INVESTMENT

Gold prices in India, the world's top buyer, eased tailing soft overseas prices, but not enough to attract buyers in a traditionally lean demand period, dealers said.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: WCA Waste, Mellanox Technologies, TIBCO Software, Salix Pharmaceuticals, and Ross Stores. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Alaska Communications Systems Group, VIVUS, SuperMedia, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Sequenom.

Activist investment fund Starboard Value has taken a 4.5 percent stake in AOL Inc and is pushing for a meeting with the Internet company's chief executive and the board to address what it sees as strategic failings.

This year was a turning point in the history of Silicon Alley. Investments flooded into many young companies, and Mayor Bloomberg and Cornell University bet big on the future of New York technology.

Imperial Oil Ltd said on Wednesday it will go ahead with an C$8.9 billion ($8.65 billion) plan to double the size of its Kearl oil sands project, even as it said total costs for the massive mining operation have climbed by nearly a quarter.

ne-third of all the deaths among the homeless, the study noted, are caused by drug and alcohol abuse.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty imposed what he called a fiscally sustainable formula for increasing federal transfers to the provinces for health care, one that will eventually increase spending by less than the current 6 percent a year.

Daniel Mudd, the embattled former chief executive of mortgage financing company Fannie Mae, is taking a leave of absence from him current job as head of hedge fund Fortress Investment Group , the company said on Wednesday.

Standard and Poor's, one of the top credit rating agencies in the world, announced today it was lowering the sovereign credit ratings on the Republic of Hungary, slashing that government's debt to 'junk' debt status. The agency also assigned the nation's debt with a 'recovery rating' of 3, meaning it expects investors to be able to obtain from 50 to 70 percent of the country's bonds face value in the event of a default.

Institutional investors such as unions won the right to file private common-law suits against Wall Street firms for alleged securities-related fraud and negligence.

Canadian telecom upstart Globalive wants to buy rival Mobilicity but no deal is imminent or indeed likely until the government clarifies rules on foreign ownership and airwave allocation, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Daniel Mudd, the embattled former chief executive of mortgage financing company Fannie Mae, is taking a leave of absence from him current job as head of hedge fund Fortress Investment Group , the company said on Wednesday.

The largest companies, those typically under the most scrutiny, have experienced the biggest increases in CEO compensation. In 2010, S&P 500 CEOs' total realized compensation increased by a median of 36.5 percent.

After breezing through the euro zone debt crisis for the past two years, Germany's economy could fall into recession as anxious businesses hold off on investment and exports wither.

A devastating plane crash on New Jersey's I-287 left five dead in a business trip turned sour. What's more is that for a small plane, the wreckage was huge.

By mid-day the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 80 points, to 12,023.28, while the NASDAQ was down 2 percent, to 2,550, and the S&P 500 was off three-quarters of a percent fo 1,232.

To be sure, it's not a U.S. stock market for rookies, or the squeamish -- it's a market that also can bring out the reactive in even the most experienced investor. Hence with the above in mind, here are 5 time-tested axioms that every investor should keep close by.

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value has taken a 4.5 percent stake in AOL Inc and requested a meeting with the Internet company's Chief Executive and board.

A Socata TBM-700 plane crash on Interstate 287 in Morris Township, New Jersey that killed five people could have been caused by icing, according to reports.

KGHM, Europe's No.2 copper producer, and Abacus Mining will need to invest $795 million in their joint Canadian copper and gold project Afton-Ajax, according to a feasibility study cited by KGHM on Wednesday.

Oracle Corp's earnings fell short of Wall Street's forecasts for the first time in a decade as software and hardware sales sputtered, sending its shares down more than 10 percent and stoking fears a global recession will hurt tech spending.