INVESTMENT

Gears Begin Moving on Climate Bill ; Smart Grid to Get Big Boost; Corporate Spending Set to Rise

Senior UBS AG executive Mark Branson will head Swiss regulator FINMA's banking unit, the Swiss watchdog said on Tuesday, in a move likely to reignite debate over close ties between regulators and large banks.

Stock index futures cut earlier gains on Tuesday with S&P 500 futures turning flat as investors took in the latest round of corporate results and awaited key data on consumer sentiment and home prices.

Merrill Lynch veteran Robert McCann, the new head of UBS's loss-making U.S. wealth management unit, said he had no plans to sell the business that was battered by a high-profile tax row.

Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Tuesday, following a selloff in the previous session, as investors braced for more corporate results and key data on consumer sentiment.

Anonymous trading venues known as dark pools are a technological evolution that have benefitted both institutional and retail trading by bringing down transaction costs, Goldman Sachs Group Inc said in a memo to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

UBS has appointed Merrill Lynch veteran Robert McCann to head its Americas wealth management unit in a bid to rebuild the franchise which has been battered by a damaging tax row.

U.S. regulators looking into high-frequency trading have asked the industry if institutions are flocking to so-called dark pools and increasing market volatility, sources familiar with the SEC's line of questioning said on Monday.

The U.S. government asked for a reduced sentence on Monday for a former American client of UBS AG who pleaded guilty to tax evasion but provided information leading to the indictment of a Swiss banker and a Zurich lawyer.

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin won a round during his trial in New York on fraud charges on Monday when a judge ruled the jury cannot see a personal email in which he wrote about his fears of a blow up risk for investors.

Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz made his name as an activist investor, but his strategy for money manager Legg Mason Inc, where he was named to the board on Monday, is far from obvious.

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin won a round during his trial in New York on fraud charges on Monday when a judge ruled the jury cannot see a personal email in which he wrote about his fears of a blow up risk for investors.

Why use Candlesticks?Provide traders with earlier indication of reversals: Candlestick charts are very effective in signaling potential reversals well before traditional bar or point charts and thus aid traders to time their entries and exits with better timing

Represents a price level or area where there is more selling pressure than buying pressure and prices cease to advance when they approach this level.

Public Option Back in Senate Bill; Signs of End of Recession; Obama's TBTF Plan

UBS AG hired a former Citigroup and Barclays Capital banker as managing director in its investment banking department in the Americas, as the Swiss company expects equity sales to increase in 2010.

U.S. stocks fell on Monday as financial shares tumbled over concern that a federal tax credit for home buyers would expire and as commodity-related shares lost ground on falling oil prices.

Billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz has secured a seat on the Legg Mason Inc board after accumulating a stake of 4.3 percent in the asset manager.

Bank of America Corp said Merrill Lynch customers can now automatically transfer funds in retirement accounts into standard bank accounts, the first major new service launched by the combined company.

French bank Credit Agricole said it had no plans for talks on a merger with rival Societe Generale and insurer Groupama, after Le Monde newspaper reported that Agricole was studying such a deal.

Public finance could help stimulate private investment in climate change solutions in developing countries, a report commissioned by the United Nations' Environment Program showed on Monday.