(Reuters) - A European summit deal to strengthen budget discipline in the euro zone failed to restore financial market confidence on Monday, forcing the European Central Bank to step in again gingerly. The euro fell, stocks slid and borrowing costs for Italy and Spain rose as investors weighed the outcome of last week's summit that split the European Union, with Britain blocking treaty change and forcing euro zone countries to negotiate a fiscal accord outside the Union.

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(Reuters) - Intel Corp warned that fourth-quarter results would miss its previous forecast due to hard disk drive supply shortages caused by floods in Thailand. Thailand said last month that output of hard disk drives fell 52.4 percent in October from a year earlier as the worst flooding in 50 years swamped factories.

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(Reuters) - Greece began a round of talks with the EU, the IMF and bankers on Monday, with negotiators facing a tight timetable to decide key aspects of a new bailout plan to pull the country out of its economic crisis. Inspectors from the EU, the ECB and the IMF arrived at the finance ministry for talks that will also include checking on Athens' slow progress since a first rescue plan, agreed over a year ago in an effort to stem a crisis that has since dragged the whole euro zone into deep turmoil.

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NEW YORK (Reuters)- Four months after U.S. financial regulators opened a whistleblower office, more than three-quarters of polled Americans said they would blow the whistle under the protections and incentives now offered by the government. According to a poll released on Monday, 78 percent of Americans said they would report wrongdoing in the workplace as long as they could do it anonymously, without retaliation, and claim a monetary award.

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(Reuters) - Stocks climbed on Friday as European Union leaders agreed on measures to address the region's sovereign debt crisis, while U.S. consumer confidence rose to its highest level in six months. An agreement on stricter budget rules for the euro zone went someway to address the structural problems behind the bloc's debt crisis, but investors said more was now needed to relieve stress in the region's troubled debt markets.

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(Reuters) - Europe secured an historic agreement to draft a new treaty for deeper economic integration in the euro zone on Friday, but Britain, the region's third largest economy, refused to join the other 26 countries in a fiscal union and was isolated. The outcome of a two-day European Union summit left financial markets uncertain whether and when more decisive action would be taken to stem a debt crisis that began in Greece in 2009, spread to Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain and now threatens France and even economic powerhouse Germany.

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(Reuters) - Consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in six months in early December as Americans adopted an improved economic outlook while the trade deficit narrowed in October, pointing to gathering momentum in the economy. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on their index of consumer confidence climbed for a fourth straight month to 67.7, beating expectations as it rose from 64.1 in November.

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(Reuters) - Chemical maker DuPont (DD.N) cut its full-year profit outlook on Friday, citing slower growth in some of its businesses due to weakness in the company's end markets, sending its shares down almost 5 percent. DuPont's warning follows a similar outlook cut from German specialty chemicals group Wacker Chemie (WCHG.DE) and negative commentary from larger peer BASF (BASFn.DE), as the chemicals industry battles shrinking inventories at customers amid global economic uncertainty.

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(Reuters) - Takeover defense measures such as poison pills and staggered boards are at their lowest levels in more than a decade, making U.S. companies more vulnerable at a time when hostile bids are expected to rise. The number of staggered or classified boards among S&P 500 companies -- where only a handful of directors come up for election in any given year -- has fallen to 25 percent from nearly 62 percent in 2002, according to FactSet SharkRepellent.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday, with the Nasdaq dropping about 1 percent, after remarks from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi tempered hopes policymakers were priming a financial "bazooka" to tackle Europe's raging debt crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slid 113.22 points, or 0.93 percent, to 12,083.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX dropped 16.09 points, or 1.28 percent, to 1,244.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC took off 25.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to 2,623.83.

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