NEW YORK

American Express Company (NYSE: AXP), the biggest credit-card issuer by purchases, is expected to beat Wall Street's consensus profit estimates, with earnings gains driven by stronger consumer spending and a diversified business model. This is sharp change from prior quarters when the company grew profits by dipping deeper into the company's reserve funds that were set aside to cushion against future losses.

Money, cash, baby clothes: that's the life and times of Jay-Z and Beyonce now that newborn daughter Blue Ivy Carter is in the picture, but Jigga was hanging out with some high-rollers last night at the reopening of his 40/40 club in New York City.

Deaver has been charged with felonious assault.

Shares of transportation-focused companies were flying high Wednesday, chugging along to lead the market up after some blue-chip companies in the sector reported surprisingly strong earnings.

At the Guggenheim Museum in New York Thursday, Apple announced it would update its iBooks platform to include textbook capabilities and also added a new platform called iBooks Author, which lets anyone easily create and publish their own e-books.

An opportunistic offensive performance helped the Washington Capitals overcome the struggling Montreal Canadiens 3-0 on Wednesday to move top of the Southeast Division.

Marianne Gingrich has rarely appeared in the public realm to talk about her husband, GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich, since their divorce. In the 1990s, she once said she could destroy his career with a single interview. In December 2010, she said he wasn’t fit for president. Just as he is picking up steam in the run for the Republican presidential nomination, Gingrich's second wife is back.

Photography firm Eastman Kodak Company and its U.S. subsidiaries have filed for chapter 11 business to boost liquidity, monetize non-strategic intellectual property and fairly resolve legacy liabilities.

Stephen Colbert and Herman Cain will join forces and hold a rally together in South Carolina on Friday. The event is entitled THE ROCK ME LIKE A HERMAN CAIN: SOUTH CAIN-OLINA PRIMARY RALLY. Colbert, a comedic satirist, announced plans to run for the White House last Thursday on this Comedy Central show.

One in five adults in the United States, or nearly 50 million people, suffered mental illnesses in the past year with women and young adults suffering disproportionately, a government report released on Thursday found.

Long-suffering investors may wonder what to do with their Eastman Kodak shares now that the company has filed for bankruptcy in New York City.

Mitt Romney is finding it hard to wade through the attacks from his Republican rivals over his tax returns. Romney's hesitance to disclose his tax returns and his wealth profile is costing him dearly in the polls. The recent CNN/Times poll shows that his margin with his nearest Republican rival Newt Gingrich has shrunk to 10 points. Romney had enjoyed a 19 point lead in the past week.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: F5 Networks, Xilinx, Riverbed Technology, Golar LNG, Altera, Logitech International, eBay, and Apple. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Neurocrine Biosciences, Vodafone Group, Research In Motion, and Huntington Bancshares.

Four key technology giants are to report earnings Thursday. Intel, IBM, Google and Microsoft results may provide keys to 2012 progress, while Apple comes next week.

Groups in 110 U.S. cities and counting will protest Federal courthouses, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, on a day of action marking the second anniversary of the Citizens United v. FCC decision.

Eastman Kodak Co, which invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America's best-known companies.

In a move somewhat akin to having George Clooney announce the Oscar nominations, Uggie the dog announced on Wednesday that the top nominee for the first Golden Collar Awards, which honor canine performances in film and television, is -- Uggie the dog.

Federal authorities announced at a press conference on Wednesday that seven individuals were brought up on insider trading charges as part of a five-year investigation conducted by the Justice Department.

Some members of the Congress switched sides to oppose antipiracy legislation as protests blanketed the Internet on Wednesday, turning Wikipedia dark and putting black slashes on Google and other sites as if they had been censored.

The House of Representatives rejected a $1.2 trillion increase in the federal debt limit on Wednesday in a largely symbolic vote that allowed Republicans to stake out election-year positions to bash President Barack Obama's spending record.

U.S. prosecutors arrested a Chinese computer programmer on charges he stole software code valued at nearly $10 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.