(Reuters) - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week and the four-week moving average slipped to a fresh two-year low, reviving hopes a labor market recovery was under way. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 421,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, below economists' expectations for 425,000.

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(Reuters) - MasterCard is buying the prepaid cash card business of foreign exchange group Travelex for 290 million pounds ($459 million), boosting its presence in a fast-growing financial services segment. Mastercard said the transaction would be $0.04 dilutive to its 2011 earnings per share as a result of amortization and integration costs. It added it could pay an extra 35 million pounds if the business meets certain performance targets.

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(Reuters) - U.S. wholesale sales climbed at the sharpest rate in seven months during October and inventories kept rising strongly, according to a government report on Thursday that suggested optimism about a healthy holiday shopping season. The Commerce Department said wholesale sales rose 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted $362.1 billion -- far ahead of Wall Street expectations - following a 0.5 percent September gain. Inventories were up 1.9 percent in October to $427.1 billion after a 2.1 percent rise.

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(Reuters) - The markets for equities and government bonds have returned to their long-term pattern of moving in opposite directions as a result of a U.S. tax cuts deal that is expected to boost spending there. News of the deal fueled optimism for the U.S. economic outlook while sparking inflation concerns, triggering a sell-off in bonds and sending stocks to two-year highs -- ending a period in which the two asset classes have tracked each other.

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(Reuters) - State Street Corp (STT.N), one of the world's biggest institutional investors, said it would post a fourth-quarter loss after it sold $11 billion in securities to meet new regulatory requirements. The company said that it will record an after-tax loss of $350 million for the quarter, but operating earnings are still expected to top year-earlier results.

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(Reuters) - Edward Chow remembers the nervous days of the early 1990s in Hong Kong, when tens of thousands of people left the then-British colony, fearful of what would happen when Chinese rule returned. Among the most high profile departures was that of HSBC, the company most closely associated with the rise of Asia's financial center and the territory's de facto central bank. While HSBC's red and white ATMs remained ubiquitous from Hong Kong's bustling commercial district Central to the dingy alleys of Sham Shui Po, the bank's decision to move its HQ to London suggested it saw its future in Europe and the United States.

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(Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday, weighed by gains in the dollar and higher bond yields, but analysts said they expect the market to regroup before attempting a rally into year-end. Benchmark yields hovered at their highest in six months, while the dollar index .DXY gained 0.4 percent as the deal to extend tax cuts intensified worries about inflation and the costs of the government's debt burden.

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(Reuters) - A prominent U.S. business group on Wednesday urged the Obama administration to consider modifying some provisions of a broad-based financial regulatory overhaul that they said hurt American competitiveness. The Business Roundtable, which includes chief executives from top U.S. firms, said the Dodd-Frank bill passed earlier this year will be costly to implement and won't be effective.

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(Reuters) - Top home improvement chain Home Depot Inc (HD.N) gave an outlook for the next financial year that could miss Wall Street expectations amid continued weakness in the U.S. economy and its shares fell. Home Depot's forecast for the 12 months ending January 2012 calls for earnings of $2.19 to $2.23, while analysts on average were expecting a $2.22 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The retailer's shares were down 0.8 percent at $33.27 in premarket trading.

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(Reuters) - Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N) said China would surpass the United States as the fast-food restaurant operator's top profit generator this year, and the Chinese market's potential is still largely untapped. Yum has more than 3,700 restaurants in China, mostly KFC outlets, and has a big lead over Western rivals like McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

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