Yahoo! News: Business

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• Banks, commodity stocks lift S&P 500 to five-year high
• Google's fourth quarter results shine after ad rate decline slows
• IBM fourth quarter earnings, revenue beat Street
• Wells Fargo increases quarterly dividend by 14 percent
• Pentagon, industry seek answers on issue that grounded F-35B
• Home resales fall, housing recovery still on track
• Ex-Goldman director Gupta seeks conviction reversal
• Stanford ex-CFO Davis gets five-year prison sentence
• McDonald's running low on quick fixes for U.S. sales
• Slumping pigment demand eats into DuPont's profit
• Can Apple maintain its shine?
• Google's 4Q earnings rise 7 pct; stock rises
• What holds energy tech back? The infernal battery
• US stocks rise as tech, industrial earns roll in
• Wal-Mart warns suppliers on stricter measures
• US home sales dip in Dec.; 2012 best in 5 years
• CSX railroad's 4Q profit slips on weak coal demand
• IBM reports higher 4Q net income, beats estimates
• White House: Obama wouldn't block GOP debt bill
• UN team evaluates Dominican mine expansion project

Banks, commodity stocks lift S&P 500 to five-year high Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:51 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank and commodity shares led the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index to a fresh five-year closing high on Tuesday on hopes that the global economy continues to mend. Travelers' shares climbed after the insurer's results and lifted the Dow Jones industrial average to a new five-year closing high. On Friday, both the Dow and the S&P 500 ended at five-year highs after the quarterly earnings season got off to a solid start. On Monday, the U.S. stock market was closed in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. ...

Google's fourth quarter results shine after ad rate decline slows Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:04 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Revenue from Google Inc's core Internet business outpaced many analysts' expectations during the crucial holiday quarter and advertising rates fell less than in previous periods, pushing its shares up more than 4 percent. The world's largest Internet search company introduced new product listings during the fourth quarter - typically its strongest - and also benefited from business growth in international markets, analysts said. Excluding traffic-acquisition costs, the business generated net revenue of $9.83 billion, up from $8. ...

IBM fourth quarter earnings, revenue beat Street Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:52 PM PST (Reuters) - IBM, the world's largest technology services company, reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates on the back of growth in emerging markets. International Business Machines Corp said on Tuesday its quarterly net income rose 10 percent to $6.1 billion, or $5.39 a share from $4.71 a year earlier. Revenue dropped 1 percent to $29.3 billion. Analysts had expected the Armonk, New York-based company to report net income of $5.95 billion, or $5.25 a share, on revenue of $29.05 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. ...

Wells Fargo increases quarterly dividend by 14 percent Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:41 PM PST (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co on Tuesday raised its quarterly stock dividend by 14 percent as it awaits U.S. Federal Reserve permission to potentially return even more capital to shareholders in the coming year. The No. 4 U.S. bank by assets said in a statement that the increase of 3 cents to 25 cents per share was part of a capital plan that received approval from the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2012. Wells in March raised its quarterly dividend by 10 cents to 22 cents per share after the Fed completed annual stress tests on large U.S. banks. ...

Pentagon, industry seek answers on issue that grounded F-35B Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:38 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon and industry officials worked through the weekend to determine what caused the failure of a fuel line on the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's s F-35 fighter jet that prompted the plane's grounding on Friday. A spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp that builds the engines for the jets, said those involved included officials from Stratoflex, a unit of Parker Hannifin Corp that built the fuel line. No comment was immediately available from Stratoflex. ...

Home resales fall, housing recovery still on track Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:43 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Home resales unexpectedly fell in December, but the drop was not large enough to suggest the recovery in the housing sector is running out of steam. The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that existing home sales dropped 1.0 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.94 million units. That was still the second-highest rate of sales since November 2009, when sales were lifted by a federal tax credit for home buyers, and the data pointed to momentum in the housing market. ...

