Stock futures point to flat-to-lower start

LONDON (Reuters) – Stock futures pointed to a flat-to-lower open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent at 0950 GMT (4.50 a.m. ET).

Contracts on the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 were flat in percentage terms.

Japan’s Nikkei <.n225> average surged above 9,700 for the first time in eight months, led by exporters, as the yen fell to a multi-month low on mounting expectations of aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan after a general election at the weekend.</.n225>

European shares slipped on Thursday after persistent concern about U.S. austerity measures that could hit growth in the world’s largest economy overshadowed fresh stimulus steps from the Federal Reserve.

Google’s navigation tool has returned to the iPhone, months after Apple‘s home-grown mapping service flopped, prompting user complaints, the firing of an executive and a public apology from Apple‘s CEO. [ID:nL1E8ND0P2]

Adobe Systems , the maker of Photoshop software, reports results, expected to show earnings per share fell to $ 0.57 in its fourth quarter, from $ 0.67 one year earlier.

GrainCorp Ltd on Thursday rejected a sweetened $ 2.9 billion bid from Archer Daniels Midland , putting pressure on the U.S. agribusiness giant to boost its offer for Australia’s last major independent grains handler.

Knight Capital Group Inc expects to make a decision on its future ownership by early next week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. unit of Britain’s BAE Systems Plc said it has won a contract valued at up to $ 400 million to maintain and service more than 300 U.S. Navy trainer aircraft, beating out incumbent Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies , and L-3 Communications .

The Pentagon will pay about 4 percent less for each new Lockheed Martin Corp F-35A fighter jet when it signs a deal worth $ 3.8 billion with the No. 1 U.S. defense contractor on Friday, according to sources familiar with the deal.

American Airlines creditors want a potential merger with US Airways Group Inc to be an all-stock deal rather than one that pays some claims in cash, three people familiar with the matter said, in a move that underscores confidence in a merged airline.

Solar installer SolarCity is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq after halving the value of its initial public offering. The deal has been highly anticipated in clean tech and venture capital circles as alternative energy startups have had a difficult time attracting investor interest.

The U.S. Labor Dept releases first-time claims for jobless benefits for the week ended December 8 at 1330 GMT (8.30 a.m. ET). They were expected to show 370,000 new filings, a repeat of the previous weeks figure.

The U.S. Commerce Dept’s November retail sales, also due out 1330 GMT (8.30 a.m. ET), were forecast to show a 0.5 percent rise, compared with a 0.3 percent decrease in October. Excluding automobiles, sales are expected to be unchanged, a repeat of the October level.

Producer prices were forecast to show a 0.5 percent decrease compared with a 0.2 percent drop in October. Excluding volatile food and energy items, PPI is expected to rise 0.2 percent versus with a 0.2 percent decrease in October.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 2.99 points, or 0.02 percent, to 13,245.45 on Wednesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.spx> inched up just 0.64 of a point, or 0.04 percent, to 1,428.48. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 8.49 points, or 0.28 percent, to end at 3,013.81.</.ixic></.spx></.dji>

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

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Pope Benedict offers blessings with his first tweet

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – After weeks of anticipation, Pope Benedict sent his first tweet on Wednesday.

“Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.”

The tweet was sent when the 85-year-old pope tapped on a touch screen at the end of his weekly general audience in the Vatican before thousands of people.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Anthony Jeselnik, Amy Schumer, Nick Kroll Shows get Comedy Central premiere dates

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Comedy Central has set premiere dates for new series starring comedians Anthony Jeselnik, Amy Schumer, Nick Kroll, Ben Hoffman and Nathan Fielder.

The biting Jeselnik and Schumer are familiar to fans of Comedy Centrals celebrity roasts: They reliably deliver some of the most scathing and best-assembled insults. Nick Kroll stars on FX’s “The League.” And Hoffman and Fielder will both lure unassuming, regular people into their shows, airing together on Thursdays.

Comedy Central made the announcements as it released its midseason schedule Tuesday.

The sketch series “Kroll Show” premieres Wednesday, January 16 at 10:30 p.m. “The Jeselnik Offensive” debuts Tuesday, February 19 at 10:30 p.m., and will take on the week’s train wrecks in the news.

The sketch/man on the street series “The Ben Show,” starring Hoffman, premieres Thursday, February 28 at 10 p.m. It will be followed at 10:30 by Fielder’s “Nathan For You,” which “draws real people into an experience far beyond what they signed up for, according to Comedy Central.

Schumer looks at “sex, relationships, and the general clusterf— that is life” in “Inside Amy Schumer,” beginning Tuesday, April 30 at 10:30 p.m.

The network also announced standup specials for Jeselnik on Sunday, January 13, Kristen Schaal on Friday, January 18, and Katt Williams on Saturday, February 23. (Williams has popped up lately for a string of run-ins with the law, but he’s also famous for telling jokes.)

