New York - US bank Citigroup is to merge its brokerage unit, Smith Barney, with rival Morgan Stanley, the two firms said in New York on Tuesday.
Morgan Stanley will lead the new brokerage and will pay Citigroup 2.7 billion dollars in cash.
Citigroup has been hard hit by the financial crisis and has cut thousands of jobs, while its losses for the fiscal year could rise to more than 20 billion dollars when it announces quarterly numbers next week. It has received two cash infusions totalling 45 billion dollars from the government.
New York - Major US stock indices turned in mixed results Tuesday.
Rising energy prices pushed oil stocks higher, and banks rose amid signs of easing credit markets.
Concerns about a looming slump in US corporate profits continued, though, weighing on some sectors of the stock market.
A survey of analysts by the Bloomberg financial news agency found an average estimate that profits at S&P 500 companies probably fell by 20 per cent in the October-December quarter.
New York - Many US newspapers are planning special commemorative issues to mark the January 20 inauguration of Barack Obama as president, the trade journal Editor and Publisher reported Tuesday.
The Washington Post is to cover the event with more than 70 reporters and plans to put out a special afternoon edition of the paper on the day of the inauguration. The paper will hit newsstands by 6 pm and will sell for two dollars.
New York, January 13 : Tina Fey's "suck it" comment about a trio of Internet haters in her Golden Globes acceptance speech Sunday night boomeranged, with the bloggers firing back with more negative comments.
Fey blasted three LA Times message board writers - DianeFan, Cougar-Letter and BabsonLacrosse - for their negative comments after winning the Golden Globe for best actress in a TV comedy series for her role as Liz Lemon on NBC''s "30 Rock".
She slammed the trio by saying that they could all "suck it".
However, soon after her televised speech, Cougar-Letter posted a taunt on The Envelope message board.
New York, January 13: Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony's decision to speak and sing, respectively, at the Latino Inaugural Ball in DC on January 18 has earned them the accusation that they are trying to win the confidence of President-elect Barack Obama, after declining to support him during his campaign days.
Some Latino supporters of Obama are furious that the wealthy couple didn''''t support the Democratic nominee until he was elected US President.
New York - US bank Citigroup is to merge its brokerage unit, Smith Barney, with rival Morgan Stanley, the two firms said in New York on Tuesday.
New York - Major US stock indices turned in mixed results Tuesday.
New York - Many US newspapers are planning special commemorative issues to mark the January 20 inauguration of Barack Obama as president, the trade journal Editor and Publisher reported Tuesday.
New York, January 13: Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony's decision to speak and sing, respectively, at the Latino Inaugural Ball in DC on January 18 has earned them the accusation that they are trying to win the confidence of President-elect Barack Obama, after declining to support him during his campaign days. 
