Mitsubishi Heavy says no merger talks with Toshiba: report (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' (7011.T) president said his company has no plans to start merger talks with Hitachi (6501.T), the Mainichi daily reported on Monday, in the first public denial by its top executive.

"There is no truth that we are entering talks at this moment," Mitsubishi Heavy President Hideaki Omiya told the newspaper in an interview, referring to merger talks with Hitachi.

Executives at Mitsubishi Heavy, Japan's leading heavy machinery maker, had remained silent since media reports on Thursday that the firm and Hitachi have begun talks on what could lead to Japan's biggest domestic merger.

A clear rift emerged between the two almost immediately after the first news reports.

Hitachi Chief Executive Hiroaki Nakanishi told reporters early on Thursday his company would make an announcement later that day regarding reports on their merger talks. But Hitachi later issued a statement denying the reported merger talks, and the announcement did not take place.

In a separate statement the same day, Mitsubishi Heavy said it had no plans to agree to a merger as reported by the media.

Sources have told Reuters that Mitsubishi Heavy had been considering a partial integration of their social infrastructure businesses, including power generation systems, while Hitachi is eyeing a full merger.

For Mitsubishi Heavy, there are strong misgivings about a merger, because it would likely be the one that is gobbled up given their sheer size difference.

"Hitachi has annual revenue of 9 trillion yen and Mitsubishi has 3 trillion... Mitsubishi Heavy people take pride in being a leader of the Mitsubishi group and we don't want to be taken over," said a Mitsubishi Heavy source, who declined to be named.

In the interview with the Mainichi newspaper, Mitsubishi Heavy President Omiya said his company had "various talks" with Hitachi, confirming it had been considering integration of some of its operations including social infrastructure systems.

But he flatly denied the possibility of an all-out merger of the two, saying his company had no plan to set up a merger preparation committee, as was reported by some media, the paper said.

"We should not try to do everything by ourselves when we venture into overseas markets as the domestic market shrinks," he was quoted as saying.

"If merit can be found for both sides, we would like to tie up with not only Hitachi but with foreign companies," he told the paper.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

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SEC investigating S&P's downgrade of U.S. debt: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) to disclose which employees knew of its decision to downgrade U.S. debt before it was announced last week, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the matter.

SEC's move is part of a preliminary examination into potential insider trading, the FT said.

The inquiry was made by the SEC's examination staff, which has oversight of credit rating firms, one person familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

However, the securities regulator is not aware of a leak from an S&P insider, nor was it aware of an aberrational trade, the paper said.

S&P and SEC could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

The U.S. Senate Banking committee has begun looking into last week's decision by S&P's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, a committee aide told Reuters on Monday.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by David Cowell)

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Dollar gives up gains after positive jobs report (AP)

NEW YORK – The dollar gave up its gains against most major currencies after a better-than-expected U.S. unemployment claims report.

The report that first-time claims fell below 400,000 last week for the first time in four months, a positive sign for the job market, gave investors a reason to test the market for stocks and currencies that traders consider riskier than the dollar.

The euro recovered after sinking earlier in the day on fears about the health of European banks and worries that France, a core European economy, could get trapped in the debt crisis.

In late trading, the euro edged up to $1.4216 from $1.4208 late Wednesday. It had fallen as low as $1.4102 in European trading.

Reports that Switzerland's central bank is considering pegging the franc to the euro propelled the dollar up by more than 5 percent against the Swiss currency. The dollar and euro have recently fallen to record lows against the franc because investors consider Switzerland's currency a "safe" alternative to the euro. The euro has been volatile because of concerns about Europe's debt crisis.

The Swiss central bank has taken several steps to try to weaken its currency. A strong franc makes its exports less competitive overseas.

The dollar was worth 0.7636 Swiss franc Thursday, up from 0.7296 late Wednesday.

In other trading Thursday, the British pound rose to $1.6213 from $1.6160, while the dollar was unchanged at 76.83 Japanese yen and dropped to 98.65 Canadian cents from 99.06 cents.

The dollar retreated from some of its recent gains against a group of six major world currencies. It has risen about 1 percent this month as investors sought safety during a broad stock market sell-off triggered by worries about a slowdown in global growth and a deepening European debt crisis. The U.S. currency had risen about 1 percent against that basket of currencies this month. It ticked down 0.3 percent Thursday.

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BofA chief meets top officials: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Bank of America (BAC.N) Chief Executive Brian Moynihan met privately this week with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve governor Daniel Tarullo amid the campaign to calm investors and employees about the bank's share price fall, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The separate meetings took place on Wednesday in Washington, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The intent of the meetings with the two top federal officials was for Moynihan to discuss issues related to housing, consumer spending and the U.S. economy, two people familiar with the meetings told the Journal.

During the meetings, Moynihan stressed the urgency of reaching a wide-ranging mortgage foreclosure settlement with several federal agencies and 50 state attorneys general, the paper said.

Bank of America could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)

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Regulators send subpoenas to high-frequency traders: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – The U.S. securities regulator has sent subpoenas to high-frequency trading firms in relation to last year's "flash crash" probe, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also examining whether these firms further exacerbated the panic on May 6, 2010, when U.S. stock markets suffered a record fall within minutes, the Journal said.

The sudden drop in stock prices on that day is referred to as "flash crash."

