Wall St Week Ahead: The 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 next 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 next week as concerns about the financial health of Europe persist. ...

Historic Facebook debut falls flat

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The historic initial public offering of Facebook Inc did not go as planned on Friday, as the social networking company's sky-high valuation combined with trading glitches left the stock languishing near its offering price at the market close. Facebook shares began trading late Friday morning and opened 11 percent above the $38 offering price, but after peaking at about $45 slid rapidly at the end of the day to close at $38.23. The IPO was the third-largest in U.S. history and valued eight-year-old Facebook at $104 billion. ...

Dewey to consider bankruptcy filing: source

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ailing law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is considering a bankruptcy filing as new debtholders take a more aggressive track, shifting away from earlier attempts at an out-of-court liquidation, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The majority of Dewey's partners have quit as a result of concerns about compensation, and $225 million in bank loans and bond debt. ...

Obama pledges tough enforcement of Wall Street reforms

President Barack Obama on Saturday called on the U.S. Congress to back his efforts for tough new financial industry oversight, saying a $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan underscored the need for such regulation. "We've got to finish the job of implementing this reform and putting these rules in place," Obama said in a weekly radio address that accused some on Wall Street of causing the 2007-2009 economic crisis because they "treated our financial system like a casino. ...

Analysis: JPMorgan to be haunted by change in risk model

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's decision to radically change the way risk was measured in its Chief Investment Office is likely to dog the bank in the developing crisis over the big trading losses it has suffered. The move, which allowed the bank to disguise the level of risk that the CIO was taking in its trading, could become a major focal point of investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI, former regulators said. It also will likely become part of investor cases in lawsuits against the bank and its executives. ...

Banks' rising bad loans add to Spanish troubles

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish banks' bad loans rose in March to their highest in 18 years, underscoring the problems facing the government as it drafts in independent auditors in an attempt to reassure investors it can clean up the sector. The Bank of Spain said bad loans rose to 8.37 percent of banks' outstanding loans, the highest since August 1994 and up from 8.3 percent in February, which was also revised higher. The data was released before Spain names auditors on Monday to assess how bad the losses are likely to get, and how much cash banks will need to rebuild their balance sheets. ...

U.S. says will bar some Motorola Mobility phones

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some Motorola Mobility smartphones infringe on a Microsoft patent and will be barred from importation to the United States, a U.S. trade panel said on Friday. The order by the U.S. International Trade Commission has been sent to President Barack Obama, who has 60 days to consider whether to overturn it for policy reasons. The legal fight at the ITC is one of dozens globally between various smartphone makers. Google's Android system has become the top-selling smartphone operating system, ahead of mobile systems by Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others. ...

Messy Facebook debut marks weak day on Wall Street

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday after a sloppy debut by Facebook Inc spoiled hopes that a spectacular open for the most-anticipated stock sale in years would brighten the mood in what has been a gloomy month for equity markets. Shares of Facebook, the social networking giant, were volatile in the busiest day ever for a trading debut. After early gains of more than 10 percent, Facebook shares fell back to the $38 issue price, ending up just 0.6 percent at $38.23. It was the Nasdaq's most actively traded stock, with more than 566 million shares traded. ...

Hedge funds dump $2 billion in gold over a week: CFTC

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge funds and other money managers liquidated more than $2 billion in gold futures over a week, trade data on Friday showed, before a forceful rebound in the precious metal potentially tripped up some of them. The majority of fund managers also appear to have bet wrongly against wheat, as suggested by the data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission which showed a net "short" or bearish position against the grain which finished this week with its highest weekly gain in 16 years. "It's still early to say if this rebound in wheat and gold will hold. ...

Historic Facebook debut falls short of expectations

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The historic initial public offering of Facebook Inc did not go as planned on Friday, as the social networking company's sky-high valuation combined with trading glitches left the stock languishing near its offering price at the market close. Facebook shares, which opened up 11 percent, closed at $38.23 after a nail-biting last half hour of trading when the shares dipped to their $38 IPO price. Most investors had predicted a first-day pop. More than 576 million shares changed hands, setting a trading volume record for U.S. market debuts. ...

Europe thinks the unthinkable on Greece

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - European officials are working on contingency plans in case Greece bombs out of the euro zone, the EU's trade commissioner said on Friday, as European share prices tumbled and Germany warned of continuing financial turmoil. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, one of Greece's harsher critics, said market unrest fuelled by the euro zone debt crisis could last another year or two. "Regarding the crisis of confidence in the euro ... in 12 to 24 months we will see a calming of the financial markets," he said. ...

GM passes on running TV ads during 2013 Super Bowl

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co will not advertise in next year's Super Bowl because it is too expensive, the top marketing executive for the U.S. automaker said three days after the company announced it was dropping paid ads on Facebook Inc. The 2013 Super Bowl will be broadcast by CBS Corp, which is selling 30-second ads for as much as $4 million. Spots on NBC's broadcast of this year's National Football League championship game, the most heavily watched annual event on U.S. television, cost about $3.5 million per 30-second spot. NBC is majority-owned by Comcast Corp. ...

