Financial News

(AFX) - Carly Fiorina's career has followed an uncannily cinematic arc. A restless law school dropout becomes a master sales rep for Ma Bell, then rises higher in business than any other woman, running Hewlett-Packard Co. for six years. She wrestles that stodgy Silicon Valley institution into the Internet age, needing every ounce of her charm to win a huge merger contest. But her style inflam ...

(AFX) - Carly Fiorina's career has followed an uncannily cinematic arc. A restless law school dropout becomes a master sales rep for Ma Bell, then rises higher in business than any other woman, running Hewlett-Packard Co. for six years. She wrestles that stodgy Silicon Valley institution into the Internet age, needing every ounce of her charm to win a huge merger contest. But her style inflames  ...

WASHINGTON (AFX) - A key adviser to billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian resigned from the General Motors board on Friday, citing a board room environment unreceptive to extensive probing and "grave reservations" about GM's abilities against Asian competitors. Kerkorian, meanwhile, signaled he would not acquire more stock in the world's biggest automaker after GM decided against purs ...

U.S. stocks fell Friday after a mixed jobs report prompted some investors to lock in profits in a week where a slide in oil prices and increasing optimism over the economy propelled the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new all-time high. The Dow industrials broke through a previous record high of 11,750.28 reached on Jan. 14, 2000 to set a new all-time high of 11,870.06 in intraday trading Thu ...

DALLAS (AFX) - Veteran labor organizer Steve Roberts is making some familiar arguments to Continental Airlines Inc. employees considering joining his union, like promises of more leverage in gaining wage and benefit increases. But Roberts and his colleagues at the Transport Workers Union are also hoping to persuade about 7,800 ground workers that they need a union to protect their jobs in case ru ...

(Updates with full report) PARIS (AFX) - Share prices closed slightly lower, halting a run of gains that had pushed the main French index to its highest level in nearly 5 months yesterday, after US jobs data gave a mixed view of the world's largest economy and prompted consolidation, dealers said. The CAC-40 finished down 6.47 points at 5,282.06, on volume of 4.6 bln euro. On the week, the bench ...

Shares in utility companies such as Kelda Group and banking firms Lloyds TSB and Barclays traded higher in London on Friday afternoon, boosted by deal speculation in both sectors. Utility and electricity companies such as Severn Trent, Kelda Group, National Grid (NGG) , Draxand United Utilities (UU) rose more than 1.3% after Northern Ireland electricity provider Viridian Groupagreed to be bough ...

(AFX) - MOSCOW -- Steelmaker OAO Severstal announced plans Friday to list its shares in London by the end of the year and improve its corporate governance, sprucing up its international image as it prepares to look for new merger partners. Chairman Alexey Mordashov, who tried to merge the company with Arcelor SA earlier this year before losing out to Mittal Steel Co. NV, said he was eying combina ...

Shares in banking groups Lloyds TSB and Barclays traded higher in London on Friday morning as a report added to recent sector M&A speculation by suggesting that one of them could receive a merger approach from Spain's BBVA. A report by Spanish news service Hispanidad suggested that BBVA (BBV) could be looking at a tie-up with either Lloyds TSB (LYG) or Barclays (BCS) , instead of HSBC (HBC) ...

U.S. stocks fell Friday after the economy created fewer jobs than expected in September, stoking concern about slowing growth, with disappointing earnings out of chipmaker Micron Technology also undermining sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 45 points to 11,822. The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) was down 13 points to 2,293.38 while the S&P 500 Index (SPX) dropped 7 po ...