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The class="mandelbrot_refrag"> S&P 500 closed at a record high on Friday, buoyed by a rally in housing class="mandelbrot_refrag"> stocks after better-than-expected home sales and a jump in Hewlett-Packard shares a day after the personal computer maker said it would cut more jobs. The class="mandelbrot_refrag"> S&P 500 ended above 1,900, just below a record intraday high of 1,902.17 set on May 13 and above its record closing high of 1,897.45 the same day. Eight of the 10 class="mandelbrot_refrag"> S&P sector indexes ended higher for the day.   true       The class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Dow Jones Transportation Average .DJT rose 0.8 percent to close at a record high, after hitting a lifetime intraday high of 7,995.39. Housing class="mandelbrot_refrag"> stocks ranked among the market's biggest outperformers, with the housing index .HGX up 1.9 percent. Big tech names like class=

Credit Suisse's ( id="symbol_CSGN.VX_0"> CSGN.VX ) Chief Executive Brady Dougan told a Swiss Sunday newspaper he has no plans to step down and his bank would not need a capital increase despite a $2.5 billion deal with U.S. authorities over a tax dispute. _0"> Swiss lawmakers have been among those calling for Dougan and other executives to resign to allow the bank to make a fresh start after its settlement with U.S. authorities over charges it helped Americans to evade taxes. Asked in an interview with Sonntagsblick if he had thought about leaving the bank, Dougan said: "No. I have been working nearly 25 years for this bank, I'm committed to Credit Suisse, its customers, its staff, its shareholders."   true       Dougan said a capital increase would not be necessary for the bank to meet its goals of posting a capital ratio of at least 10 percent by the end of the year and targeting an 11 percent ratio thereafter. Switzerland's financial

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China has told its state-owned enterprises to sever links with American consulting firms just days after the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking U.S. companies, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. _0"> China's action, which targets companies like McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), stems from fears the firms are providing trade secrets to the U.S. government, the FT reported, citing unnamed sources close to senior Chinese leaders. "We haven't received any notification of this kind," said Margaret Kashmir, a spokeswoman for Strategy& - formerly Booz & Company - in an email, adding that serving clients in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China and globally continues to be the company's main priority.   true       "We are unaware of any government mandates," added Bain & Company spokeswoman Cheryl Krauss. A McKinsey spokes

Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger who designed the monster and revolutionary sci-fi sets for the film "Alien" has died, his museum said on Tuesday. He was 74. _0"> Giger, who was born Hans Rudolf in the eastern Swiss town of Chur in 1940, died on Monday in Zurich from injuries he obtained after suffering a fall, an employee of the H.R. Giger Museum said, confirming reports in Swiss media. Famous for creating the otherworldly creature in Ridley Scott's 1979 horror film "Alien", Giger was awarded an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects in 1980.   true       The son of a chemist, he studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich, and first experimented with ink drawing and polyester works before moving onto large freehand airbrush works showcasing nightmarish dreamscapes. His work explored the relationship between the human body and the machine, and he created surrealist images of humans fused with industrial parts, a style he described

A Swiss art gallery discovered on Wednesday that it had been named as the sole heir of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive German owner of a hoard of masterpieces discovered accidentally in a tax probe, who died this week aged 81. _0"> The Bern Art Museum said the news "came like a bolt from the blue" as it had no connection with Gurlitt. The collection - put together by his father Hildebrand, a dealer in so-called "degenerate" art for Adolf Hitler - is worth an estimated 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Kunstmuseum Bern's director, Mathias Frehner, said in a statement that Gurlitt's lawyer had told him the museum had been named his "unrestricted and unfettered sole heir".   true       The museum's response was tempered by caution since an as yet undetermined number of the works, which include hundreds of masterpieces by the likes of Chagall and Picasso, were looted by the Nazis from their Jewish owners during World War Two. "The

Detroit's three automakers are mulling a request by the city's art museum to help it raise money for a key component of Detroit's plan to restructure its debt and exit class="mandelbrot_refrag"> bankruptcy , representatives of the companies said on Tuesday. Under an $816 million so-called grand bargain, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) would contribute $100 million to ease pension cuts on the city's retirees and avoid a sale of art works to pay city creditors. The rest of the money would come from philanthropic foundations and the state of Michigan, where a $350 million contribution over 20 years or a $195 million lump sum payment needs legislative approval. "Chrysler Group is committed to playing a positive role in Detroit's revitalization. Accordingly, we are reviewing the DIA's request," said Chrysler spokesman Kevin Frazier in an email.   true       class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Ford Motor Co spokesman Todd Nissen

American artist Barnett Newman's abstract painting "Black Fire I" sold for $84.2 million at Christie's contemporary art sale on Tuesday, setting a new auction record for the artist and confirming the buoyancy of the global art market. The price, including buyer's premium, easily surpassed the previous record of $43.8 million set a year earlier for Newman's "Onement VI," and topped the $80.8 million a private Asian buyer paid at Tuesday's sale for Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards". All but four of the 72 lots on offer were sold as the post-war and contemporary sale also broke records for works by American sculptor Alexander Calder, sculptor and artist Joseph Cornell and several others.   true       Apart from the two top lots, four more fetched over $50 million, with deep-pocketed collectors from around the globe vying for the most coveted works of art. "These are incredible statistics," B