Ex-Goldman director Gupta seeks conviction reversal Posted: 22 Jan 2013 12:01 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta are urging a federal appeals court to reverse his insider trading conviction, arguing that a judge shouldn't have allowed wiretaps to be heard at trial. In a brief filed Friday at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, Gupta's lawyers argued wiretaps of now-imprisoned hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam amounted to "hearsay statements" and should not have been presented to the jury. ...

Stanford ex-CFO Davis gets five-year prison sentence Posted: 22 Jan 2013 10:58 AM PST HOUSTON (Reuters) - James Davis, the government's top witness in convicted swindler Allen Stanford's fraud trial, was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for his role in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Davis, 64, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to three charges and could have been sentenced to 30 years, told the court in a breaking voice: "I am ashamed and I am embarrassed." He added that he let down his family, co-workers and thousands of investors. Davis pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange investigation. ...

McDonald's running low on quick fixes for U.S. sales Posted: 22 Jan 2013 11:06 AM PST (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp is running out of quick-fix strategies for stemming declines in U.S. restaurant sales inflicted by tougher competition for customers who are pinching pennies in a weak economic recovery. The world's largest restaurant chain by revenue welcomed customers on Christmas Day and shifted the limited offering of its cult favorite McRib sandwich into December to avoid a big year-end decline in its U.S. restaurant business. But, it appears the company has exhausted its supply of such tactics. ...

Slumping pigment demand eats into DuPont's profit Posted: 22 Jan 2013 08:18 AM PST (Reuters) - Weak demand for paint pigment and solar panel parts eroded DuPont's fourth-quarter profit, with Chief Executive Officer Ellen Kullman tempering expectations for those once-lucrative markets due to "significant challenges." Demand fell most for DuPont's titanium dioxide pigment, which is used to color paper and plastics. In 2012, that unit's share of the company's overall profit declined to 28 percent from nearly a third in 2011. Titanium dioxide sales are closely linked to gross domestic product and often are a solid barometer of economic health. ...

Can Apple maintain its shine? Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:11 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — For many investors, Apple's best days are behind it. Competitors are catching up, they believe, and the latest iPhone is stumbling.

Google's 4Q earnings rise 7 pct; stock rises Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:04 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google's fourth-quarter earnings rose 7 percent as online advertisers spent more money in pursuit of holiday shoppers.

What holds energy tech back? The infernal battery Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:38 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — As 21st century technology strains to become ever faster, cleaner and cheaper, an invention from more than 200 years ago keeps holding it back. It's why electric cars aren't clogging the roads and why Boeing's new ultra-efficient 787 Dreamliners aren't flying high.

US stocks rise as tech, industrial earns roll in Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:48 PM PST Strong earnings reports from big U.S. companies helped push the Dow Jones industrial average to its eighth gain in nine sessions Tuesday.

Wal-Mart warns suppliers on stricter measures Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:53 PM PST BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has alerted its global suppliers that it will immediately drop them if they subcontract their work to factories that haven't been authorized by the discounter.

US home sales dip in Dec.; 2012 best in 5 years Posted: 22 Jan 2013 09:47 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of previously occupied homes dipped in December from November, in part because of a limited supply of available homes. But for all of 2012, sales rose to their highest level in five years.

CSX railroad's 4Q profit slips on weak coal demand Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:28 PM PST OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Railroad operator CSX Corp. said continued weak coal demand contributed to a 3 percent decline in fourth-quarter net income. The results still beat Wall Street expectations as other sectors improved.

IBM reports higher 4Q net income, beats estimates Posted: 22 Jan 2013 03:00 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — IBM's fourth-quarter earnings grew 6 percent even as revenue was largely flat, as the company benefited from growing, lucrative software businesses such as Internet-based computing and data analytics.

White House: Obama wouldn't block GOP debt bill Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:45 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration says it won't oppose a House Republican proposal to increase the nation's $16.4 trillion borrowing authority for only three months, even though President Barack last week decried such short-term measures as harmful to the economy.

UN team evaluates Dominican mine expansion project Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:24 PM PST SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A team of experts from the U.N. on Tuesday began evaluating a proposed nickel mine expansion in the Dominican Republic that has been halted by a court over environmental concerns.

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