HELSINKI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - New Chief Executive Stephen Elop put his mark on Nokia (NOK1V.HE), cutting 1,800 jobs and delaying a key product after parts shortages helped the world's largest handset maker post stronger-than-expected profits. Third-quarter underlying earnings per share dropped to 0.14 euros from 0.17 euros a year ago, but solid demand for its cheap smartphones helped it beat all forecasts -- which ranged from 0.08 to 0.12 euro -- in a Reuters poll of 36 analysts.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell last week, but continued to drift in the same range they have been for about a year, signaling ongoing weakness in the labor market. There were 452,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Oct. 16, down 23,000 from an upwardly revised 475,000 the previous week, according to the Labor Department's weekly report.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would repair 1.66 million Avalon and other vehicles, mostly in Japan and the United States, in the latest large-scale recall to plague the world's biggest automaker. The announcement came less than two months after a recall in Canada and the United States of 1.3 million Corolla and Matrix cars carrying defective engine control modules that could cause the vehicles to stall.

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U.S. stocks fell Monday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 160 points to 10983, the S&P 500 fell 18 points to 1167 and Nasdaq Composite declined 51 points to 2430. Among the companies whose shares are actively trading in the session Apple Inc. (AAPL), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Massey Energy Co. (MEE).

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Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), the largest U.S. bank by assets, said on Wednesday net its third quarter net loss quadrupled from a year ago, as the bank recorded a previously announced $10.4 billion goodwill charge for its card businesses.

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), the dominant U.S. investment bank, said its quarterly profit fell by more than a third after low trading volumes dragged on earnings.

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China unexpectedly raised its benchmark lending and deposit rates for the first time since 2007 ahead of data that may show inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in almost two years.

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Health care giant Johnson & Johnson says it eked out a 2 percent increase in profit for its third quarter, even though sales were down slightly.

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The New York Times Co (NYT.N) reported its third-quarter revenue fell almost 3 percent as advertisers and readers pulled back on spending.

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Both J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup managed to play down the foreclosure debacle during recent earnings reports. Bank of America can't afford to do the same when it reports third-quarter results Tuesday.

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