MF Global to get $168 million back from JPMorgan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co , under scrutiny for its ties to collapsed commodities firm MF Global, will return $168 million to the estate of MF's broker-dealer, the estate's trustee announced on Friday. James Giddens, tasked with winding down the estate and recovering as much money as possible for its trader clients who lost money when the firm went bust, said JPMorgan will return "excess collateral" that was held in its estate when the bankruptcy began. ...

American Eagle exits children's shops, CFO resigns

(Reuters) - Teen apparel retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc said it is getting out of the children's clothing business and that Chief Financial Officer Joan Hilson will step down at the end of July. The Pittsburgh-based company is exploring options such as a full or partial sale of 77kids, which includes 22 stores and an online business, it said in a statement on Friday. American Eagle introduced the brand in October of 2008 as an online-only brand. ...

Analysis: More U.S. shareholders call for independent chairmen

Boston (Reuters) - Welcome to the club, Jamie Dimon. Embarrassed by a surprise $2 billion trading loss last week, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co faced heightened criticism at the bank's annual meeting on Tuesday. That included 40 percent backing from shareholders for a resolution to strip Dimon of his chairmanship title, up from 34 percent in 2010. With the spring U.S. ...

Japan looks to central bank to pay for Iran oil: Nikkei

(Reuters) - The Japanese government and private sector bank officials are considering asking the Bank of Japan (BOJ) for help in settling Iranian oil transactions, the Nikkei reported. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, which handles most of Japan's payments for oil imports from Iran, on Thursday said it had frozen transactions with Iranian banks after being ordered to do so by the New York District Court earlier this month. The move stems from a U.S. court decision in 2007 that ordered Iran to pay more than $2.6 billion to survivors and victims' family members of the 1983 bombing of a U.S. ...

China solar stocks slump again after U.S. trade move

(Reuters) - Solar stocks slumped to fresh lows on Friday as investors continued to punish Chinese solar companies a day after the United States said it would impose new duties on imports from the world's leading solar manufacturer. Suntech Power Holdings was down 4.2 percent, Trina Solar Ltd slid 5 percent and Yingli Green Energy dropped 7.5 percent, extending declines made on Thursday when the U.S. Commerce Department ruled China-based solar companies had violated trade rules and 'dumped' their products in the U.S. at below-market prices. ...

Vale confident will win Brazil double tax case-CEO

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian iron ore miner Vale is confident it will win a dispute over taxes the government claims the company owes on earnings abroad, CEO Murilo Ferreira said on Friday. The government has ordered Vale to pay 30.5 billion reais ($15.19 billion) in tax on profits from its foreign subsidiaries. The company said it already paid the taxes to foreign governments and that Brazil's claim is a form of illegal double taxation. Vale, along with other companies and industry associations, is disputing the back taxes in Brazil's highest court. ...

Kraft cuts Maxwell House coffee prices in U.S.

(Reuters) - Kraft Foods said on Friday it lowered prices on many of its U.S. coffees, including its flagship brand Maxwell House, citing lower green coffee costs since prices peaked last year, making it the second major U.S. roaster to lower its coffee prices this week. The move comes three days after J.M. Smucker Co. cut the cost of well-known brands Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts by an average of 6 percent. It is the second cut to coffee prices since August 2011 for both companies. ...

Mexico's Slim eyeing Telekom Austria stake: report

VIENNA (Reuters) - Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is eyeing a stake in Telekom Austria and is believed to have held initial talks with its two biggest investor groups, Austrian magazine Format reported, without citing sources. It said Slim had been in touch with Ronny Pecik - who with partner Naguib Sawiris has built a 20 percent stake in Telekom Austria - and Austrian state holding company OeIAG, Telekom Austria's biggest shareholder with a 28.4 percent stake. ...

EBRD-East Europe wary of fresh euro bank crunch

LONDON (Reuters) - A new banking crunch in the euro zone risks another sharp retreat by western parent banks from vulnerable economies in central and eastern Europe, a process that must be slowed to preserve growth, officials from the region said on Friday. Countries backing Europe's development bank for the former communist bloc elected a new president - for the first time from non-euro member Britain - just as fears grow that a Greek exit from the currency could hit emerging Europe's lenders. ...

20,000 march at Frankfurt Occupy protest rally

At least 20,000 people held a major rally of the local Occupy movement in Frankfurt on Saturday to decry austerity measures affecting much of Europe, the dominance of banks, and what they call untamed capitalism.

Obama to Congress: Put in place banking rules now

President Barack Obama says the big trading loss at JPMorgan Chase shows the need to finally put in place banking rules he signed into law two years ago. He also is calling on Congress to stop trying to weaken the regulations.

G-8 leaders put focus on European financial crisis

President Barack Obama says he and leaders of seven other major industrial nations are focusing on economic concerns during discussions at Camp David.

America expands once again _ digitally, this time

The metaphor is an easy one, overused and perhaps even a bit overwrought. We are forging forward into a digital frontier, leaving convention behind, traveling without guides into an uncharted virtual land where progress and profits are forever around the next bend.