"Wallstreet" Reader

"Wallstreet" Reader

Victim Remembers Chaos, Then Kindness

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 08:07 PM PST

Pam Simon said that within three seconds of shots ringing out her thoughts ran from disbelief—"this is not happening; that's a toy gun; it's happening"— to the realization that she was hit.

Web Denizens Engage in Soul-Searching

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:55 PM PST

Members of online forums where Jared Loughner shared his thoughts and violent notions are asking: Could they have helped?

Pack Mentality Grips Hedge Funds

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:31 PM PST

Hedge funds are crowding into more of the same trades these days, amplifying market swings during crises and unnerving investors.

Next RNC Chief Has a Tough Job

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 05:50 PM PST

As GOP leaders gather to pick a new party chief amid hopes that fresh leadership might revitalize the Republican National Committee, evidence abounds that the RNC's woes run deeper than the troubled stewardship of the current chairman, Michael Steele.

Other Investors Got Early 'Poke' on Facebook Deals

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 06:20 PM PST

Felix Investments launched two funds in 2009 to snap up Facebook shares, while J.P. Turner & Co. pitched a $25 million fund in September, well before the Goldman Sachs deal.

Toyota Tries to Break Reliance on China

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:34 PM PST

The Japanese auto maker believes it is near a breakthrough in developing electric motors for hybrid cars that eliminates the use of rare earth metals, whose prices have risen sharply in the past year as China restricted supply.

Delta Makes Fliers Bid to Get Bumped

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:34 PM PST

Delta Air Lines asks passengers to bid to be bumped before they get to the gate.

Brazil Intervenes to Slow Currency's Rise

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 05:39 PM PST

The Brazilian central bank is stepping up efforts slow the rise of the real by offering to buy as much as $1 billion in the currency futures market, the bank's first futures intervention since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009.

New Hit to Strapped States

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:06 PM PST

With the market for municipal bonds tumbling, cities, hospitals, schools and other public borrowers are scrambling to refinance tens of billions of dollars of debt this year, another sign that the once-safe market is under duress.

Economists Optimistic on Growth

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:50 PM PST

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal are increasingly optimistic about the pace of the recovery, predicting the U.S. will grow at better than a 3.2% annual rate in each quarter this year.

Telecom Giants Battle for Kenya

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 06:44 PM PST

Cellphone companies across Africa are drawing battle lines to capture the rising middle-class consumer. But in Kenya, the war already is well under way, stocked with ammunition from India's Bharti and the U.K.'s Vodafone.

Sterling Bancshares Puts Itself Up for Sale

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:34 PM PST

Sterling Bancshares, facing a proxy fight from its largest shareholder, has put itself up for sale, in a rare auction of one of Texas's independent financial institutions.

FDA Puts Restrictions on Acetaminophen

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 03:50 PM PST

Federal health regulators are restricting the amount of acetaminophen in prescription painkillers such as Vicodin because of concerns about liver damage.

SEC Probes Sovereign-Fund Deals

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:35 PM PST

The SEC is investigating whether banks and private-equity firms, including Citigroup and Blackstone Group, violated bribery laws in their dealings with sovereign-wealth funds.

Banks Pitch Themselves for AIG Deal

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:09 PM PST

Top executives from Wall Street banks met with officials from AIG and the Treasury Department to pitch for a lead role in the government's first sale of stock in the bailed-out insurer.

Business Sales Propel Intel

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 08:00 PM PST

Intel reported its best quarterly and yearly results ever, despite evidence that demand for Apple's iPad and similar products is undercutting sales growth for PCs that use the company's computer chips.

Bernanke Sees Growth, but Small Firms Key

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 03:02 PM PST

The U.S. economy looks to be in better shape, but a full recovery will only be achieved once small firms begin to prosper, Bernanke said.

Inmet, Lundin Merger Would Forge Copper Giant

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 11:47 AM PST

Inmet Mining's planned merger with Lundin Mining will create a company that is among the world's biggest copper producers as demand for the widely used industrial metal shows no signs of easing.

AT&T Plans $2.7 Billion Charge

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 07:52 PM PST

AT&T will take a pretax charge of about $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter to change its accounting methods for pension and other post-retirement benefits.

Merrill, Former Leaders Paying to Settle Suit

Posted: 13 Jan 2011 10:57 AM PST

Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit and two former top executives will pay $4.25 million to settle a lawsuit by New York state's largest pension fund over Merrill Lynch's role in the subprime mortgage crisis.