By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK | Fri Oct 26, 2012 6:59pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Earnings season may be only half over, but the focus on profits should subside next week as investors turn their attention to the coming election and Friday's jobs report, the last major data release before the November 6 contest. More bellwether companies are schedule...

By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK | Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:23pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - For many U.S. companies, the earnings period has been scary enough. For those with big overseas operations, it has been a horror show. Corporate America overall is struggling, with year-over-year earnings expected to decline for the first time in three years. But...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:02pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth accelerated in the third quarter as a last minute spurt in consumer spending and a surprise turnaround in government outlays offset the first cutback in business investment in more than a year. Even so, the stronger pace of expansion fell short of wh...

Donald Trump, the U.S. billionaire real-estate developer, is seeking to put his name on hotels in Argentina and Brazil as he expands his brand in Latin America. Uruguay, Costa Rica and Mexico are also possibilities for hotel development as trade growth for the region equals China, said Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisitions at Trump Organization Inc. The Trump O...

By Grant McCool Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:26pm EDT (Reuters) - A former chief financial officer at Xilinx Inc (XLNX.O) on Friday became the latest executive to settle civil charges of being part of now-imprisoned hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam's insider trading network. The technology executive, Kris Chellam of Saratoga, California, was charged by the U.S. Sec...

By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:36pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday, as investors fretted about Apple's weaker-than-expected results - the latest in a string of lackluster earnings - and signs that economic growth is still not strong enough to make a significant reduction in unemployment. Apple (AAPL.O), the world's...

NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2012 - KPS Capital Partners, LP ("KPS") announced today that it signed a definitive agreement to sell its portfolio company, North American Breweries Holdings, LLC ("NAB" or the "Company"), to Cerveceria Costa Rica, S.A. ("CCR"), a subsidiary of Florida Ice and Farm Company, S.A., for $388 million in cash. NAB is one of the largest independently owned beer companies in the ...

In Costa Rica, the new tax law increases the penalties for mistakes and omissions in income tax statements. Effective from September 28, the Law for Strengthening Tax Management and Law for Enforcing Standards of Fiscal Transparency in some cases doubles fines to be paid for misreporting. Errors without malice will be subject to a penalty of 50% of the unpaid amount, when it used to be 25%...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:39am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth picked up in the third quarter as a late burst in consumer spending and a surprise turnaround in government outlays offset the first cutback in business investment in more than a year. The stronger pace of expansion, however, fell short of what...

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:08am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in five years in October as Americans were more upbeat about prospects for the economy and their own finances, a survey released on Friday showed. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment r...

Almost unnoticed in the turmoil surrounding numerous scandals, the Chinchilla Administration's vow to make the country an easier place to do business seems to have borne some fruit. The nation jumped 12 places in the Doing Business ranking by the World Bank. Vice President Luis Liberman, among others in both the Oscar Arias and Chinchilla administrations, have been working on the problem. Pr...

By Ransdell Pierson Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:07am EDT (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc reported a higher-than-expected third-quarter profit, as a favorable tax rate and lower merger costs helped offset plunging sales of its former flagship product, Singulair, an asthma drug that began facing cheaper generics in August. But overall company sales came in slightly b...

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:06am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures trimmed earlier declines and pointed to a steady open for Wall Street on Friday after data showed economic growth picked up at a faster pace than expected in the third quarter. S&P 500 futures were off 1 point, and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing b...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:19am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth picked up in the third quarter as a late burst in consumer spending offset the first cutbacks in investment in more than a year by cautious businesses. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday...

By Lionel Laurent and Matthias Blamont PARIS | Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:54am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Societe Generale, France's second-biggest listed bank, has received a new request for information from U.S. authorities investigating the Libor rate-fixing scandal, a banking source told Reuters on Friday. SocGen has already said publicly it is cooperatin...

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian NEW YORK | Thu Oct 25, 2012 5:32pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks eked out small gains on Thursday in another uninspiring session on Wall Street, with worries about weak business spending keeping investors wary. After the close of trading, Apple Inc (AAPL.O), the most valuable public company in the United States, post...

The registration deadline approaches to join industry colleagues and the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) board of directors at the first-ever coffee origin tour in Costa Rica, Feb. 6 to 10, 2013. "We really look forward to the fascinating, value-added education NAMA operators will experience from this unique, behind-the-scenes look at our industry. The inaugural coffee origi...

By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK | Thu Oct 25, 2012 1:19pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street edged up on Thursday, retreating from session highs as investors were wary of betting aggressively after the S&P 500's worst five-day stretch since May and the data sent more tepid signals on the economy. Business investment showed signs of stalling in Sep...

By Andrew Callus LONDON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 1:04pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - International oil company BP (BP.L), weakened and distracted by its troubles in the United States and Russia, is in danger of losing touch with the leaders in an industry where strength and focus yield the richest pickings. "I can't help thinking they've sort of lost their w...