Some of the subpoenas have been sent since the start of the summer, the people told the Journal. The paper did not name the firms involved.

It is not known whether the subpoenas will result in any enforcement actions, the paper said. A subpoena does not necessarily reflect a suspicion of wrongdoing.

The practice of high-frequency trading involves deployment of rapid-fire machines that place thousands of very short-term bets, making markets and profiting on tiny price imbalances.

The SEC could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)

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US stocks resume sell-off after jobs report (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – US stocks fell sharply by midday on Friday, giving up early gains from a better-than-expected jobs report to continue a steep sell-off driven by global economic worries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 215.51 points (1.9 percent) to 11,168.17 by 1600 GMT.

The broader S&P 500 was down 30.41 points (2.5 percent) to 1,198.67, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 86.22 points (3.4 percent) to stand at 2,470.17.

The losses on Wall Street came as Europe's major stock exchanges also fell into the red. Both London and Frankfurt closed the day with losses of more than 2.7 percent.

US stocks initially rallied, then seesawed wildly and finally fell into negative territory after the US Labor Department said the country's economy generated 117,000 jobs in July.

The improvement cut the United States's official unemployment rate down a notch to 9.1 percent.

Economists had forecast only a net 84,000 jobs generated.

"The employment report turned out better than expected and certainly better than feared," said Patrick O'Hare, an analyst with Briefing.com.

However, he also cautioned: "The fact remains that the pace of job growth is still not sufficient enough to produce a meaningful change in the unemployment rate."

Financial stocks were battered by fears of contagion from Europe's debt crisis and an economic slowdown in the United States.

Citigroup, the global financial-services giant, plunged 7.7 percent. Bank of America dived 7.9 percent and Goldman Sachs dropped 2.3 percent.

Industrial economy bellwether Caterpillar was down 2.9 percent.

Kraft Foods rallied 1.8 percent. The US food giant announced plans on Thursday to split itself into two companies, a move that was welcomed by many analysts and investors.

Investors had been closely watching the US jobs report for signs of whether the US economy might be slipping back into recession, especially after a dramatic sell-off hammered global markets on Thursday.

The Dow fell more than 500 points -- its sharpest one-day drop since the 2008 financial crisis -- amid fears Europe's debt crisis is mounting and that the US economy is slowing.

Bond prices fell slightly after surging in recent days. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.48 percent from 2.46 percent late Thursday, while that on the 30-year bond climbed to 3.74 percent from 3.72 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

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The ups and downs of the jobs report, at a glance (AP)

The government's monthly jobs report provides a wealth of information about the state of the economy. On balance, July's report was a good one, particularly compared with the dismal reports from the previous two months.

Still, each report has both positive and negative elements. Below are the good and the bad from Friday's jobs report:

THE GOOD:

? The economy created more jobs. Employers added a net total of 117,000 in July, much more than in May or June and more than the 90,000 economists had expected for July.

? Companies did even better. Businesses added 154,000 jobs, and the gains were widespread across many industries.

? People with jobs made a bit more money. Average hourly wages moved up 10 cents, to $23.13 from $23.03, the biggest monthly gain since 2008.

? Temporary hiring leveled off. Companies usually hire temp workers before adding full-time ones. So economists look at the temp figures as a sign of future trends. In the past three months, temp hiring fell, but in July it ticked up by about 300 jobs.

THE BAD:

? There are still 13.9 million people unemployed. While down from about 14.1 million the previous month, that's far higher than the 7.6 million unemployed when the recession began.

? The unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. That is also down, from 9.2 percent in June, but is still shockingly high given that the recession officially ended two years ago. The rate has been above 9 percent every month but two since then.

? Fewer Americans have jobs. The proportion of the population that has a job fell in July to the lowest level in 28 years: 58.1 percent. It's fallen so low in part because millions of Americans have given up looking for work. These people are not included in the unemployment rate.

? More than 25 million Americans are either unemployed, or have given up looking, or are working part time but would prefer a full-time job. That means the so-called "under-employment" rate is 16.1 percent, down only slightly from 16.2 percent in June.

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Report: Ongoing Global Cyber for 5 years

NEW YORK (AP) - A computer security company, says Cybercriminals have spent at least the past five years, targeting more 70 government entities, non-profit groups and corporations steal data Trova.McAfee Inc. said in a report Wednesday that the attacks have targeted a wide range of organizations, including the Organization of the United Nations, the International Committee Olympic and businesses mainly in the United States.McAfee have not said who may be behind the attacks, but says that the culprit is probably a State - nation .the report is short on details, as the security company does not appoint most of the victims or exactly what data have been stolen. Most of the victims are the United States, with some in the Canada, the Korea of the South, Taiwan, Japan and elsewhere.

Apple joins Hulu bid talks: report (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Apple Inc is in early talks to join the bidding for Hulu, the online video site that Walt Disney Co, News Corp and its other owners have put up for sale, Bloomberg cited two unidentified sources as saying.

Apple has begun preliminary discussions that may eventually lead to an acquisition, Bloomberg reported without elaborating.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Hulu's owners, which also include Comcast Corp's NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners, have begun preliminary sale talks with about a dozen potential buyers, including Google Inc and Microsoft Corp a source familiar with the situation said this month.

The video site is expected to have 1 million paid subscribers by the end of summer, earlier than previously forecast.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Gary Hill and Carol Bishopric)

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