May 20, 2012 07:29AM

Wall Street Week Ahead: Market is oversold, but major signs say "sell"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Normally a big decline would set up Wall Street for a technical rebound. But that may not be the case this week, even after the market posted its worst weekly loss for the year and the S&P fell for six straight sessions. With the corporate earnings season drawing to an end and recent U.S. economic data raising doubts about the pace of growth, the S&P 500, which is down 7.3 percent so far in May, could decline further this week as concerns about the financial health of Europe persist. ...

May 20, 2012 09:56AM

Apple, Samsung CEOs set for U.S. court talks

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The chief executives of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd are used to running the show at their global tech empires, but they will be in for a different experience when they arrive at a San Francisco federal courthouse on Monday. Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung, whose companies are embroiled in bitter patent litigation, have been instructed by a federal judge to appear for court-supervised mediation. A joint court filing in April said that "as directed by the Court, Apple and Samsung are both willing to participate" in the discussions. ...

May 20, 2012 08:25AM

Euro zone row gets fat pay rise for German workers

BERLIN (Reuters) - A record-breaking pay deal will give millions of German workers their biggest rise in wages in two decades, boost consumption in Europe's biggest economy and help towards adjusting the regional imbalances that have caused severe tensions within the euro zone, analysts said on Sunday. Germany's largest industrial union IG Metall agreed to a 4.3-percent pay rise from employers just before dawn on Saturday -- giving the 3.6 million car and engineering industry workers their biggest wage increase since a 5.4 percent deal in 1992. The eye-catching 4. ...

May 20, 2012 09:19AM

Facebook shares could fall below IPO price: Barron's

(Reuters) - Shares in social media company Facebook Inc could fall below the initial public offering price of $38, Barron's wrote in its May 21 edition. Facebook saw its shares rise a scant 0.6 percent to $38.23 on Friday in the first day of trading. The stock stayed above the $38 IPO price, supported in the market by the deal's underwriters. But Barron's said the "big question" this week will be whether they continue to do so. ...

May 20, 2012 08:23AM

U.S. banking laws unable to stop JPMorgan loss: Republican Boehner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. banking reforms could not have prevented JPMorgan Chase & Co's trading losses, and those involved in the activities that went awry should be held accountable, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said in an interview aired on Sunday. "I don't believe there's anything in Dodd-Frank (financial reform law) that would've prevented this activity at JPMorgan," said Boehner, the top Republican U.S. officeholder. He made the comments Friday in an interview for ABC's "This Week. ...

May 20, 2012 05:01AM

Weaker euro zone nations need more support from core: UK

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone can protect its currency if its stronger countries provide more support for the weaker to help them deal with their problems, British finance minister George Osborne said in a newspaper on Sunday. The future of Europe's 17-country single currency bloc is under threat from a political stalemate in Greece, which could lead to its departure from the monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system and global economic stability. ...

May 20, 2012 09:17AM

Insight: China pays high price to spare state firm from bankruptcy

WEIFANG, China (Reuters) - The Chinese official was adamant the city of Weifang would keep its rayon factory open, noting that local authorities had just stepped in to help the plant's owner repay $60 million in commercial paper. The bailout averted what would have been China's first ever bond default and was good news for domestic bond investors, who were reassured that in China even mid-sized state-owned firms can count on "too-big-to-fail" treatment. ...

May 19, 2012 09:51PM

Status update: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg gets married

(Reuters) - Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wed longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan on Saturday, announcing the nuptials through a status update on the social networking site. The 28-year-old billionaire's wedding took place a day after Facebook's initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday. More than 280,000 people "liked" Zuckerberg's status change, which was accompanied by a photo of the smiling couple in wedding attire in a small, verdant outdoor setting with a string of lights behind them. ...

May 20, 2012 01:25AM

China state-run businesses to invest 350 billion yuan in Chongqing

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thirty of China's biggest state-owned businesses have signed contracts worth about 350 billion yuan ($55.3 billion) with the southwestern municipality Chongqing, Chinese media reported on Sunday, in a sign of Beijing's determination to bolster confidence in the city formerly run by ousted leader Bo Xilai. Since the fall of the once high-flying Chinese official, media reports and some investors have questioned whether Chongqing's debt-laden economy is also headed for trouble. ...

May 20, 2012 03:22AM

China's Wen urges more support for growth

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's premier called for additional efforts to support growth on Sunday, signaling Beijing's willingness to take action after a recent series of economic indicators suggested that the world's second-biggest economy will slow further in the second quarter. "We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy while giving more priority to maintaining growth," Premier Wen Jiabao said in comments reported by state news agency Xinhua. Chinese exports rose by 4. ...

May 19, 2012 06:22PM

Google says it has China's approval for Motorola deal

(Reuters) - Google said on Saturday that Chinese authorities have approved its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, the last regulatory hurdle to a deal that would allow the world's No. 1 Internet search engine to develop its own line of smart phones. Google, which will be the newest entrant to the handset market, announced plans for the acquisition last year in a bid to secure Motorola's valuable patents and pave the way for a pairing of Google's Android mobile software and Motorola's handset business. U.S. ...

May 19, 2012 08:41PM

Two smaller unions agree deals with Lockheed

(Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp said on Saturday it had negotiated new contracts with two smaller unions at its Fort Worth, Texas plant, even as a strike by the larger machinists union stretched into a fifth week. Lockheed said about 70 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) on Friday ratified a new contract that would extend for four years. On Saturday, a new five-year contract was approved by 430 members of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). Both agreements take effect on Monday. ...