INVESTMENT

J. Crew's takeover has boosted the stock prices of several other retailers, possibly because this acquisition is stoking M&A interest in the broad sector.

RBC Capital Markets lowered its profit estimates for PotashCorp after the company decided to fund its share buyback from sale of debt securities rather than utilizing its existing credit facilities.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Wednesday it has arrested India's state-run LIC Housing Finance CEO, general manager of state-run Central Bank of India and a deputy manager of Punjab National Bank in connection with an alleged fake home loans scandal.

Energy firm Dynegy Inc said it intends to terminate the merger deal with Blackstone Group and seeks new proposals from potentially interested parties.

Another section of the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s massive overhaul of the American healthcare system, was wheeled out today, when Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius introduced a new regulation that will require insurers to spend between 80 and 85 percent of their customers’ premiums directly on their customers’ health care.

Attachmate Corp, an investment group owned by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo, said it will buy networking solutions company Novell, Inc. for about $2.2 billion.

Federal prosecutors in New York, the FBI, and the SEC are capping a three-year colossal insider trader investigation involving expert networks.

Futures on the S&P 500 lost 3.70 points to 1,194.00, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 31.00 points to 11,145.00 and Nasdaq100 futures are down 5.00 points to 2,129.25.

In the following interview of IBTimes with Jonathan Rose, President and CEO of Capital Gold Group, he talks about the recent cool down of the gold price, the impact of the non-results of the G-20 summit, the different mentality of investors in the U.S. and Britain regarding gold, and says that the Federal Reserve and gold ETFs should be properly audited.

Shares of automaker General Motors opened at $35 in its first trading day on the NYSE after recovering from a government funded bailout. The opening price was an increase of 2 percent from its IPO price of $33.

Silver rallied sharper than gold on Thursday and some analysts see the trend to continue as many big global players are yet to cover their huge short positions in the white metal. A broadly weak US dollar, growing expectations that Ireland will soon be bailed out by the EMU and an absence of fresh cues from China about it raising the policy rates also helped an across-the-board rise of commodities on the day.

GM will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange beginning today after a landmark intial public offering, from which GM is expected to raise as high as $23.1 billion.

Futures on the S&P 500 gained 11.80 points to 1,189.30, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 87.00 points to 11,082.00 and Nasdaq100 futures are up 25.50 points to 2,122.50.

Investec Plc, the specialist bank and wealth manager, posted a "strong" operational performance in the first half, with five of its six core businesses recording a substantial increase in earnings. Third party assets under management grew 4.9 percent to 77.8 billion pounds.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett praised the U.S. government for bailing out Wall Street and saving the U.S. economy during the height of the financial crisis.

General Motors Co is inching closer towards returning to the U.S. market in one of the biggest IPOs in the U.S. history and could even become the world's largest.

S&P 500 Index edged up 0.68 points, or 0.06 percent, to trade at 1,179.73 at 09:53 a.m. EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8.47 points, or 0.08 percent, to trade at 11,015.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.24 percent.

Commodities slid across the board on Wednesday on fresh signals from China that it will soon raise rates with lingering Euro area debt woes also helping keep investors away from risky assets. Gold and silver traded near their 2-week lows while copper and platinum fell to their lowest since late September. Also, December and January crude fell to its lowest since Oct. 29.

The United Nations has delayed the shift to international accounting standards to 2012 though it was supposed to have started in 2010 while the UN secretariat said it would implement it from 2014.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers were: Human Genome Sciences, Immunomedics, NII Holdings, IMAX, Central European Distribution, BSD Medical, JetBlue Airways, Penn National Gaming, SEI Investments, and Dendreon.

Paulson & Co., the hedge fund managed by John Paulson, reduced its positions in key financial holdings Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) in the third quarter