Hot finance topics

If the key to happiness is low expectations, then stock investors must be over the moon.
Over a third of the S&P 500 index constituents have reported second-quarter earnings. Even though profits are down about a third from a year earlier, more than three-quarters of the firms have beaten analysts’ expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. […]

The Pentagon ordered an end to an expensive Army modernization program led by Boeing’s St. Louis-based Integrated Defense Systems.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Defense Department said it has ordered a "transition" from the $160 billion Future Combat Systems program to a series of acquisition programs that would ultimately extend some high-tech […]

With buyers scarce and financing tight, some home sellers are offering rent-to-buy options to potential buyers. In fact, there’s been enough of a spike in interest that ForSaleByOwner.com added it as a search option on the site, says spokesman Eric Mangan.
These deals, also called rent-to-own and lease-option, usually require buyers to pay extra […]

Amid General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy filing, a sense of relief came from local politicians and auto workers.
Analysts hadn’t expected the Wentzville plant — GM’s only facility that builds full-size vans — to be on the closure list released Monday.
Still, recent upheavals in the auto industry left workers nervous about any […]

The Bank of Nova Scotia has reported quarterly net income of $872 million, down 11 per cent from a year-ago profit of $980 million although revenue grew 12 per cent to a record high.
Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) said today it earned 81 cents per share in its second quarter ended April 30, down from 97 […]

A federal court has approved the distribution of more than $843 million to harmed investors at insurer American International Group, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday.
The court estimates that checks will soon be mailed to more than 257,000 AIG investors that were affected by an alleged accounting fraud at the company, the […]

U.S. President Barack Obama’s task force on the auto industry has hired a bankruptcy lawyer to advise it on its options.
The task force hired Matthew Feldman, a partner in the business reorganization and restructuring department at New York law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, the law firm said in a news release Friday.
Feldman […]

The private sector jobs market deteriorated rapidly in October while the service sector contracted sharply as the worst financial crisis in 80 years hammered the world’s largest economy.
Privately released reports on Wednesday highlighted the economic challenges facing Barack Obama a day after he won the race for the White House and foreshadowed weakness in […]

The U.S. Treasury faces historic financing demands from a weakening economy and the added costs of a $700 billion Wall Street rescue program, the department's top domestic finance official said today.
“This year's financing needs will be unprecedented,'' said Anthony Ryan, the Treasury's acting undersecretary for domestic finance, at a Securities Industry and Financial […]

WASHINGTON — The government will buy an ownership stake in a broad array of American banks for the first time since the Great Depression, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said late Friday, announcing the historic step after stock markets jolted still lower around the world despite all efforts to slow the selling stampede.
Separately, the […]