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An unmanned minehunting vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin Corp ( id="symbol_LMT.N_0"> LMT.N ) has shown improved reliability in new tests, moving it a step closer to use on U.S. warships, Navy officials said on Thursday. An improved version of the Remote Minehunting System has completed 850 hours of testing, paving the way for 10 weeks of development and operational testing this fall, which should allow the system to go into use in 2015. "Ultimately, this system is going to take sailors out of the minefield," Steve Lose, the Navy's program manager for the Lockheed system, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Hunting for mines in harsh, murky waters is a critical mission for the Navy. It is keen to shift that work to unmanned systems and keep sailors out of harm's way. Sea mines are inexpensive weapons that are readily available to terrorists, rogue nations and potential adversaries. Lockheed's Remote Minehunting System combines a diesel-pow

Blackstone Group LP ( id="symbol_BX.N_0"> BX.N ) agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit that had sought $8.4 billion for its role in the sale and subsequent bankruptcy of hotel chain Extended Stay Inc. _0"> Citigroup Inc ( id="symbol_C.N C.N ), an adviser to the private equity firm that took control of Extended Stay in a 2007 leveraged buyout, agreed to pay $200,000, according to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Thursday. Bank of America Corp ( id="symbol_BAC.N BAC.N ), which advised Blackstone, was also released from the lawsuits as part of the settlement.   _1"> The lawsuits stemmed from the 2009 bankruptcy of Extended Stay Inc, which creditors blamed on a leveraged buyout of the chain two years earlier. _2"> In 2007, Blackstone sold the chain of about 680 hotels for $8 billion to a little-known private equity investor, David Lichtenstein. The settlement excluded Lichtenstein. After Extended Stay filed

Ben Bernanke, the central bank chief whose massive stimulus program drove bond yields to historical lows and minted a mountain of profit for fixed-income funds along the way, is now the arch nemesis of bond mavens. It doesn't matter whether it's a "govvies" guy focused on Treasury debt or a junk bond junkie devoted to high-yield corporate bonds. The losses inflicted across all fixed-income assets since Bernanke signaled on May 22 that the Fed could soon dial back its $85 billion a month in bond purchases have been deep: $406 billion of cumulative losses, according to Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Fixed Income Indexes data. "It has been a tough month after a rough May for a lot of investors, but mostly for the bond crowd," said John Brynjolfsson, chief investment officer of hedge fund Armored Wolf. The downward spiral accelerated on Wednesday when Bernanke said the Fed now views the U.S. economy as strong enough to consider reducing bond purchases by yea

American Express Co ( id="symbol_AXP.N_0"> AXP.N ) named Jeffrey Campbell as its chief financial officer, replacing Daniel Henry, who will retire later this year. _0"> Campbell, 52, was most recently the CFO of healthcare services provider McKesson Corp ( id="symbol_MCK.N MCK.N ).   _1"> He will join American Express next month as executive vice president of finance and will takeover as CFO in early August after the company files its second-quarter results. Campbell, who is an MBA from Harvard University, began his career as a certified public accountant and management consultant. He was also the CFO of American Airlines parent AMR Corp ( id="symbol_AAMRQ.PK_2"> AAMRQ.PK ), prior to joining McKesson. Henry, 63, has been with American Express for 23 years and has served as CFO since 2007. The credit card company said last month Henry was retiring. American Express launched a restructuring program in January that includes cutting abo

American Express Co ( id="symbol_AXP.N_0"> AXP.N ) named Jeffrey Campbell as its chief financial officer, replacing Daniel Henry, who will retire later this year. _0"> Campbell, 52, was most recently the CFO of healthcare services provider McKesson Corp ( id="symbol_MCK.N MCK.N ).   _1"> He will join American Express next month as executive vice president of finance and will takeover as CFO in early August after the company files its second-quarter results. Campbell, who is an MBA from Harvard University, began his career as a certified public accountant and management consultant. He was also the CFO of American Airlines parent AMR Corp ( id="symbol_AAMRQ.PK_2"> AAMRQ.PK ), prior to joining McKesson. Henry, 63, has been with American Express for 23 years and has served as CFO since 2007. The credit card company said last month Henry was retiring. American Express launched a restructuring program in January that includes cutting abo