By Jason Lange WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:10am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Business investment showed signs of stalling in September, an indication that worries over a possible sharp tightening in the federal budget are already weighing on the economy. Other data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment b...

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:22am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contracts to buy previously owned homes rose far less than expected in September, an industry group said on Thursday, but the data continued to point to an improving tone in the housing market. The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed...

By Jason Lange WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:32am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gauge of planned business spending was flat in September, a sign that heightened uncertainty is weighing on factories although new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods increased during the month. Other data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new ...

NEW YORK | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:33am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened higher on Thursday on optimism the economies of both the U.S. and China may be recovering. Jobless claims fell by 23,000 in the latest week while the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said China's factory output should grow faster sequentially in the fourth quarter. I...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:11am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's sales slumped by a bigger-than-expected 19 percent in the third quarter, underscoring the challenges confronting the drugmaker's new chief executive, Pascal Soriot. Faced with patent expires on once best-selling medicines and a thin pipeline of new drugs, the f...

By Anna Driver Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:10am EDT (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips (COP.N) reported a lower third-quarter profit on Thursday that beat analysts' estimates, as it produced more crude than expected from high-margin fields such as the Eagle Ford and Bakken. Shares of the U.S. oil and gas company rose 2 percent to $57.11 in premarket trading.Conoco and oth...

By Jessica Wohl Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:50am EDT (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co's (PG.N) profit rose more than expected on Thursday, indicating that the world's largest household products maker is making progress after coming under pressure from activist investor William Ackman. P&G did not raise its key profit forecast for the fiscal year that began ...

By Rhys Jones and Alessandra Prentice LONDON/BASILDON, England | Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:49am EDT LONDON/BASILDON, England (Reuters) - Ford will stop making vans in Britain next year, cutting 1,400 jobs on top of 4,300 to be axed in Belgium as part of a plan by the U.S. car maker to stem European losses expected to exceed $1.5 billion this year. It is...

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:45am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gauge of planned business spending was flat in September, a sign that heightened uncertainty is weighing on factories although new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods increased during the month. The Commerce Department said on Thursday that non-defense capital goods orders excluding...

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON | Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:08am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - British prosecutors wrapped up their case against former UBS (UBSN.VX) trader Kweku Adoboli on Thursday, opening the way for him to open his defense against charges of fraud and false accounting for trades that cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion. After listening quietly from...

By Katharina Bart ZURICH | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:52am EDT ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) will cut an extra 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.1 billion) of costs, including axing more jobs, as part of efforts to bolster its profits and capital position. Volatile financial markets, a dearth of deals and tighter regulations in the wake of the 2007...

By Edward Krudy NEW YORK | Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:25am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets next year to pay for costlier healthcare, more expensive grocery bills and higher taxes, an extra drag on the country's already slow-moving economy. The additional outlays look set to test the resilience of consumers, w...

NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:24pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fallen Wall Street insider Rajat Gupta was sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday for leaking Goldman Sachs boardroom secrets to the hedge fund manager at the center of the U.S. government's crackdown on insider trading, a much lighter sentence than prosecutors had sought. Gupta, 63, who ...

NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:05pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended lower for a second day on Wednesday, as investors soured on another round of underwhelming corporate results and the Federal Reserve said it would stick to its stimulus plan. Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slipped 25.11 points, or 0.19 perc...

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:03pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc seems to still be the drug of choice for consumers of all stripes looking for sleek gadgetry. But traders are starting to doubt the hype, and the stock's technicals are painting a bleak picture ahead of Apple's earnings due Thursday.According to technical anal...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:54pm EDT (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday that various staff groups involved in compliance and legal issues will soon all report to its general counsel as the world's largest retailer works on coordinating efforts after an alleged foreign bribery scandal. In a memo sent by Chief Executive Mike Duke, the company said that starti...

By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK | Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:41pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States filed a fraud lawsuit against Bank of America Corp, accusing it of causing taxpayers more than $1 billion of losses by selling thousands of toxic mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wednesday's case, originally brought by a whistleblower, i...

By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:36pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stuck to its plan to keep stimulating U.S. growth until the job market improves even as it acknowledged some parts of the economy were looking a bit better. In a statement after a two-day meeting, the central bank re...

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:27pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. single-family home sales surged in September to the highest level in nearly 2-1/2 years, further evidence the housing market recovery is gaining steam. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that new home sales increased 5.7 percent to a seasonally adjus...

By Kate Holton LONDON | Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:45pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Incoming New York Times chief Mark Thompson told Reuters on Wednesday his U.S. employer had given him full support since a sexual abuse scandal erupted at Britain's BBC where he had been in charge until last month. His handling of the matter at the British Broadcasting Corpora...

Wed Oct 24, 2012 2:21pm EDT PARIS (Reuters) - Former Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) trader Jerome Kerviel said on Wednesday he would make a final appeal to the French Supreme Court against a three-year jail sentence for his role in the nation's biggest rogue-trading scandal. Kerviel announced he would go to France's highest court after losing his first attempt to ove...