IBT Staff Reporter

Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson topped the list of winners at the American Music Awards Sunday night in Los Angeles Nokia Theatre.

Home Sales Still Rising; Gold Hits Record; Soupmaker Campbell Beats Views

Goldman Sachs upgraded Nasdaq OMX Group to buy from neutral, citing underappreciated growth prospects. The brokerage said it sees the Nasdaq Stock Market parent company getting revenue of about $10 million a quarter from its new N2EX British wholesale power exchange, which the company runs along with Nord Pool.

People's United Financial Inc said it agreed to buy Financial Federal Corp for about $738 million in stock and cash to boost its equipment financing businesses.

Zions Bancorp said it will reduce the value of certain securities in its investment portfolio, resulting in a pretax loss of about $423 million on the securities, and expects a tax refund, sending shares up as much as 15 percent.

Unsurprisingly, iPhone sales are booming across Europe as the end of exclusivity arrangements rev up the demand for Apple mobile phones. Broadpoint AmTech analyst predicts Apple will finally do the same in the US and will add Verizon as a carrier in 2010.

Health insurer Humana Inc is looking for acquisitions in complementary areas to adapt to changing healthcare need, its Chief Executive Mike McCallister told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Ciena Corp agreed to buy the optical networking and ethernet equipment businesses of bankrupt Nortel Networks for $769 million after trumping a bid from Nokia Siemens Networks.

Britain's Carphone Warehouse has stopped selling Sony Ericsson's flagship smartphone due to software problems, dealing a blow to the loss-making Japanese-Swedish firm's turnaround plans.

Incoming EDF chief executive Henri Proglio said he wanted to increase EDF's stake in his previous company Veolia Environnement without merging the two companies, according to a newspaper report. EDF, Europe's biggest power generator and operator of France's 58 nuclear reactors, should become a partner in the development of Veolia, Proglio told Les Echos on Monday, his first day in his new post.

Zambia, Africa's largest copper producer, faces a power shortage and electricity rationing by the end of next year due to increased demand for power by the country's mining sector, an industry official said on Monday.

China Telecom aims to sell BlackBerry handsets and Palm smartphones in China by early next year, as it tries to gain share from its two larger mobile telecom rivals, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday.

Dutch telecoms group KPN agreed improved terms for the takeover of iBasis, securing the control it needs to turn around the loss-making global top-three voice traffic carrier.

Gunmen abducted and killed at least 21 people in the southern Philippines Monday, apparently to prevent a woman filing her husband's nomination to run for provincial governor in elections next year, the military said.

The Israeli government has suspended its decision to review and possibly cancel a tender won by the MTS group to build a light rail system in Tel Aviv, group leader Africa Israel Investments Ltd said on Monday.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc said Handok Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd will develop and commercialize Spectrum's experimental cancer drug in South Korea as part of a deal valued at more than $19 million.

Burford Capital, the AIM-listed investor in corporate lawsuits -- said on Monday it has made its first two investments since raising 80 million pounds ($132.3 million) in an IPO last month.

Japan Airlines Corp asked retirees and employees on Monday to accept an average 40 percent cut to their pension payouts and warned the struggling airline could face bankruptcy if an agreement could not be reached.

Egyptian investment bank Beltone Financial has begun operations in Libya, hoping to take advantage of a potential boom in new share offerings, a company official said on Sunday.

Libya plans to sell shares in four state companies in initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2010, including two telecom firms, an iron and steel company and a bank, the chairman of the Libyan Stock Market said on Sunday.

Campbell Soup Co reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, helped by price increases and easing costs for ingredients including grains and tomatoes that offset a drop in sales.

Sales of existing U.S. homes likely rose for a second consecutive month in October, reaching their highest since July 2007, according to a Reuters poll, as buyers scrambled to take advantage of greater affordability and a first-time home buyer tax credit.

U.S. billionaire investor Wilbur Ross plans to buy shares of China Longyuan Power Group, Asia's largest wind power generator, which aims to raise up to $2.2 billion from its Hong Kong initial public offering, according to a preliminary prospectus.

Private equity firm Middle East & Asia Capital Partners Pte (MEACP) plans to introduce a sharia-compliant investment vehicle to its clean energy fund to attract Islamic capital, a company executive said.

Oil and gas producer Algeria is to build a plant to manufacture solar panels as part of a plan to draw 5 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2015, state media reported.

South African fixed-line phone company Telkom SA Ltd reported close to a 40 percent fall in first-half profit on Monday as both its domestic and Nigerian units struggled, sending its shares tumbling.

South Korea launched an ambitious and costly project this week to overhaul its four major rivers in a way the government says will be a model for green growth but conservationists say will do far more harm than good.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the S&P on track to break a three-day sell-off, after data showed existing home sales rose to their highest level in 2-1/2 years and investors were reassured by a Fed official's comments.

Canadian fertilizer maker Agrium Inc said on Monday it would persist in its hostile bid for U.S. rival CF Industries Holdings, a move that could prolong the already drawn-out three-way merger battle in the sector.