(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's proprietary trading unit will be spun off as an independent firm by the end of 2012, the New York-based investment bank said on Monday. The unit, known internally as process driven trading, will be named PDT Advisers and will be run by Morgan Stanley's proprietary trading chief, Peter Muller.

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(Reuters) - The North American International Auto Show opened on Monday with fresh signs the comeback by U.S. carmakers is gaining traction. In the first big event of the show, the Chevy Volt, the centerpiece of General Motors' return from bankruptcy and already the winner of both Motor Trend Magazine's car of the year and Green Car of the Year awards, was named 2011 North American Car of the Year award, beating out rival vehicles from Japan's Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Korea's Hyundai Motor Co.

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(Reuters) - Duke Energy said on Monday it agreed to buy Progress Energy Inc for $13.7 billion in stock, creating the largest U.S. power company if it wins approval from regulators in North and South Carolina. The transaction would create an industry giant with approximately 7.1 million electricity customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, and 57,000 megawatts of generating capacity.

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(Reuters) - A top Federal Reserve official said he would set the bar "very high" for the central bank to stop short in its planned $600 billion in bond purchases, but that the Fed may need to begin considering a reversal of policy by year end. "The bar is very high for me," Kocherlakota said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Monday. "There would have to be a disorderly reaction of some kind in inflation expectations or in the behavior of the dollar."

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(Reuters) - The European Central Bank threw Portugal a temporary lifeline on Monday by buying up its bonds, traders said, as market and peer pressure mounted for Lisbon to seek an international bailout soon. A senior euro zone source said on Sunday that Germany, France and other euro zone countries were pushing Portugal to seek an EU-IMF assistance program, following Greece and Ireland, to prevent contagion spreading to much larger Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the euro area.

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(Reuters) - U.S. corporate earnings promise to beat analysts' expectations for the just-completed fourth quarter, but translating the good news into strong stock gains will be challenging. Fourth-quarter estimates for the S&P 500 are seen rising sharply but are barely changed since the spring despite recent upbeat economic news -- a sign that company and analysts' targets will prove too conservative once again.

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(Reuters) - U.S. chemicals group DuPont said on Sunday it will buy Danish food ingredients and enzymes firm Danisco for $5.8 billion to boost its position in the fast-growing food sector. The cash deal would enable DuPont to enter a niche in the chemical industry - food additives - long dominated by smaller rival International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. It would also solidify existing cooperation between the two companies in the field of technology for advanced bioethanol.

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(Reuters) - Genzyme Corp (GENZ.O) shares rose more than 3 percent on Monday after French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) confirmed the companies were in direct talks about a takeover deal. Sanofi, whose shares slipped 1.4 percent, said late on Sunday that representatives from both companies had entered discussions about ways to value key Genzyme drug Campath, which the U.S. biotech hopes to market as a multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment under brand name Lemtrada. [ID:nLDE7080FM] Genzyme put out a statement on Monday mirroring those comments.

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(Reuters) - China's trade surplus narrowed in 2010 for the second straight year, giving Beijing grounds to rebuff U.S. pressure for faster currency appreciation ahead of President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington next week. The Chinese government will point to the latest numbers as evidence that it is making steady progress in rebalancing its economy toward domestic consumption, cutting reliance on exports and giving the world a lift through surging demand for imports.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open little changed on Friday after a mixed U.S. payrolls report failed to confirm heightened expectations of a healing labor market. The U.S. economy created 103,000 jobs in December, far below the forecast of 175,000. But overall employment for October and November was revised to show 70,000 more jobs than previously reported, while the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent, the lowest since May 2009. For details see [ID:nN06134458]

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