GOLDMAN SACHS

A New York federal judge on Thursday damped hopes that he would throw out government wire tap evidence in the insider trading trial of Rajat Gupta, a former board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble .

A New York federal judge on Thursday damped hopes that he would throw out government wire tap evidence in the insider trading trial of Rajat Gupta, a former board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble .

New claims for unemployment benefits fell by 15,000 last week in the latest sign the labor market was improving and could help the country resist the effects of a likely Eurozone recession.

Now that Scott Thomson, 53, has been elected as Yahoo’s new CEO as well as a director, here are a couple of items the technology savvy accountant needs to take care of fast:

MF Global unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of securities to Goldman Sachs in the days leading up to its collapse, according to two former MF Global employees with direct knowledge of the transactions. But it did not immediately receive payment from its clearing firm and lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co , one of the sources said.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of memory chips and smartphones, is set to report a robust quarterly profit rise on Friday, starting 2012 on an upbeat note aided by record-smashing sales of smartphones.

Manufacturing grew at its fastest pace in six months in December, capping a late-year upswing, but a European slump and rising oil prices posed threats to the U.S. economy in the new year.

There are only hours left for Iowans to choose their Republican presidential nominee. The top two candidates seem set for a dead heat finish, while a third is trying to make the best use of a last minute and surprising surge forward in polls.

Crude prices started their jolly ride to the top in February last year when simmering discontent in the Middle East erupted into several violent anti-government protests.

Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets.

Hackers affiliated with the Anonymous group published hundreds of thousands of email addresses belonging to subscribers of private intelligence-analysis firm Strategic Forecasting Inc., along with thousands of customer credit-card numbers.

Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets. Familiar themes for those who lived through this year, and investors should be ready to revisit them next year.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. said it sold more than one million Kindle devices per week during the month of December, implying that it might have sold more than 4 million Kindles during December.

The top after market NYSE gainers on Thursday were: Masco Corp, Mosaic Co, USG Corp, Teradyne and Carnival Corp. The top after market NYSE Losers were: GenOn Energy, Franco Nev Corp, Office Depot, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and Janus Capital Group.

Wall Street stocks resumed their upward move into year-end on Thursday but the S&P 500 continued to churn around its 200-day moving average as jitters over Europe contrasted with better-than-expected U.S. economic data.

As 2011’s mediocre stock market returns become final, what should technology investors seek for U.S. initial public offerings of technology companies for 2012?

A Wall Street Journal article making the rounds this morning notes some big investors have turned bullish on the housing market in the past quarter. Among the big names mentioned are hedge funds run by SAC Capital Advisors LP, Blackstone Group LP and Goldman Sachs Group.

Alibaba Group has hired a Washington lobbying firm in a sign that the Chinese e-commerce company would be willing to make a bid for all of Yahoo Inc. in the event that talks to unwind their Asian partnership fail.

2011 was a great year to be an American corporation, as corporate profits rose and taxes fell.

The consensus among investment bankers and many traders is that gold prices will continue to climb in 2012.

Investors didn’t get rich owning generalized technology stocks but they fared well with some of the traditional winners with good management and proven technology.