Comedy Central also set several return dates. Roastmaster Jeff Ross is back for season 2 of “The Burn With Jeff Ross” on Tuesday, January 8 at 10:30 p.m. “Workaholics” clocks in again on Wednesday, January 16 at 10 p.m., and the fifth season of “Tosh.0″ premieres Tuesday, February 5 at 10 p.m.

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AstraZeneca partners with Isis Pharma to develop cancer therapies

(Reuters) – Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc struck a deal with British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc to develop its novel technology against five cancer targets.

In exchange for $ 31 million in upfront and near-term payments to Isis, AstraZeneca will co-develop four oncology research programs and get the rights to develop and commercialize a drug that is in early trials for patients with advanced lymphomas.

Isis’s antisense therapies work by destroying the RNA that creates proteins involved in disease processes.

“Isis’ antisense technology platform allows AstraZeneca to broaden our oncology research efforts beyond traditional drug discovery methods, while at the same time becoming more specific about how we target cancer,” said Susan Galbraith, head of the AstraZeneca Oncology Innovative Medicines Unit.

Isis is also eligible to receive further payments on clinical and approval milestones, license fees for research program targets and royalties on sales.

Shares of Isis rose about 2 percent before the bell. They closed at $ 9.42 on Monday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Prateek Kumar; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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Stock futures edge higher, focus on Fed

LONDON (Reuters) – Stock futures pointed to a fractionally higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising by 0.1 to 0.2 percent.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to announce a fresh round of bond buying on Wednesday as part of its efforts to support a fragile economic recovery threatened by political wrangling over the government’s budget.

* Negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff” ahead of a year-end deadline intensified as President Barack Obama and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner spoke by phone on Tuesday after exchanging new proposals.

* India’s government announced an inquiry into lobbying practices by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday after a report that the giant retailer had pressed U.S. lawmakers to help gain access to foreign markets.

* Costco Wholesale Corp posted a 30 percent rise in quarterly profit, beating expectations, as the largest U.S. warehouse club chain saw sales rise and got a lift from higher membership fees.

* Chesapeake Energy Corp on Tuesday agreed to sell most of its remaining natural gas processing and gathering assets for $ 2.16 billion as it continues to sell assets to pay down its heavy debt load.

* Sprint Nextel Corp is in talks with Intel Corp and Comcast Corp to buy out their stakes in the U.S. wireless provider Clearwire Corp , two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

* European shares steadied in early trade on Wednesday, keeping alive their sharp three-week rally as investors bet the Fed would deliver on stimulus.

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closed up 78.56 points, or 0.60 percent, at 13,248.44 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.spx> was up 9.29 points, or 0.65 percent, at 1,427.84 – its highest since November elections. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 35.34 points, or 1.18 percent, at 3,022.30.</.ixic></.spx></.dji>

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; editing by Patrick Graham)

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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse’s family

CANBERRA (Reuters) – The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.

Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum contribution of A$ 500,000 ($ 525,000), to a memorial fund for the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who answered the telephone at the hospital treating Prince William’s pregnant wife, Kate.

The company has suspended the Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, scrapped their “Hot 30″ programme and suspended advertising on the station in the wake of the Saldanha’s death. Southern Cross said it would resume advertising on its station from Thursday.

“It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family,” Southern Cross Chief Executive Officer Rhys Holleran said in a statement.

“We hope that by contributing to a memorial fund we can help to provide the Saldanha family with the support they need at this very difficult time.”

(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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AstraZeneca starts mid-stage TB drug trial in South Africa

LONDON (Reuters) – A new experimental drug that may fight drug-resistant strains of the lung disease tuberculosis is being tested in South Africa, where the first patient has been enrolled into a mid-stage clinical trial.

AstraZeneca, which developed the medicine known as AZD5847, is working with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine on the Phase IIa clinical study.

Scientists have found an alarming number of cases of TB that are resistant to many of the most powerful existing antibiotic drugs, underlining the need for new treatments.

AstraZeneca’s new drug is still several years from reaching the market. Even if it works in the trial, further tests will still be needed before it is approved for use.

The British drugmaker said on Tuesday it planned to test AZD5847 in further clinical trials as part of one or more next-generation combination therapies against TB.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

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Pensions plans ‘will cost jobs’

11 December 2012 Last updated at 05:42 ET

The CBI has renewed its attack on a European scheme aimed at strengthening pension finances – claiming it will lead to thousands of job cuts.

The proposals, first outlined by the European Commission in 2010, aim to make company pension schemes more robust if the firm goes bust.

But the CBI said the plans were “completely unnecessary” and would add billions to schemes’ costs.

