(Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged St. Louis-based brokerage firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Co and a former senior executive with defrauding five Wisconsin school districts by selling them risky investments funded largely with borrowed money. The SEC said Stifel, a unit of Stifel Financial Corp, and former Senior Vice President David Noack created a proprietary program to help the school districts fund retiree benefits by investing in notes linked to the performance of synthetic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).

• Read more

(Reuters) - Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) struck a deal to buy HSBC's (HSBA.L) U.S. credit card arm for $2.6 billion more than the face value of the loans, the latest in a string of acquisitions for the U.S. bank. The deal gives Capital One $30 billion of additional assets, which it needs because of a separate acquisition that will leave it with $80 billion of new deposits.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Groupon Inc's second-quarter loss more than doubled as it hired more than 1,000 new employees, even though the Internet daily deals company trimmed back its marketing costs. Revenue rose to $878 million in the second quarter compared with $644.7 million in the first quarter, and rose more than 900 percent from $87.3 million in the second quarter of 2010, the company said in the S-1 filing, an update of its original filing for its initial public offering.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Applications for home mortgages rose last week as interest rates fell to their lowest level this year, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 21.7 percent in the week ended August 5.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Stocks extended gains on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq up 3 percent and the Dow industrials up 2 percent, recovering from the previous session's selloff. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 232.50 points, or 2.15 percent, to 11,042.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 30.49 points, or 2.72 percent, to 1,149.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 77.58 points, or 3.29 percent, to 2,435.27.

• Read more

(Reuters) - The global economy stumbled deeper into crisis as stock markets slumped further on Tuesday, with investors losing confidence that the United States and Europe can rein in their debt burdens quickly and avert a double-dip recession. Even as Asian equity markets pulled back from another day of staggering losses as they closed, European shares tumbled for an eighth session running, with news of an unexpected drop in British factory output in June highlighting the weakness of the economy.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Federal Reserve policymakers began meeting on Tuesday under growing pressure to take some type of action to stem a financial market meltdown linked to fears of a new U.S. recession. Members of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee started their meeting at 8 a.m. and are expected to deliver a policy statement around 2:15 p.m..

• Read more

(Reuters) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao urged nations to work together to stabilize turbulent financial markets on Tuesday as global stocks stumbled on fears that the world economy is headed for a downturn. Speaking after a regular meeting by the Chinese cabinet, Wen alluded to debt problems in the United States and Europe and called on "relevant" countries to implement responsible monetary policies and rein in fiscal deficits.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Gold hit a record high on Tuesday in its biggest three-day rally since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, as investor fears over the threat to the global economy from the European and U.S. debt crises hit assets seen as higher risk. Though spot prices retreated from highs as stock markets opened higher in the United States, they remained up 1.4 percent on the day at $1,739.60 an ounce at 9:42 a.m. EDT, having earlier peaked at $1,778.29.

• Read more

(Reuters) - AOL Inc reported a surprise second-quarter loss on Tuesday, citing weaker-than-expected advertising growth. The company, which Time Warner spun off after a disastrous decade-long merger, is trying to regain its former status as one of the world's most popular online destinations by investing heavily in efforts such as hyperlocal news network Patch.

• Read more