Wall Street

US court studies wiretaps in Rajat Gupta insider case

New York: Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta sought to reverse his insider-trading conviction on Tuesday, arguing that wiretap evidence used by the prosecution should not have been introduced at trial.

Defense lawyer Seth Waxman told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that wiretaps played for the jury were inadmissible because they amounted to hearsay evidence.

Gupta himself was not heard on the wiretaps, which are instead conversations between convicted Galleon Group manager Raj Rajaratnam and other employees at the hedge fund.

"Those wiretaps should never have been admitted," Waxman told a three-judge panel of the appeals court....more    

US: Dow hits 15, 000 on job market strength

New York: US stocks added to gains on Friday, with the Dow industrials at a record high above 15,000 after a strong payrolls report for April and large upward revisions showed the jobs market is healing despite the sluggish recovery in the overall economy. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 176.4 points or 1.19 per cent, to 15,007.98, the S&P 500 gained 20.7 points or 1.3 per cent, to 1,618.29...  

Drop in Apple shares, weak profits drag Wall Street lower

New York: US stocks fell in a broad market selloff on Wednesday, led by a sharp drop in Apple shares on worries about slowing demand for its products and weaker-than-expected results from Bank of America that battered the financial sector. Apple Inc slid 5.5 per cent to $402.80 after falling below $400 for the first time since December 2011. A key supplier, chipmaker Cirrus Logic , gave a disappointing revenue...  

Wall Street sinks on commodities selloff, Boston blasts

New York: The S&P 500 posted its worst day in more than four months on Monday, as big drops in the price of gold and other commodities triggered a broad selloff in equities. The three major US stock indexes extended declines in afternoon trading after reports of explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 265.86 points or 1.79 per cent, to end...  

Wall Street drops on signs of weak economy, North Korea

New York: US stocks fell on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 index posting its biggest daily decline in more than a month, after a weaker-than-expected survey of private employers raised concerns about the strength of the economy. News the Pentagon was sending a missile defense system to Guam in the coming weeks and remarks by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that North Korea posed a "real and clear" danger added to...  

Wall Street drops on uncertainty about Cyprus

US stocks fell on Tuesday on uncertainty about how Cyprus will avoid a bankruptcy and possible reverberations in the euro zone as the region struggles to emerge from economic crisis. ...  

Dow ends at record again, S&P posts seventh straight gain

Wall Street rose modestly on Monday, lifting the Dow to another record and giving the S&P 500 its seventh straight advance as early weakness enticed buyers. The gains briefly lifted the benchmark S&P 500 index to its highest intraday level since October 2007. ...  

Asian markets rise to a 4-year high as Dow hits another record

Japan's Nikkei share average rose above 12,000 on Thursday for the first time in 4.5 years, with risk appetite supported by a record high on Wall Street and the prospect of Japan soon adopting an aggressive reflationary monetary policy. The Nikkei rose 1.1 per cent to 12,060.96 by mid-morning, its highest level since September 2008. ...  

'Cadbury used non-existent factory to avoid $46 million in taxes'

Cadbury Plc, now part of Mondelez International Inc, used a nonexistent factory in India to avoid about $46 million in taxes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a report by the Indian tax authorities. ...  

Global markets decline on deadlocked Italy election

Asian shares took their lead from overnight plunges in global equities to fall on Tuesday as an apparently inconclusive election outcome in Italy raised fears of a resurgent euro zone debt crisis. Italy's centre-left coalition will win a majority in the lower house of parliament but the upper house will be deadlocked, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday after almost all votes were counted. No party or coalition won a...  

Rajat Gupta ordered to pay $6.22 million to Goldman Sachs

A federal judge on Monday ordered former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta to reimburse $6.22 million to help the Wall Street bank cover its legal expenses related to his criminal insider trading case. ...  

Sensex, Nifty end at 2013 lows

Key equity benchmarks ended trade in the red however off the day's low. The BSE Sensex closed down 61.97 points at 19435.21 after touching an intraday low of 19,381.82. ...  

China denies hacking allegations

China's Foreign Ministry has denied hacking foreign websites in a strongly worded statement. The statement came after reports that Google Chairman Eric Schmidt had labelled China as "the most sophisticated and prolific" hacker of foreign companies in his upcoming book. ...  

Boss' firstborn may affect your salary: study

Your salary may rise or shrink depending on your male boss' firstborn, according to a new study which found that employees can expect a hike if the child is a daughter but salaries may decrease if it is a son. ...  

Will Wall Street and Barack Obama bridge their divide?

The demonisation of the financial industry is not limited to the US. It's a global phenomenon. In the US, the need to bail out the banking industry was a very difficult political decision for Democrats in particular. The entire country was suffering in the recession. ...  

Why is Wall Street losing its appetite for Apple?

This holiday season is shaping up to be a record-breaking period for Apple as shoppers snap up iPhones and iPads. So, why is the world's most valuable company losing its luster with investors? ...  

Three theories that seek to explain the Apple downturn

Why is Apple, the world's most valuable company, losing its lustre with investors? ...  

Indian markets follow Wall St fall after US elections

New Delhi: Indian markets tumbled on on Thursday as Wall Street worried about the fiscal crisis and the European economy's further deterioration, underpinning the safe-haven dollar and yen as well as US Treasuries on safety bids. US Congress must avert the fiscal cliff of nearly $600 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases set for early 2013. There is also the issue of a debt ceiling, which needs to...  

Wall Street sinks after election as 'fiscal cliff' eyed

New York: The Dow industrials lost more than 300 points in a sell-off on Wednesday that drove all major U.S. stock indexes down over 2 percent in the wake of the presidential election as investors' focus shifted to the looming "fiscal cliff" debate and Europe's economic troubles. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index posted its biggest daily percentage drop since June, with all 10 S&P sectors solidly lower and about...  

Insider trading: Rajat Gupta regrets damage to reputation

New York: It's a fall from grace for a man who had built himself a reputation as a humanitarian. Fallen Wall Street tycoon Rajat Gupta was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday and a five million dollar fine was imposed for securities fraud and insider trading, the judge, refusing to be lenient despite appeals from influential people like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Kofi Annan. In the end,...