IBT Staff Reporter

One of the chief architects of U.S. financial reform will chair the House-Senate panel that hammers out the final version of the Wall Street overhaul, a spokesman for the Democratic lawmaker said on Monday.

The Nasdaq gained on Monday after positive broker comments lifted large-cap technology shares, though sustained worries about Europe's banking system restrained the Dow and the S&P 500.

U.S. economic prospects are brightening, although Europe's debt troubles serve as a reminder that the United States must tame its own roaring deficit, economists said in a report on Monday.

Rio Tinto says the super-tax is likely to impact adversely on the investment climate in Australia

In 2006 or even earlier the only way to connect retail clients with the Banking Market was what was used to be called the Retail Dealers or the Retail Aggregators. So, Retail Dealers are market makers to their customers; and they traded on a home sale basis with their banks. Obviously this lead to a lot of problems. The Retail Dealer chooses not to hedge the client's positions but to take the other side of the trade 100% of the times or a significant percent of the times. So they have a conflict...

Sales of previously owned homes rose more than expected in April to a five-month high as buyers rushed to close contracts before the expiry of a homebuyer tax credit.

Yahoo Inc and Nokia unveiled a wide Internet services deal, including maps and e-mail service, as the two battle new rivals on the wireless market.

Stocks mostly fell on Monday as a Spanish government bailout of a local bank refocused attention on Europe's debt crisis, although positive broker comments on some big-cap technology companies boosted the Nasdaq.

Campbell Soup Co posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as a promotional spending push led to increased sales in its key U.S. soup market after two straight quarters of declines.

U.S. economic prospects are brightening, although Europe's debt troubles serve as a reminder that the United States must tame its own roaring deficit, economists said in a report on Monday.

Sales of previously owned homes rose more than expected in April to a five month high, reflecting a last minute dash by buyers to close contracts before the expiry of a homebuyer tax credit, an industry group said on Monday.

MCX on Monday launched futures contracts in MINI Zinc (Contract Size 1 MT). Initially June and July contracts of zinc mini will be available for trading and in due course of time more contracts will be introduced. While the contract specification of zinc mini is exactly the same as that of the existing zinc contract on MCX, the tonnage has been reduced to 1 ton. The current zinc contract on MCX has a lot size of 5 tons with an average daily volume of 1,40,000 tons.

China's General Administration of Customs on Monday said country's gasoline exports surged 124.23% year on year to 696,888 metric tons in April this year. In a report, GAC said country's total gasoline exports were 2.1 million metric tons in the first four months, up 122.89% year on year.

Stocks pared losses in volatile trading on Monday after data showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose more than expected in April to a five-month high.

British Petroleum (BP) on Monday said the cost of cleaning up the mammoth Gulf of Mexico oil spill had hit around $760 million so far. In a statement issued here, the oil giant said it was too early to put a figure on the ultimate bill as lawsuits continue to flood in and as cash was pumped in to efforts to halt the leak and minimize the environmental toll.

The Associated Press story on cadmium in Miley Cyrus jewelry has created a scare about adverse health effects of jewelry in both children and adults. However, Fashion Jewelry and Accessories Trade Association (FJATA) has come out against the story stating that the agency has relied on private testing conducted by Prof Jeffrey Weidenhamer which they are not willing to share with FJATA.

Global miner Rio Tinto said it is reviewing all investments in Australia due to a proposed new tax, describing the country as its No.1 sovereign risk concern and sending a weak Australian dollar even lower.

Existing home sales are seen rising 6.0 percent to 5.62 million units after growing by 6.8 percent in March, with forecasts between 5.42 million and 5.80 million.

Chocolate lovers may have something rare to sink their teeth into with the issue of the UK's first ever chocolate bond, where investors can make significant returns in the form of chocolate rather than cash.

The euro fell broadly on Monday, pulling back from gains last week, after the Spanish central bank's takeover of a savings bank added to jitters about debt problems in some of the weak euro zone countries.

East African Community, a five-nation trade bloc that aims to have a monetary union in 2012, said on Monday that problems in the euro area will serve as a lesson but will not discourage its move to a single currency. East African Community (EAC) comprises Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. It already has a customs union, and a common market is due to take effect in July. After the monetary union, it eventually aims to have a political federation.

British Airways Plc cabin crew began a five-day strike on Monday after talks broke down in a dispute over wages, jobs and working conditions and BA said no further negotiations were imminent.

International Business Machines Corp said on Monday it has agreed to buy business software integration services company Sterling Commerce from AT&T Inc for about $1.4 billion in cash.

Stock index futures pointed to a fall of more than 1 percent at the open on Monday as a Spanish government bailout of a local bank refocused attention on a European debt crisis, which investors fear could derail the global economy.

The Bank of Spain said on Saturday it had taken over the running of Spanish savings bank CajaSur after its planned merger with another of the country's small lenders failed.

Stock index futures fell on Monday as a Spanish government bailout of a local bank refocused attention on Europe's debt crisis, which investors fear could derail the global economy.

Just days after unveiling a Sony-branded Internet TV with Google, Sony's chief executive is set to meet rival Samsung Electronics, for possible alliances, as the Japanese consumer electronics maker aims to turn its TV business profitable with aggressive sales targets.

The United States suggested Europe's debt crisis would have minimal impact on global growth, but China took a more pessimistic view, warning it would impact demand for its exports and other regions would suffer too.

China struck a conciliatory note in talks with the United States on Monday by vowing to spur domestic demand and keeping a guarded opening to exchange rate reform, which the Obama administration says is needed to rebalance the global economy.