Gains in financials, material stocks lift market
NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors showed a greater appetite for risk Thursday, putting money back into banking and industrial stocks as well as commodities....

Lawyer: Madoff won't appeal 150-year sentence
NEW YORK (AP) -- Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff will not appeal his 150-year sentence for a fraud that unraveled overnight last December when Madoff confessed to his sons that nearly $65 billion he promised investors was safe was actually only worth a few hundred million dollars....

For lease: Office with river views, Madoff stigma
NEW YORK (AP) -- Behind unmarked doors on the 17th floor of a red granite high-rise known as the Lipstick Building, FBI agents still labor to unravel a case like no other....

SEC to call for Calif. IOUs treated as securities
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recipients of billions of dollars in IOUs being issued by California soon may have a regulated market where they could sell them....

Weak retail sales in June raise worries
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rain and escalating job worries dampened shoppers' appetite for summer staples like shorts and dresses more than expected in June, increasing concerns about the back-to-school shopping season....

565K new jobless claims, lowest level since Jan.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits last week fell to lowest level since early January, largely due to changes in the timing of auto industry layoffs....

GM sale cleared, path opens to exit Chapter 11
DETROIT (AP) -- The path is now clear for General Motors Corp. to leave bankruptcy protection in record time as a leaner company that is better equipped to compete in a brutal global auto market....

Sprint Nextel signs networking deal with Ericsson
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday announced it will transfer operation of its wireless and wireline networks to Swedish telecommunications equipment maker LM Ericsson....

GM, Chrysler fight reopening of closed dealerships
WASHINGTON (AP) -- General Motors and Chrysler are urging lawmakers to stop legislation that would prevent automakers from closing car dealerships that the dealers want to keep open, saying it would complicate their emergence from government-led bankruptcies....

Citigroup shuffles executives, former CFO leaving
NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup Inc. said Thursday that its former chief financial officer and current chairman of Citi Holdings, Gary Crittenden, is leaving the company as part of the bank's latest shuffling of management....