IBT Staff Reporter

An elite club of bankers traditionally close to London's mining companies stand to earn their firms a share of a $140 million fee pot if the proposed merger between Glencore and Xstrata succeeds.

Stocks seesawed in a tight range on Thursday as earnings reports drove individual shares, while a drop in jobless claims pointed to a slowly healing labor market before Friday's employment report.

Zynga shares jumped as much as 22 percent on Thursday in the first trading session after Facebook revealed it made 12 percent of its revenue last year from the video game publisher.

Shareholder group Ethos called for Novartis investors to vote against re-electing board members who were among those deciding on the pay awarded to the Swiss drugmaker's chairman, Daniel Vasella.

Quarterly earnings at U.S. chains including Abercrombie & Fitch Co and Ann Inc took a big hit from deep discounts they offered to clear out clothes stocked for snow and cold that never came.

Competition watchdogs are stifling those companies still braving economic uncertainty to attempt mergers and acquisitions, say bankers and lawyers who claim the burden of bureaucracy has intensified with the financial crisis.

Facebook aims to connect all two billion Internet users. So far it has captured 845 million of them. Of the rest, nearly 60 percent live in Asia and hooking them is going to be a daunting challenge.

Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, federal prosecutors said they have seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday defended the U.S. central bank's policies against charges from Republican lawmakers they risked sparking inflation, saying the economy still needs plenty of support.

Facebook unveiled plans for the biggest ever Internet IPO that could raise as much as $10 billion, but made it clear CEO Mark Zuckerberg will exercise almost complete control over the company, leaving investors with little say.

New claims for unemployment benefits in the United States fell more than expected last week, pointing to further healing in the nation's battered jobs market.

Spain and France gained respite at bond auctions on Thursday highlighting a rally in euro zone government debt markets since the European Central Bank flooded banks with cheap money in December.

Dow Chemical Co's quarterly profit and revenue missed Wall Street's expectations as demand for electronics, plastics and coatings plunged, causing the company to slash production and aggressively discount some products.

Depending on who you ask, Facebook is either the best company to go public since Google or the hallmark of another tech bubble.

Zynga shares jumped as much as 22 percent on Thursday in the first trading session after Facebook revealed it made 12 percent of its revenue last year from the video game publisher.

Europe's financial crisis still threatens the U.S. recovery, and the Federal Reserve will do everything it can to protect against damage to the economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

Europe's financial crisis still threatens the U.S. recovery, and the Federal Reserve will do everything it can to protect against damage to the economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

Dow Chemical Co's quarterly profit and revenue missed Wall Street's expectations as demand for electronics, plastics and coatings plunged, causing the company to slash production and aggressively discount some products.

U.S. food companies Kellogg Co and Sara Lee Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday and stood by their 2012 outlooks even as both companies go through significant changes.

Eurozone finance ministers aim to agree a second financing package for Greece on Monday, a decision they hope will boost market confidence in euro zone public finances and help contain the two-year-old sovereign debt crisis.

Euro zone finance ministers aim to agree a second financing package for Greece on Monday, a decision they hope will boost market confidence in euro zone public finances and help contain the two-year-old sovereign debt crisis.

Merck & Co. on Thursday reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, helped by a decrease in research spending, and predicted relatively flat 2012 results as the No. 2 U.S. drugmaker girds for cheaper generic forms of its biggest product, asthma drug Singulair.

Stocks edged higher on Thursday after weekly jobless claims fell in the latest week, but gains were limited as investors were reluctant to make big bets ahead of Friday's payrolls report and a recent rally.

Dow Chemical Co's quarterly profit and revenue missed Wall Street's expectations as demand for electronics, plastics and coatings plunged, causing the company to cut production and aggressively conserve cash.

Intel Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith likes the questions he is receiving from Wall Street these days a lot more than the concerns many investors voiced last year about the PC chip giant's ability to adapt to consumers' growing preference for smartphones and tablets.

India's Supreme Court ordered on Thursday telecoms licenses issued under a scandal-tainted 2008 sale be revoked, striking a decisive blow against corruption that plagues the country and roiling the world's second biggest cellular market.

Ailing Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp warned it was heading for a bigger-than-expected $2.9 billion annual loss, presenting a daunting task for incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai, who vowed to move quickly to turn things around.

The job cuts, if they go through, would be part of thousands of other cuts which financial institutions plan to make in the near future.