(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) plans to report a $600 million charge for the full year 2010 due to a change in the way it accounts for retirement benefits, following the lead of rival AT&T Inc. (T.N) Like AT&T, Verizon said on Friday it is looking to make its financials easier to understand by changing its pension accounting to recognize gains and losses in the year they are incurred, rather than amortizing them over time.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Google Inc co-founder Larry Page will take over as CEO from Eric Schmidt, a surprise move to make the company more nimble at a time when competition heats up with fast-growing rivals like Facebook. Page's assumption of day-to-day operations marks a return to Google's technological roots, 13 years after he and fellow Stanford University student Sergey Brin founded what has become the world's No. 1 Internet search engine with $29 billion a year in revenue.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Schlumberger Ltd (SLB.N), the world's largest oilfield services company, posted a higher-than-expected profit boosted by strong demand in North America, and said it expected brisk activity to continue. Like others in the oilfield service sector, Schlumberger depends on spending by its oil and gas-producing customers, and the rising oil price has bolstered confidence that its business will benefit in 2011.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co is shaking up a board criticized by many as dysfunctional, bringing in five new directors including former eBay chief Meg Whitman, as new CEO Leo Apotheker remakes the company. HP's board had for years come under fire from shareholders and business leaders such as Oracle's Larry Ellison, most recently after it forced out Mark Hurd as CEO in controversial fashion.

• Read more

(Reuters) - It's almost as if no one cares about earnings at Airgas (ARG.N) and Air Products (APD.N) anymore. Both industrial gas suppliers reported better-than-expected profit and revenue on Friday as sales to electronic makers jumped and gas distribution became more efficient.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday as upbeat economic data on jobs and housing failed to offset a selloff in the technology and materials sectors. Technology stocks were weighed by networking/cloud computing companies after F5 Networks Inc (FFIV.O) gave a gloomy outlook, while energy and material stocks were pressured by a sharp decline in crude oil prices.

• Read more

(Reuters) - U.S. regulators adopted new rules Thursday that seek to give investors better information before they decide to invest in asset-backed securities, a market that's still struggling to recover from the financial crisis. One rule, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 5-0 vote, would give investors a way to scope out the track record of asset-backed security issuers, like Bank of America Corp. Specifically, the rules would let investors see how often the issuers were asked to buy back assets such as those linked to toxic mortgages because they didn't meet the underwriting criteria laid out in the prospectus.

• Read more

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's fourth-quarter shareholder profit surged 60 percent as rising fees from retail brokerage helped offset the weak fixed-income trading results that have marred earnings across Wall Street. Adjusted profit fell well short of analysts' average forecast, but revenue exceeded expectations, and the bank's shares rose 2.3 percent to $28.38 in early trading.

• Read more

(Reuters) - U.S. home resales jumped more than expected in December despite bad weather as sellers cut prices, offering some hope for a sector that has been struggling to recover from its worst slump in modern history. Existing home sales soared 12.3 percent to an annual rate of 5.28 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday, far surpassing forecasts for a rise to 4.85 million. Sales were down 2.9 percent compared to a year earlier.

• Read more

(Reuters) - U.S. claims for initial jobless benefits last week posted their biggest decline in nearly a year, erasing a holiday-related spike to show a trend toward a healthier labor market remained intact. The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits dropped sharply to 404,000 from a downwardly revised reading of 441,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

• Read more