The UK government is continuing to press for the plans to be dropped.

Costs and jobs

One of the Commission’s aims is to bring the solvency rules for occupational pension schemes in three years time in line with its so-called “Solvency 2″ rules, which will be aimed at strengthening the finances of insurance companies.

This would mean that a company pension scheme would need to cover the full cost of pensions, in case the employer went bust. Normally, a scheme never has to cover the full cost of paying pensions all at once.

A study for the CBI by economic consultants Oxford Economics claimed that the changes could result in extra costs of £350bn over 10 years and 180,000 jobs could be lost.

“Imposing £350bn more costs on business would be a disaster for the economy and for pension saving,” said CBI chief policy director Katja Hall.

“The long-term economic outlook is so fragile and uncertain that it is crazy to entertain proposals which would cost jobs and cut so deeply into our long-term growth and competitiveness.

“We have a tough regulatory system in this country, so these changes are completely unnecessary.”

‘Reckless’

The plans have been criticised by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), the TUC, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).

In June, Pensions Minister Steve Webb said the government remained “resolute” in its determination to fight off the Commission’s plan and to make the European authorities “see sense”.

He said the rules would be pointless and so onerous for employers that more schemes would simply be shut down altogether.

“I continue to meet senior Commission officials, to persuade them to rethink their reckless plans,” he said.

The Commission said it had yet to make any firm legislative proposals.

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McAfee wants to return to US, ‘normal life’

BACALAR, Mexico (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and “settle down to whatever normal life” he can.

In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said “I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years.”

Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November.

The creator of the McAfee antivirus program again denied involvement in the killing during the Sunday Internet video hook-up, during which he answered what he said were reporters’ questions.

His comments were sometimes contradictory. McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications.

The British-born McAfee first said that returning to the United States “is my only hope now.” But he later added, “I would be happy to go to England, I have dual citizenship.”

He was emphatic that “I cannot ever return to Belize …. there is no hope for my life if I am ever returned to Belize.”

“If I am returned,” he said, “bad things will clearly happen to me.”

He descibed the health problems that had him briefly hospitalized earlier this week after Guatemalan authorities detained him for entering the country illegally. He apparently snuck in across a rural, unguarded spot along the border.

“I did not eat for two days, I drank very little liquids, and for the first time in many years I’ve been smoking almost non-stop,” he said. “I stood up, passed out hit my head on the wall, came to,” though he now said he was feeling better.

McAfee praised the role his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas, played in his escape from Belize, where he claims he is being persecuted by corrupt politicians. Authorities in Belize deny that they are persecuting him and have questioned his mental state.

“Sam saved the day many times” during their escape, he said, and suggested he would take her with him to the United States if he is allowed to go there.

He confirmed that journalists from Vice magazine who accompanied him on his escape after weeks of hiding in Belize had unwittingly posted photos with embedded data that revealed his exact location.

“It was an error anyone could make,” he said, noting they were under a lot of pressure at the time.

McAfee has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $ 4 million of his $ 100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as “not very accurate at all.”

McAfee’s Guatemalan attorney, Telesforo Guerra, says that he has filed three separate legal appeals in the hope that his client can stay in Guatemala, where his political asylum request was rejected.

Guerra said he filed an appeal for a judge to make sure McAfee’s physical integrity is protected, an appeal against the asylum denial and a petition with immigration officials to allow his client to stay in this Central American country indefinitely.

The appeals could take several days to resolve, Guerra said. He added that he could still use several other legal resources but wouldn’t give any other details.

Fredy Viana, a spokesman for the Immigration Department, said that before the agency looks into the request to allow McAfee to stay in Guatemala, a judge must first deal with the appeal asking that authorities make sure McAfee’s physical integrity is protected.

“We won’t look into (allowing him to stay) until the other appeal is resolved,” Viana said. “The law gives me 30 days to resolve the issue.”

McAfee went on the run last month after Belizean officials tried to question him about the killing of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November.

McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. Faull’s home was a couple of houses down from McAfee’s compound in Ambergris Caye, off Belize’s Caribbean coast.

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Gabrielle Aplin tops UK charts with Power of Love

LONDON (Reuters) – English singer Gabrielle Aplin scored her first British number one on Sunday with a cover of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit “The Power of Love”, the Official Charts Company said.

Aplin climbed to number one from sixth place with the song, which first entered the charts in 1984 and is the theme for a Christmas television advert for British retailer John Lewis.

In the album charts, Olly Murs, a former runner-up in television’s X-Factor talent contest, held on to the top spot with his release “Right Place Right Time”, but saw his “Troublemaker” slip to third place in the singles ranks.

American singer Pink was the week’s highest climber in the singles top ten, jumping to eighth place from number 26 with “Try”.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; editing by Jason Webb)

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