(Reuters) - Potential investors including Internet giant Google will decide before year-end whether to proceed with a $1.5 billion undersea cable linking the BRICS group of emerging economies to each other and the U.S., a senior official in the project said on Monday. The 34,000 km cable, which would be the first of its kind to link Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is expected to come online by the end of 2014, said Andrew Mthembu, chairman of technology group i3 Africa which is promoting the project.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street advanced on Tuesday, with equities again taking their cue from overseas markets as Greek election polls pointed to support for pro-bailout parties, overshadowing a weak read on U.S. consumer confidence. Facebook Inc (FB.O) shares continued to fall, contributing to weakness in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index. They hit a new low of $30.02, dropping about 6 percent on talk it was in discussions to buy Oslo-based Opera Software (OPERA.OL), while analysts said competition from Google Inc (GOOG.O) and others could push the price tag of any deal above $1 billion.

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(Reuters) - U.S. home prices edged higher for the second month in a row in March as the housing recovery picked up traction, while gains in some of the hardest hit areas suggested the improvement was becoming more broad based. But consumer confidence cooled in May to its lowest level in four months, separate data showed on Tuesday, as Americans turned gloomy about the job market and the economic outlook.

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(Reuters) - Two jurors have dropped out of the insider-trading trial of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) board member Rajat Gupta, who is charged with giving corporate secrets to imprisoned hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Both were excused from the 12-person jury in Manhattan federal court because of family emergencies. The place of Juror No. 12, a professor of strategic design and behavior, was taken on Thursday by one of four alternates, a retired librarian. Juror No. 4, an executive assistant at a hospital, was excused on Tuesday and replaced by another alternate, a musician

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(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co has sold an estimated $25 billion of profitable securities in an effort to prop up earnings after suffering trading losses tied to the bank's now-infamous "London Whale," compounding the cost of those trades. CEO Jamie Dimon earlier this month said the bank sold corporate bonds and other securities, pocketing $1 billion in gains that will help offset more than $2 billion in losses. As a result, the bank will not have to report as big an earnings hit for the second quarter.

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(Reuters) - Public companies are increasingly using the Internet to collect proxy votes. But shareholder activists say shortcuts within the most popular U.S. online proxy system give it a pro-management slant. When investors log on to Broadridge Inc's (BR.N) well-known proxyvote.com website, they arrive at a screen with a prominent virtual button. With one click, the button sets votes "for" all of a corporate board's recommendations, from electing directors and approving executive pay to adopting anti-takeover defenses.

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(Reuters) - BP (BP.L) is to resume exploration activities in Libya that it suspended because of last year's uprising, re-starting a relationship which under ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi landed the firm in the centre of a political storm. BP's return is a milestone in the recovery of Libya's energy sector, though this was tempered by an announcement from Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) that it would pull out of fields in Libya on the grounds that they were not worth developing.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday, with the S&P on track for a fifth straight day of declines as weak economic data spooked investors already concerned about the ongoing situation in Europe. A gauge of future U.S. economic activity fell in April for the first time in seven months and the Philadelphia Fed business conditions index hit its lowest since September, compounding worries about a struggling economic recovery.

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(Reuters) - New claims for jobless benefits last week held at levels suggesting sluggish growth in hiring and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in May, worrisome signs for a still-fragile economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits held at 370,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was a little higher than analysts forecasted in a Reuters poll.

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(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's quarterly profit and sales surpassed expectations on Thursday as more people shopped its established U.S. stores and spent more, pushing its shares up more than 5 percent despite ongoing probes into possible bribery. Wal-Mart's shares have recovered all of the 8.2 percent plunge suffered after an April 21 New York Times report uncovered alleged bribes paid in Mexico and an internal investigation that was squashed by Wal-Mart executives.

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