A company owned by Ronald Perelman has agreed to pay $720,000 to settle U.S. Department of Justice charges over a stock purchase, the second time this month that the billionaire financier agreed to penalties to resolve civil charges by the federal government. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings agreed to make the payment to end an antitrust case over its failure to report its June 2012 purchase of more shares in Scientific Games Corp ( id="symbol_SGMS.O_0"> SGMS.O ), which provides lottery and gaming services, despite passing an ownership threshold requiring such reporting, the Justice Department said.   The accord follows an unrelated June 13 settlement in which Revlon Inc ( id="symbol_REV.N_1"> REV.N ) agreed to pay $850,000 to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it deceived shareholders and independent directors about a failed 2009 transaction with Perelman to take the cosmetics company private. MacAndrews & Forbes owns more tha

Japanese trading houses Itochu Corp ( id="symbol_8001.T_0"> 8001.T ) and Mitsui & Co Ltd ( id="symbol_8031.T 8031.T ) will invest a combined $1.5 billion in BHP Billiton's ( id="symbol_BHP.AX BHP.AX ) Jimblebar iron ore mining hub in Australia , the world's largest miner said on Thursday. _0"> Itochu and Mitsui will invest approximately $800 million and $700 million respectively in shares and loans, representing an 8 percent and a 7 percent interest in the mining hub and resource. The consideration includes a share of costs already incurred by the Jimblebar expansion project. _1"> Itochu and Mitsui, already longstanding BHP partners, hold a combined 15 percent interest in BHP's current Western Australia Iron Ore mine, rail and port infrastructure. _2"> The new Jimblebar mine will have initial production capacity of 35 million metric tonnes per annum and could expand.   (Reporting by Clara Ferreira-Marques; editing by

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering bids from retirement plan managers to run its $15.6 billion 401(k) program, which has been administered by Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit for 15 years, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer is talking to Wells Fargo & Co's retirement division about managing the program, the largest U.S. private sector plan, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media. Bank of America is also in the running, they said. It was unclear if other plan providers were also being considered. Wells Fargo, the No. 4 U.S. bank by assets; Bank of America, the No. 2 U.S. bank; and Wal-Mart declined to comment.   While Wal-Mart accounts are much smaller than the average retirement account, the sheer size of the company makes it a coveted - and closely watched - client in the retirement industry. It could not be learned when Wal-Mart last conduc

The European Union will seek on Friday to forge rules to force losses on large savers when banks fail, a sensitive reform that could shape how the euro zone deals with its sickly banks. Finance ministers in Luxembourg will try to resolve one of the most difficult questions posed by Europe's banking crisis - how to shut failed banks without sowing panic or burdening taxpayers. "The costs of future restructurings can't be wished away," said a senior EU official involved in the talks. "We need a mechanism to shift the burden away from taxpayers." The European Union spent the equivalent of a third of its economic output on saving its banks between 2008 and 2011, plundering taxpayer cash but struggling to contain the crisis and in the case of Ireland , almost bankrupting the country. But France and Germany are divided over how strict the new rules should be, with Paris worried that imposing losses on depositors could prompt a bank run.   A draft EU law t

Sprint Nextel Corp raised its buyout offer for Clearwire Corp to $5 per share on Thursday and announced support from a key group of dissident shareholders, likely ending a bitter battle with rival suitor Dish Network Corp. Sprint, currently Clearwire's majority shareholder, has been fighting publicly with Dish over Clearwire since January as both companies want Clearwire's vast trove of valuable wireless airwaves to help them compete in wireless services.   Clearwire put its support behind the latest offer, representing the second major blow in a matter of days against Dish Chairman and founder Charlie Ergen, who wants to expand his satellite TV company into the wireless market. Earlier this week Ergen had to back out, at least for now, from a battle with Japan's SoftBank Corp to buy Sprint itself. Dish declined comment on the new Clearwire offer. Several analysts said they now expect Sprint to prevail. "We believe Clearwire shareholders will approve the $5 off

