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NEW YORK  - Technology bolstered Wall Street slightly on Monday, as investors bought shares after analysts' comments on BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and Cisco Systems.

 

Sentiment also got a lift from American International Group Inc's deal to sell its Alico foreign life insurance unit to MetLife Inc for about $15.5 billion.

 

MetLife's stock rose 4.7 percent to $40.74 and AIG gained 3.6 percent to $29.10.

 

"The news continues to signal there's more (deals) to come and helps put a floor in the market," said Kurt Brunner, portfolio manager at Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia.

 

Research in Motion shot up 6.1 percent to $73.75, leading the Nasdaq higher after an analyst upgraded the stock on expectations the company will report strong quarterly results and issue a robust outlook.

 

Sprint Nextel shares climbed 4.6 percent to $3.43 and led the S&P telecommunications sector's index higher after the company's chief financial officer said he hoped to see revenue declines slowing this year and a turn to revenue growth several quarters ahead.

 

Shares of Clearwire Corp, which is majority owned by Sprint, jumped 12 percent to $7.58 on Nasdaq.

 

The market move "is more news-specific today than anything in a broad sense," Brunner said. 

 

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BASEL - Inflation in India should moderate in the coming months and the central bank will ensure interest rate levels do not have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the economy, the head of Reserve Bank of India said on Monday.

 

"I believe that inflation will moderate in the weeks and months ahead," RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao told reporters in Basel.

 

Subbarao declined to comment on possible interest rate moves in the future, but said that the central bank would ensure that their levels would not have any negative impact on the competitiveness of the economy.

 

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LONDON - Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.

It is still possible to reach a legally binding global treaty, and bickering among countries like China and Britain is unproductive, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN's climate change secretariat, told Reuters.

WASHINGTON - Senior White House economists on Sunday predicted the U.S. economy will start creating jobs by spring and said that boosting employment will be at the top of President Barack Obama's agenda next year.

COPENHAGEN - Environment ministers tried to overcome rifts between rich and developing nations in Copenhagen on Sunday just days before a deadline for reaching a global pact on tackling climate change.

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, highlighting a spat between top greenhouse gas emitters China and the United States, said he hoped all nations would seek to raise their offers in the talks.

TOKYO - Japan's core machinery orders fell in October, but the drop was small compared to a large rise the previous month and analysts said the worst may be over for capital spending, which has been a drag on the economic recovery.

Companies have forecast a gain in core orders this quarter, the first in seven quarters, but capital expenditure is expected to grow only very slowly as companies are still saddled with excess capacity.
By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company could look to extend its search engine partnership with Yahoo outside the United States, if it gets regulatory approval.

HONG KONG - Asian shares fell on Thursday after a set of weak U.S. data rekindled worries about global growth and prompted a shift away from riskier assets, lifting the yen and underpinning the dollar.
Full Story @ Reuter

The FDIC's new set of rules for private equity investments in the banking sector aren't ideal, says billionaire investor Wilbur Ross. Still, he's looking for deals: "We'll be in the game, but not as aggressively as we had been," he says.