Business News

WASHINGTON - Growth in worker productivity slowed sharply in the summer while wages and benefits rose at a rate that was far below a previous estimate, a development likely to ease inflation worries at the Federal Reserve.

NEW YORK - Shaking off some effects of the housing slump, the service sector of the U.S. economy grew at a quicker pace in November than in the previous month and faster than analysts expected.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Growth in the U.S. services sector accelerated unexpectedly in November and third-quarter labor costs grew more slowly than forecast, suggesting the economy may be weathering a manufacturing slowdown with wage-driven inflation coming under control.

The US economy appears to be growing at a sustainable pace, according to figures released on Tuesday that showed the service sector picked up pace last month while inflation pressures were milder than previously thought in the third quarter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pace of growth in the dominant U.S. services sector accelerated unexpectedly in November, a report showed on Tuesday, confounding some concerns that it might contract as manufacturing did last month.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as a report showing an unexpectedly robust services sector boosted hopes that profit growth would withstand fallout from a slowing housing market.

NEW YORK - Stocks advanced Tuesday after an ease in wage pressure and stronger-than-expected service sector activity raised prospects that the economy could cool gradually and leave room for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Euronext and NYSE won endorsement for their $14 billion merger from European regulators on Tuesday, removing a major hurdle for the first transatlantic stock exchange.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar edged up against most major currencies on Monday as investors took profits following a dollar decline that has shaved some 3 percent off its value in less than two weeks.

NEW YORK - The Wall Street Journal unveiled a new, smaller design on Monday that it hopes will draw new readers to the newspaper, including young professionals.

PHILADELPHIA - Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc.'s fourth-quarter earnings fell 44 percent, but the company said it sees some signs of stabilization in the slumping housing sector and raised its forecast for first-quarter home deliveries.

CINCINNATI - Kroger Co. stock jumped Tuesday after the nation's largest traditional grocery chain posted a 16 percent profit increase in the third quarter and said profits for the year would be higher than its previous forecasts.

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. reported a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit on Tuesday but signaled that the worst may be over for the sagging U.S. housing market.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Top U.S. auto parts retailer AutoZone Inc. said on Wednesday that quarterly earnings rose 8.3 percent as it trimmed costs, increased prices and widened its assortment of in-demand parts.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kroger Co. said on Tuesday that quarterly profit rose 15.8 percent and raised its 2006 earnings view, sending its shares to their highest level in five years, as the grocery chain benefited from lower prices and a better selection of products such as fresh produce.

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SAN FRANCISCO - Wells Fargo & Co. is launching a new program to help mortgage borrowers with poor credit records improve their plight — and help the bank shake off years of accusations depicting it as a predatory lender.

For U.S. data watchers, November ended mostly downbeat. The markets received discouraging signals on Nov. 30 from a survey of manufacturing conditions in the Midwest in November and a weekly indicator of first-time filings for unemployment benefits. These numbers trumped more encouraging data on personal income and spending in October.

Japanese stocks were pushed mildly lower on Monday morning by falls in tech stocks, but consumer finance companies continued their strong gains.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - KeyCorp , a large Midwest U.S. bank, on Friday said it agreed to sell its Champion Mortgage subprime lending unit to Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc and investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC, so it can focus on consumer and business banking.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said that automaker General Motors Corp. plans to make over 1.8 million vehicles with the XM radio-service built-in in 2007.

(Reuters) - Banc of America Securities said Honda Motor Co. Ltd was its top pick for 2007 in the autos sector, ahead of Toyota Motor Corp. .

Pfizer's hopes for the new cholesterol treatment torcetrapib have been dashed at a terrible time for the New York pharmaceutical giant.

It may be just a middling size India pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, but Mumbai-based Wockhardt isn't afraid to go up against Big Pharma on its home court. The company currently markets about 14 products in the U.S., and in August received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to sell a broad-spectrum antibiotic called Cefotaxime Sodium.

Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp appears to have an unlikely new member - Richard Li, chairman of the territory's largest telecommunications company, PCCW (NYSE:PCW), and youngest son of its richest man, Li Ka-shing.

Pilgrim's Pride finally corraled its target: the chicken producer Gold Kist (NASDAQ:GKIS - News). On Dec. 4, the poultry producer announced a merger agreement with its reluctant rival.

Pfizer's hopes for the new cholesterol treatment torcetrapib have been dashed at a terrible time for the New York pharmaceutical giant.

At the last ITU Telecom World confab held in Geneva back in 2003, the mood was decidedly grim. After all, the industry was still reeling from overcapacity problems, a deep profit recession, and massive layoffs from the bursting of a global telecom bubble in 2000. Only a year earlier, the U.S.'s No. 2 long-distance carrier, WorldCom, had gone bust under the weight of $40-billion plus in debt in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and had been nailed for massive accounting fraud.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street is still on course to end 2006 in the plus column, but it is too early to pop the champagne corks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Globalization is coming to financial exchanges.

NEW YORK - Veteran audio engineer Tony Bongiovi, who once worked with Jimi Hendrix, has been disappointed for decades that the equipment most people used to listen to music couldn't replicate the high-quality sound heard in the studio.

WASHINGTON - Medicare officials are touting the success of the new drug benefit by pointing to defections from another government program.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Taco Bell on Tuesday boosted to nine the number of fast-food restaurants it had closed in New York and New Jersey after a suspected outbreak of the foodborne E. coli bacteria that may have sickened more than three dozen people.

PARIS - Airbus said Monday it wants suppliers to its A350 XWB mid-sized airliner to fund over 15 percent of the cost of the project, the company's 11.6 billion euro ($15.4 billion) answer to the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. fell more than 7 percent on Tuesday after the pay-radio provider cut its fourth- quarter subscriber target, citing disappointing sales over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend.