The Other Side of Life 24/7: Daily Investor Briefing: Wall Street mostly slips, but S&P...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Daily Investor Briefing: Wall Street mostly slips, but S&P...

Reuters » Daily Investor Update

03/21/2012

Reuters Election 2012 Daily round-up of the day's top news from the campaign trail, the White House and all the politics in between

Wall Street mostly slips, but S&P still near 4-year highs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks mostly fell on Wednesday, weighed down by declines in the energy services sector, but gains in tech supported the Nasdaq and kept the S&P 500 near four-year highs.

Home sales show underlying strength, prices rise

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. home sales fell in February, but upward revisions to the prior month's pace and the first yearly increase in prices in 15 months suggested the housing market recovery remained on track.

Chevron, Transocean charged in Brazilian oil spill

RIO DE JANEIRO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Brazilian federal prosecutor filed criminal charges on Wednesday against Chevron and drill-rig operator Transocean for a November oil spill, raising the stakes in a legal saga that is adding to Chevron's woes in Latin America and threatens to slow Brazil's offshore oil boom.

Allen Stanford seeks new trial, blames Twitter

(Reuters) - Allen Stanford, the financier convicted of running an estimated $7 billion Ponzi scheme, has asked for a new trial, citing the media's use of Twitter in the courtroom and a lack of time to prepare his defense.

Exclusive: Watson close to $7 billion Actavis drug deal: sources

LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc is close to buying Swiss-based Actavis for around $7 billion, marking the latest deal between generics companies racing to achieve economies of scale, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Proxy battle pits new Yahoo CEO against hedge fund

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Less than three months into the job as Yahoo Inc's chief executive, Scott Thompson faces a proxy showdown with hedge fund Third Point that will determine whether he or a slate of dissident directors nominated by the hedge fund's founder, Dan Loeb, gets to chart the company's course.

Exclusive: Developing nations to name 2 candidates for World Bank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candidates said on Tuesday.

Zynga buys OMGPOP games company

(Reuters) - Zynga Inc is buying OMGPOP, maker of the popular game "Draw Something" for an undisclosed sum, as the company moves to expand its games lineup on mobile devices and Facebook.

House panel subpoenas MF Global executive to testify

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressional subcommittee voted on Wednesday to issue a subpoena to a key employee of MF Global Inc, the futures-trading firm whose collapse in October triggered ongoing inquiries into the disappearance of more than $1 billion of customer money.

Starbucks adding energy drinks, factory jobs

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp is expanding into the fast-growing energy drink category and plans to add manufacturing jobs in the United States, the world's biggest coffee chain said on Wednesday.