NEW YORK CITY

Fear returned to Wall Street on Wednesday, sending the S&P 500 to another 4 percent decline, triggered by worries that Europe's debt crisis could engulf French banks and spill onto the U.S. financial sector.

Despite a mix of scandals and failed business purchases, News Corp. was able to beat the Street's expectations with its fourth quarter earnings.

FBR Capital Markets has upgraded the shares of VMWare, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) to "outperform" from 'market perform," saying that the company would be a leading beneficiary of increasing demand for virtualization solutions.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Tuesday are: Endeavor International, Zale Corp, Teekay Tankers, Allergan and DHT Holdings. The top after-market NYSE losers are: AOL, Miller Energy Resources, Crawford, Lindsay Corp and Federal Signal Corp.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Tuesday are: MetroPCS Communications, Bank of America, NYSE Euronext, AK Steel Holding, Regions Financial, Regions Financial, MEMC Electronic Materials, Halliburton, Duke Energy, Bristol Myers Squibb and Plum Creek Timber.

Every individual issue in the S&P 500 index dropped in value ? in what might be an unprecedented event.

Investors fled stocks on Monday in the first session since Standard & Poor's cut the AAA credit rating of the United States, adding to worry about the economic outlook and Washington's ability to meet the challenges.

Amidst the slaughter in equities, Treasuries rallied and gold soared to a new all-time high.

Some investors, who were already jittery about the European debt crisis, and continued bad news on the US economic front, appear to have thrown in the towel.

Stocks tumbled in heavy volume on Monday, with more than 1,000 stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange hitting 52-week lows, after rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the United States' perfect AAA credit rating, rattling already jittery investors.

Stocks tumbled on Monday, the first session after rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the top-tier AAA credit rating of the United States, further unnerving already-skittish investors.

Stocks tumbled on Monday, tracking a sharp drop in global equity markets after rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the top-tier AAA credit rating of the United States, rattling already-jittery investors.

Former Governor of New York, Hugh Carey who successfully tackled New York's financial crisis in the 1970's died on Sunday. He was 92.

Some Goldman Sachs Group Inc clients who pushed trades through its clearing division during the market rout on Thursday were unable to access information about their positions the following morning.

Around 20 years ago, Andrew Dice Clay was a major star on Hollywood's comedy radar with chart-topping CDs, large audiences on TV and sold-out venues as big as Madison Square Garden, but it all came crashing down.

The 4.78 percent plunge suffered by the S&P 500 index was its worst one-day drop since February 2009 and one of the worst losses (on a percentage basis) of the past 80 years.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Friday are: CF Industries Holdings, PG&E, Freeport-McMoRan Copper, Merck & Co, TECO Energy, First Solar, eBay, Nvidia, Halliburton and Regions Financial Corp.

We've talked about the rise of New York as a tech hot spot, but the challenge of attracting good engineering and technical talent remains one of the region's biggest hurdles. Now Next Jump, a New York-based rewards and offers provider, is teaming with the New York Stock Exchange to host a major engineering-only recruiting event on the floor of the NYSE.

Levi Aron, the Orthodox Jewish man accused of killing an 8-year-old boy on his way home from camp, is competent to stand trial, said a court evaluation released Thursday. Aron will participate in his own defense and understands that he is being charged with the dismemberment of Leiby Kletzky, defense lawyers said.

Defense may ask to relocate the trial to another jurisdiction

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Thursday are: Kraft Foods, CIGNA, Teradata, NYSE Euronext, Davita, Tiffany, Alpha Natural Resources, Northrop Grumman, Carnival, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and United States Steel Corp.