Stocks edged lower on Wall Street Friday, pulling the Standard & Poor's 500 index below a five-year high reached the day before. The S&P 500 fell two points to 1,470 as of noon Eastern. It closed at 1,472 Thursday, its highest level since December 2007. The Dow Jones industrial average fell a point to 13,469. The Nasdaq composite index dropped three points to 3,119.
Stock futures are mixed in light volume with markets awaiting the next rush of earnings reports DJIA and S&P 500 futures are down a hair, while Nasdaq futures are up a point. Traders appear to be holding their positions a day after the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended at a five-year peak.
Ten major banks and mortgage companies have agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle complaints that they wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners. Under the settlement, people who were wrongfully foreclosed on could receive from a few hundred dollars up to $125,000.
U.S. banks are ending the year with their best profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers.
Even before the LIBOR scandal hit, the financial industry's image was already badly tarnished by its leading role in causing the global financial crisis and recession. Here's a look at some of the low points for banking and bankers since the start of the financial crisis.
U.S. banks earned more from July through September than in any other quarter over the past six years. The increase is further evidence that the industry is strengthening four years after the 2008 financial crisis.
Things are getting tastier at Yum! Brands. The company behind Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC posted strong quarterly results after Tuesday's market close.
The U.S. government filed a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit on Tuesday against Wells Fargo & Co, the latest legal volley against big banks for their lending during the housing boom.
Since Sept. 19, the websites of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bankand PNC Bank have all suffered day-long slowdowns and been sporadically unreachable for many customers.
Seems like every big bank has started offering prepaid debit cards, giving people without bank accounts a way to pay with plastic. Now, smaller bank Kaiku Finance is launching the "Kaiku Card" -- and it's hoping that regular customers will slip its prepaid cards into their wallets too.
U.S. bank earnings rose 21 percent in the April-June quarter and lending to consumers increased, adding to evidence that the industry is strengthening four years after the financial crisis.
Toll Brothers' net income rose 46 percent in the third quarter as it delivered more homes at higher prices. It also had lower write-downs during the period.
Tax havens are big news in the U.S., but a recent study shows that, when it comes to offshoring cash to dodge taxes, Americans are amateurs. Globally, tax havens are used to hide an estimated $21 trillion, more than the entire U.S. GDP.
Maybe if we called it "2B2F," it would have been more popular. But lacking the street cred of a cool nickname, the idea "too big to fail" is beginning to lose popularity in America -- even among some of the country's most famous bankers.
In the past year, more than 750 bank branches in the U.S. have closed. If yours is the next one to shut its doors, there are things you need to think about -- even if you rarely set foot inside.