidation in commodity markets including Gold and Silver.

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Wednesday said the situation in Europe remained troubling, keeping up pressure on policymakers to find more effective measures to deal with the euro zone's debt crisis.

Steady economic improvement should fuel U.S. stock gains through 2011, according to a Reuters poll of investors and strategists, but international concerns could limit gains in the second half of the year.

Salesforce.com Inc said it has agreed to buy privately held cloud-platform company Heroku for up to $249 million to expand its presence in cloud computing related to social and mobile applications.

A prominent U.S. business group on Wednesday urged the Obama administration to consider modifying some provisions of a broad-based financial regulatory overhaul that they said hurt American competitiveness.

Bickering among European Union leaders escalated on Wednesday over a proposal for joint euro zone bonds to overcome the bloc's debt crisis, with Germany saying it opposed the idea on legal and economic grounds.

At 12:53 GMT, the pair was at 1.3212, off an intra-day low of 1.3179 and from its previous close of 1.3259. With no key data due from the US through the rest of the day, the pair is likely to hold above the 1.3157-1.2970 support region.

Crude oil futures declined for the second day on Wednesday as traders booked profits following a rally to $90.76 a barrel, the highest in 26 months on Tuesday, and on stronger dollar.

Financial literacy has become a huge catchphrase -- the one idea upon which consumer advocates and bankers, borrowers and lenders, even Republicans and Democrats all agree.

Stocks were nearly flat on Wednesday, with investors pulling back on a strong dollar and higher bond yields, but analysts didn't rule out a year-end rally.

Brazilian central bank's commitment to keep currency volatility on check also suggests the market's likelihood to be bullish for the pair at the slightest of real-negative.

Stocks were little changed on Wednesday, weighed by gains in the dollar and higher bond yields, but analysts said they expect the market to regroup before attempting a rally into year-end.