- 26Oct
(Reuters) - Prices of single-family homes fell in August, hovering around recent lows after the expiration of popular homebuyer tax credits, according a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price report on Tuesday. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.3 percent in August from July on a seasonally adjusted basis. A Reuters poll of economists forecast a drop of 0.2 percent. The dip followed a seasonally adjusted decline of 0.2 percent in July.
- 26Oct
(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday and pulled forward by a year a debt-reduction forecast seen as key to returning the automaker to an investment-grade credit rating. Ford, which expects to be solidly profitable this year, said it repaid $2 billion of debt in the third quarter, expects to pay down a debt to a union retiree healthcare trust fund on Friday, and has launched a convertible note offering to reduce its debt.
- 26Oct
(Reuters) - The U.S. futures regulator laid out plans on Tuesday for how it could use new and beefed-up legal tools to foil traders who seek to manipulate prices or defraud investors. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it also wants to ask for comments on whether to crack down on certain practices used by high-frequency traders -- such as "quote-stuffing" -- but it stopped short of immediately proposing new rules specifically aimed at algorithmic trading.
- 26Oct
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) on Monday said hedge fund manager Todd Combs would join the firm, potentially bringing the company a step closer to solving Buffett's succession puzzle. Berkshire Hathaway owns multiple businesses concentrated in insurance as well as tens of billions of dollars in stocks. Buffett, 80 and among the world's richest men, has run the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate since 1965. Its other interests run from railroads to ice cream.
- 26Oct
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve cannot "wave a magic wand" to fix the economy overnight, but it can provide "essential" support, a top Fed policymaker said on Monday. Indeed, support will likely be warranted unless economic conditions improve, William Dudley, president of the New York Fed and a permanent voter on the Fed's policy-setting panel, said in a speech at Cornell University.
- 25Oct
(Reuters) - Stocks rose on Monday as a weak dollar and expectations of economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve prompted investors to pick up risker assets. The lagging greenback set the tone early in the day after a weekend meeting of the Group of 20 stopped short of setting targets to reduce trade imbalances. The greenback slid broadly, while commodity prices climbed.
- 25Oct
(Reuters) - Sales of previously owned homes rose in September, but remained at subdued levels that did little to undermine the case for additional monetary stimulus next week from the Federal Reserve. Existing home sales increased for a second straight month, rising 10 percent from August to an annual rate of 4.53 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Monday.
- 25Oct
(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp acknowledged some mistakes in foreclosure files as it begins to resubmit documents in 102,000 cases, the Wall Street Journal said. The bank found errors in 10 to 25 out of the first several hundred foreclosure it examined starting last Monday, the newspaper said.
- 25Oct
(Reuters) - U.S. banking regulators will issue a report next month on foreclosure practices at large financial institutions, following allegations that lenders cut corners to illegally evict homeowners, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday. The review, which follows probes by all 50 state attorneys general and the Justice Department, adds further pressure to banks besieged by accusations that they failed to review foreclosure documents properly or submitted false statements when they foreclosed on properties.
- 25Oct
(Reuters) - Private equity firm Carlyle Group CYL.UL is in talks to buy CommScope Inc (CTV.N) for about $3 billion, the communications cable maker said on Monday. It is the latest sign of resurgent acquisitions for private equity firms, which are under pressure to invest billions of dollars of capital raised in the past few years.
