The U.S. Treasury's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is good news in the short term for China, the biggest holder of the giant mortgage lenders' debt, but Beijing's huge U.S. exposure still poses a serious risk, a prominent government researcher said on Monday. China owned $376 bln of debt issued by U.S. government

Cigarette maker Altria Group Inc has agreed to buy Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco maker UST Inc for about $10.3 bln in cash, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Altria will pay $70 per share, the Journal said. The proposal offers a 4% premium over UST's closing price of $67.55

Asian stocks surged 4% on Monday after Washington took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to salvage the U.S. housing market, spurring investors to buy back risky assets and sell safe havens such as government bonds. European stock markets were expected to open sharply higher, with financial bookmakers expecting Britain's FTSE 100 up 3.4%, Germany's

Nationwide, the UK's biggest customer-owned lender, said on Monday it was to merge with smaller rivals the Derbyshire and Cheshire Building Societies. Nationwide, the country's second-biggest provider of mortgages, said the tie-ups would create a mutually owned group with assets of 191 bln pounds ($335.9 bln) and 122 bln in retail deposits. The mergers will

Bank of America Corp, said it is ready to settle federal and state probes into the marketing of auction-rate securities, joining eight other companies that reached agreements. The bank said it has been in talks for nearly a month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and regulators in New York and Massachusetts on a

Stocks opened lower on Friday after a government report showed the U.S. labor market deteriorated further in August, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest level in nearly five years. The news of the unemployment rate climbing to 6.1% last month from 5.7% in July painted a bleak picture for the economy and the outlook

The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia warned it would lose market share this quarter as it refused to participate in a price war waged by some rivals to combat weak economies, hitting its shares. Nokia's third-quarter market share would be lower than the 40% it had in the second, it said on Friday, cutting

The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly shot up to 6.1 percent in August, its highest in more than 4-1/2 years, as employers cut payrolls for an eighth straight month and labour markets showed signs of accelerating decline. The Labour Department said 84,000 jobs were lost in August, significantly higher than the 75,000 that economists surveyed by

Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N), battered by more than $40 billion of write-downs tied largely to mortgages, will likely incur fresh write-downs, in addition to those assumed after its recent sale of repackaged debt to Lone Star Funds, said an analyst at Goldman Sachs, who cut the stock to a "sell." Analyst William Tanona also