INVESTMENT

Franco-Belgian bank Dexia agreed early on Monday to the nationalization of its Belgian banking division and secured 90 billion euros ($121 billion) in state guarantees in a rescue that could pressure other euro zone governments to strengthen their banks.

Gold rose more than 1 percent on Monday as the dollar fell versus the euro after France and Germany pledged to strike a proposal to recapitalize euro zone banks, while traders remained cautious ahead of further details of the plan.

Starbucks Corp is finalising an equity joint venture with Tata Coffee Ltd for opening coffee shops in Asia's third-largest economy, the Times of India reported on Monday.

European index futures rose on Monday, following small gains for Asian shares, and the euro firmed 1 cent after the leaders of France and Germany pledged to unveil a plan to solve the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis by the end of the month.

Incredibly, U.S. home mortgage rates continue to trend lower -- the average 30-year, fixed rate is now 4.07 percent, and they could drop even lower. Still, given soft home prices, jumping into the housing market is hardly a slam-dunk no-brainer, and here are five factors to consider before buying a home.

The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes has advised Crystallex International Corp. that proceedings in its $3.8 billion case against Venezuela for nationalizng gold-mining assets has begun.

Next week, investors will be greeted with third-quarter earnings.

A top U.S. Treasury Department official cautioned counterparts at the Energy Department that their plan to help a failing solar-power company, Solyndra LLC, by restructuring its $535 million federal loan could violate the law and should be cleared with the Justice Department.

Regulators are considering holding Wall Street chief executives legally liable if they allow certain types of proprietary trading on their watch.

South African peace icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu celebrated his 80th birthday on Friday in the church where he preached against apartheid, just a few days after saying the former liberation movement now in government was in some ways even worse.

Monday's closing was not the bottom of the current downtrend. Instead, the bear market will take the S&P 500 around 975, Douglas Ramsey, chief investment officer at Leuthold Group.

Gold fell more than 1 percent on Friday as investors quickly sold to raise cash to cover margin calls in the lower equity markets after Fitch downgraded the credit ratings of Spain and Italy.

Sprint has already committed to purchasing 30.5 million iPhones over 4 years, which is estimated to cost $20 billion at current rates. The decision could reap rewards for the struggling carrier, or could have devastating consequences.

Fiction writer Mitchell Graham has been charged in a multi-million dollar scam in which prosecutors allege he swindled money from women he met online.

Turmoil in the stock market has “frozen” initial public offerings by technology companies and could harm development and job growth, National Venture Capital Association President Mark Heesen warned.

As opportunities for expansion at home become harder for mid-size companies wanting to grow, the opportunities to expand abroad are robust. But expanding across borders isn't always easy -- particularly for small to mid-sized companies that don't always have the resources and knowledge.

Stocks were little changed on Friday following a three-day rally after more jobs were created than expected in September, helping to ease concerns the economy was heading back into recession.

Gold will stay strong due to a lack of alternative havens for investors operating in a slowing global economy, top performing commodity fund managers told Reuters after taking a defensive approach and going into cash during September's gold sell off.

Gold prices edged higher Thursday after the government reported surprisingly strong September hiring, but not strong enough to lower the nation's nominal unemployment rate.

Moody’s believes that the UK government will “more likely now … allow smaller institutions to fail if they become financially troubled.” Shares of RBS and Lloyds were down as much as 3.5 percent in London trading.

Oracle has announced JavaFX 2.0 and its plans to move Java forward and continue investment in mobile platforms such as Java ME and Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile in the OpenWorld conference.