Stock Markets News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed in volatile trade on Friday as a bounce in financial shares offset concerns about the economy after a bleak labor market report.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock market index extended its losses on Friday as disappointing U.S. jobs data and falling oil prices weighed on the market.

LONDON (AFP) - The FTSE ended the week sharply lower Friday, with miners suffering the biggest losses amid ongoing concerns over the global economy and disappointing US jobless data.

LONDON - World stock markets fell sharply Friday in the wake of a sell-off on Wall Street amid mounting concerns about a slumping U.S. economy and its impact on global growth.

LONDON (AFP) - World stock markets tumbled Friday on a weak outlook for the global economy following further disappointing US and European data, dealers said.

A battered financial sector led Wall Street into bear market territory on Thursday, as Bill Gross, manager of the bond fund Pimco, warned that a "financial tsunami" could ensue if the government failed to support markets.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Securities regulators are locking horns with some of America's most powerful mutual funds and Wall Street players over plans to scrap requirements that money market funds hold investment-grade securities.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - The European Central Bank kept its key lending rate unchanged on Thursday and slashed its growth forecasts for this year and next, sending stock markets and the euro into tailspins.

LONDON (AFP) - Share prices fell sharply in Frankfurt and Paris on Thursday ahead of European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet's press conference due after the central bank's latest call on interest rates.

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong is considering banning fishing trawlers in its waters to save fish stocks, a report said Thursday. The drastic proposal comes as annual catches were estimated to be 30 percent above sustainable levels, the South China Morning Post said, citing a consultation paper from the Food and Health bureau.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - German fertiliser group K+S will join the DAX 30 index of blue-chip stocks, reflecting its growing business as prices for commodities and foods rise globally.

NEW YORK - A former Wall Street broker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he and a colleague duped investors into purchasing more than $1 billion in high-risk securities by making it look as though the trades were protected by the federal government.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda investment firm settled a regulator's allegations that it was misleading about its plan to cut its stake in General Motors Corp , the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday.

China won the most gold at the Olympics, but the country's stock market is in dead last.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. activist hedge fund Atticus Capital has lost more than $5 billion this year, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, after its funds were hit by heavy falls in financial stocks.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street returns from vacation season to enter what is historically the most perilous period of the year amid conflicting signals about the US economic outlook.

NEW YORK - Wall Street tumbled Friday after the government said personal incomes fell last month by the largest amount in nearly three years while consumer spending slowed. The Dow Jones industrial average more than 170 points, while a disappointing profit report from computer maker Dell Inc. weighed on the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index.

CINCINNATI - Authorities in the United Kingdom are investigating potential antitrust violations involving an unnamed Procter & Gamble Co. subsidiary, the consumer products company said Thursday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

DENVER - A Colorado Springs man and his two oil and gas companies have agreed to pay $510,000 to settle civil fraud allegations, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

Investors yanked $26.36 billion from stock funds in July -- the most since $44.84 billion in January. July trumps June's outflow figure of $4.82 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of MBIA Inc. jumped before the open on Thursday after the bond insurer agreed in a deal to reinsure $184 billion of municipal bonds backed by its rival FGIC Corp.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese central government departments misused or mismanaged more than 46 billion yuan ($6.73 billion) last year, including using disaster relief money to build government offices and diverting funds to speculate in stocks, the National Audit Office said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators on Wednesday proposed a plan to allow public companies to begin using international accounting standards for reporting financial results in two years, and may require them to do so starting in 2014.

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks hit their lowest level in almost two years on Tuesday as a worsening German business mood and fresh concerns about financial firms triggered a sell-off in risky assets, lifting the dollar to a 2008 high.

WASHINGTON - Roll back the clock to 1961: John F. Kennedy was inaugurated president. The Peace Corps was founded. The Dow Jones industrials hit 734. Gasoline reached 31 cents a gallon.