(Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus (EAD.PA) celebrated a surprise win in the annual orders race against Boeing (BA.N) with the 10,000th plane sale in its 40-year history, part of a $5 billion order from Virgin America. A last-minute surge pushed Airbus past its U.S. rival for a third year as it held onto a 2010 net order market share of 52 percent in the face of a resurgent Boeing, which was hit by cancellations in 2009 due to delays to its 787 Dreamliner.

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(Reuters) - J Crew Group Inc received no rival takeover bids during its "go shop" period and will remain with its original $2.86 billion buyout offer from TPG and Leonard Green, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Sears Holdings Corp, Urban Outfitters Incand at least two other private equity firms had been looking at the financial books of J Crew during the "go shop" period that allowed J Crew to solicit other suitors, sources previously told Reuters.

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(Reuters) - Intel Corp's revenue and margin forecasts beat expectations on healthy technology spending, defying worries about the chipmaker's minor role in the booming smartphone and tablet market. Shares in the world's largest chipmaker gained 2.7 percent after its forecast for first-quarter revenue and gross margin surpassed expectations, driven by hopes for strong sales of its cutting-edge Sandy Bridge microprocessors.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks barely budged on Thursday as investors looked past disappointing jobless claims while a jump in Marathon Oil's shares boosted the oil sector. Shares of Merck, however, weighed on the market after disappointing drug news pulled the Dow and S&P 500 lower. Weekly initial claims for unemployment benefits rose the most in six months, the Labor Department said, suggesting the jobs market still faces headwinds. The news caused an initial decline in the stocks, but the market erased most losses by midday.

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(Reuters) - Some of the United States' top bankers descended on a law firm in midtown Manhattan on Thursday to make a pitch for managing what could be one of the largest share sales in history -- a secondary offering for bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon was among the executives attending the meeting. Dimon entered the building of law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP just after 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) in New York. Asked how the meeting went as he left, Dimon laughed and said: "How'd what go?"

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(Reuters) - A U.S. judge approved a $7.2 billion settlement on Thursday to pay former customers of the Madoff firm, the largest yet in the worldwide search for money lost in Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. The settlement with the estate of longtime Madoff friend and investor Jeffry Picower could be appealed after U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Burton Lifland in New York dismissed objections to the deal, which was announced on December 17.

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(Reuters) - The U.S. economy should grow around 3 percent to 4 percent this year, a healthier clip than in 2010, but not enough to bring down unemployment as much as policymakers would like, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday. "We see the economy strengthening. It has looked better in the last few months. We think a 3 to 4 percent-type of growth number for 2011 seems reasonable," Bernanke said at an event sponsored by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

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(Reuters) - Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N) said it would split off its refinery and pipeline operations into a stand-alone company, pushing its shares up 7 percent. The move, to take effect on June 30, would create the fifth-largest U.S. refiner, reviving a plan the company had shelved in December 2008, when the financial crisis hit commodity markets.

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(Reuters) - U.S. jobless claims jumped to their highest level since October last week while food and energy costs lifted producer prices in December, pointing to headwinds for an economy that has shown fresh vigor. However, a surge in exports to their highest level in two years helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in November, an encouraging sign for fourth-quarter economic growth.

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(Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) plans to report a $2.7 billion non-cash charge for the fourth quarter due to a pension-related accounting change aimed at making its numbers more transparent for investors. The telephone operator said on Thursday it would recognize gains and losses from its pension and other post-retirement benefits in the year in which they are incurred, instead of amortizing them over a number of years.

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