Market News

MetLife, AIG and ING have been among the biggest users of affiliated reinsurance entities such as so-called captives to help meet capital requirements, according to information firm SNL Financial.

The markets managed to hold onto narrow gains as investors took in mixed bag of economic reports ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Coventry Health Care Incorporated (CVH) maintained its quarterly dividend of 12.5 cents per share. The dividend is payable on January 7, 2013 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 21, 2012.

A fall in M&A could prompt capital returns, Credit Suisse said.

Best Buy (BBY) had its numbers reduced by UBS (UBS) due to weak results and the fact that it is getting more difficult for the company to recover. A hold rating was issued with a $13 price target.

Airgas Incorporated (ARG) maintained its quarterly dividend of 40 cents per share. The dividend is payable on December 28, 2012 to shareholders of record as of December 14, 2012.

Yearly charts usually get far less attention than their shorter brethren, but they still have useful lessons to give smart investors. MoneyShow's Tom Aspray analyzes the yearly trends for these four major asset classes t...

How to safely and smartly navigate Thanksgiving day-after sales.

Driven by strong demand for its quad-core Tegra 3 processors and the energy-efficient Kepler architecture, Nvidia reported record revenues in Q3. Despite tough macro conditions, Nvidia marked 12.9% and 17.3% y-o-y growth...

Salesforce.com (CRM), which provides cloud based software, announced that it earned 33 cents per share, beating analyst estimates by one cent. Revenue increased by 35% to $788 million, while analysts had expected $776.5 ...

(Kitco News) - Comex gold prices are modestly higher Wednesday morning as prices are presently consolidating on the daily bar chart. There is a fresh batch of U.S. economic data due out Wednesday morning, ahead ...

Deere & Co. (DE) announced that profit for the fiscal fourth quarter increased by 3% to $687.6 million, or $1.75 per share, versus $669.6 million, or $1.62 per share, in the same period last year. Sales increased by 14% ...

With Verizon racing away with its LTE expansion plans, AT&T doesn’t want to be left too far behind. The second largest U.S. wireless carrier made a series of launches late last week that helped it reach its target...

Investors face three main challenges in the next 12 months - from China, the US and the Eurozone.

U.S. officials for the first time implicated Steven A. Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, in an alleged insider-trading scheme they said was the most lucrative ever to be charged.

On Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, it seems as if the boom never ended. The costs of retail real estate and store rents are reaching record levels along New York's swanky strip.

Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday, with stocks paring earlier gains on uncertainty over Europe, though Japan continued to outperform due to a weaker yen. The Nikkei rose 0.4%.

Sandy left an uneven path of destruction in lower Manhattan when it hit three weeks ago: The superstorm hit harder on the eastern side, while the more-modern buildings on the western waterfront bounced back quickly.

Bernanke suggested the central bank will keep trying to push down long-term interest rates in 2013, as federal tax and spending policies become a more substantial headwind to the U.S. economy.

Nervous about exposure to Cyprus's ailing financial system, British regulators have pushed the Mediterranean island's top two banks to restructure their U.K. arms to allow for greater local oversight.

Mary John Miller, a top Treasury official who played a key role during the debt-ceiling debate, is under serious consideration to be the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Warren Buffett sold some of its blue-chip investments last quarter in favor of a stake in Deere. He wasn't making a bet on something as fleeting as Wednesday's full-year earnings report, but it seems unlikely that he wil...