IBT Staff Reporter

Goldman Sachs Group Inc agreed to pay $550 million to regulators to settle civil fraud charges over how it marketed a subprime mortgage product, ending a weeks long probe that rattled clients and weighed on its share price.

Stocks ended little changed on Thursday, recouping losses late in the day, led by a sudden turnaround in Goldman Sachs and BP.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the financial regulator said on Thursday. In its charges against Goldman, the SEC said the investment bank had misled investors in a subprime mortgage product.

New U.S. claims for jobless benefits tumbled to a near two-year low last week, but a modest gain in industrial output and a third monthly drop in wholesale prices in June confirmed a slackening in the economy's recovery.

Carlyle Group struck a $3.8 billion deal on Thursday to buy U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc , beating several other buyout firms to clinch one of the biggest private equity deals so far this year.

Apple Inc is likely to announce a fix for the iPhone 4's reception problems, rather than a recall, at a surprise press conference on the device on Friday, analysts said.

Securities regulators on Thursday said they will make a major enforcement announcement, fueling talk that a deal has been reached in their lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc .

U.S. regulators proposed easing restrictions on satellite companies in a move aimed at freeing more airwaves to feed the growing demand for wireless broadband services.

Securities regulators on Thursday said they will make a major enforcement announcement, fueling talk that a deal has been reached in their lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc .

Vivus Inc, hoping to win approval to sell the first new prescription diet drug in more than a decade, told U.S. medical advisers on Thursday its weight-loss pill gives patients a safe option for shedding pounds and improving their health.

U.S. health advisers narrowly rejected Vivus Inc's experimental weight-loss pill, saying there was not enough data to merit approval.

Apple Inc is likely to announce a fix for the iPhone 4's reception problems on Friday, hoping to stem a growing chorus of complaints and avert any lasting damage to its carefully earned reputation for quality products.

Storied buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co made its long-awaited debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, but the start was subdued and shares traded slightly below their opening price.

Apple Inc has already sold more than three million of its iPad tablet computers in just over three months, but there is still more demand out there, a new survey showed on Thursday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday as it wrote off fewer bad loans in the second quarter, but executives warned they were uncertain about the economic outlook for the rest of the year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co raised its commodity trading risk in the second quarter, the first time in nine months, but earned less from the sector as prices fell and the bank lost out on a large coal bet.

The first potential U.S. prescription weight-loss pill in more than a decade could move closer to market on Thursday if it can overcome safety hurdles that have plagued diet drugs for years and led to tepid sales despite the growing number of obese Americans.

(Corrects share price in last paragraph from $2.11 to $12.11)

Stocks weakened on Thursday as more signals the pace of the economic recovery is slowing worried investors.

The U.S. Congress on Thursday approved the broadest overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression and sent it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Boeing Co said on Thursday that issues raised in its 787 Dreamliner flight tests could delay first delivery of the long-awaited carbon-composite aircraft into the first part of 2011, but the company also expects an uptick in new plane demand over the next two decades.

The Senate on Thursday by a vote of 60 to 39 approved the most sweeping overhaul of bank and capital market regulation in decades, sending it on to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.

Investors have muted expectations for Google Inc's second-quarter results, as economic clouds and shifts in the company's strategy dampened hopes that it will beat Wall Street estimates.

Hassan Nemazee, an Iranian-American businessman who raised money for the political campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for defrauding Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc out of $292 million.

(Corrects analyst's affiliation in last paragraph to ThinkEquity instead of Kaufman Brothers)

Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen, who has been treated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said on Thursday he is committing most of his estimated $13.5 billion fortune to philanthropy after his death.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen, who has been treated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said on Thursday he is committing most of his estimated $13.5 billion fortune to philanthropy after his death.

Vivus Inc, hoping to bring to market the first new prescription diet drug in more than a decade, told U.S. medical advisers on Thursday that its weight-loss pill gives patients a safe option for shedding pounds and improving their health.

The broadest overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression was on its way to becoming law on Thursday after it cleared a crucial hurdle in Congress.