Hot finance topics

Aetna Inc. said Tuesday it still anticipates 2008 profit will come in below Wall Street’s expectations.
The managed care provider maintained its full-year earnings forecast at $4 per share on medical membership growth between 800,000 and 850,000, and its first-quarter adjusted profit outlook of 92 cents per share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect slightly higher […]

McDonald’s Corp. said Monday that February sales at restaurants open more than a year jumped a better-than-expected 11.7%, boosted by growth in Europe, the weak dollar and the benefit of an extra selling day this year.
Two straight months of solid results to start the year have reassured investors worried about the impact of the […]

Wall Street is closely watching for the next court ruling that might help define when a deal could be broken without penalty, but the wait could be a long one.
With the credit crisis souring many merger agreements and financing commitments, broken financial engagements are spurring lawsuits.
But one case after another has settled […]

In a dramatic about-face, Ask.com is abandoning its effort to outshine Internet search leader Google Inc. and will instead focus on a narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.
As part of the new direction outlined Tuesday, Ask will lay off about 40 employees, or 8% of its work force.
With […]

Porsche AG said Monday that it has won approval from the supervisory board of its holding company to take a majority stake in Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest car maker, but does not plan to combine the two automakers.
Porsche is currently Volkswagen’s biggest shareholder with a stake of 31%, followed by the state of Lower […]

Spending on U.S. building projects in January fell by the most in 14 years as the housing slump worsened and construction slowed on hotels and highways.
The 1.7 percent decrease, more than twice the fall economists forecast, followed a revised 1.3 percent drop in December that was steeper than initially reported, the Commerce […]

14
Percentage of Americans who say they definitely would sign a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement if their spouses asked them to, according to a survey by Thomson West
27
Percentage who said they might sign one
21
Percentage who said probably not
20
Percentage who said definitely not
Source: Ipsos
Source

Infant injuries in cribs, strollers, playpens and other nursery products are on the rise, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
An estimated 66,400 nursery-product related injuries occurred in children under 5 years old in 2006, an 11% increase from 2005, the CPSC said.
According to the report, infant carriers/car […]