U.S. efforts to forge a "21st Century" trade agreement with Vietnam and 10 other countries in the Asia Pacific region are running into problems mired in the past, including a textile trade policy that U.S. industry does not want to give up. The United States hopes to finish talks on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact by the end of the year, but Vietnam says the sides are nowhere close on its biggest priority: market access for its clothing and footwear exports.   The latest U.S. offer "is really, really difficult for us to accept," Nguyen Vu Tung, deputy chief of mission at Vietnam's embassy in Washington, said on Wednesday during a panel discussion at The Wilson Center, a foreign policy think tank. Unless the two sides can reach a breakthrough, "I'm really concerned about the prospect of Vietnam to conclude the successful negotiation of TPP," Tung said. The problem is rooted in decades of tariff protection for the U.S. textile

Oracle Corp missed expectations for software sales and subscriptions for the second straight quarter, sending its shares plunging as investors worried CEO Larry Ellison may have trouble getting the technology giant back on track. On Thursday, Oracle executives forecast that new software sales and subscriptions will rise 0 percent to 8 percent this quarter and blamed weakness in the past quarter on disappointing sales in Asia and Latin America. Oracle, which is trying to fend off Salesforce.com and other increasingly aggressive rivals focused on providing software over the cloud or Internet, plans to move its stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange in July from the Nasdaq , a major win for the older bourse. Executives said the move was in shareholders' best interests, without elaborating. Oracle also said it would double its quarterly dividend to 12 cents a share. "Organic growth is slowing and the company has a lot of pressures it has to deal with. They're late

Rockwood Holdings Inc ( id="symbol_ROC.N_0"> ROC.N ) has canceled a combined auction of its titanium dioxide and performance additives units after failing to attract the offers it was hoping for, four people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. _0"> The Princeton, New Jersey-based chemicals maker was in talks with private equity firms to sell the assets for between $1.5 billion and $2 billion but ended the process after it became apparent that such offers were not attainable, the people said.   Spinning off the assets instead is now an option that Rockwood is considering, one of the people said. All the people asked not to be identified because the talks were confidential. Rockwood declined to comment. The canceled sale process comes less than a week after Rockwood agreed to sell one of its other businesses, industrial ceramics developer CeramTec, to European private equity firm Cinven Ltd for 1.49 billion euros ($1.98 billion). (Reporting by Greg Roume

Stocks fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, extending the previous day's sharp decline as investors fretted over the Federal Reserve's plan to begin reducing its stimulus later this year if the economy strengthens. The S&P 500 recorded its biggest daily decline since November 11, 2011, on the year's heaviest day of trading. All 10 S&P sectors were sharply lower, with 94 percent of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange down for the day and more than four-fifths of Nasdaq -listed shares ending lower.   The Dow Jones industrial average dived 353.87 points, or 2.34 percent, at 14,758.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 40.74 points, or 2.50 percent, at 1,588.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 78.57 points, or 2.28 percent, at 3,364.64. The Fed's program of bond-buying has fueled stock market gains this year, sending indexes to a series of all-time highs. A trend emerged of investors buying on market dips and limiting stocks' de

Housing starts rose less than expected in May, likely reflecting labor and material constraints, but the overall trend remained consistent with strength in the housing market. _0"> Though permits for future home construction fell, that followed a surge in April, which hoisted them above the 1 million-unit mark. The pullback last month reflected a drop in the volatile multi-family sector, but permits for single-family construction touched their highest level in five years. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday housing starts rose 6.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914,000 units. April's starts were revised up to show a 856,000-unit pace instead of the previously reported 853,000 units. Economists polled by Reuters had expected groundbreaking to rise to a 950,000-unit rate last month.   Builders, who are ramping up construction to meet demand for housing against the backdrop very low inventory, have been complaining about labor shortages and increased

Philadelphia-based brokerage Janney Montgomery Scott LLC has hired a team of veteran advisers from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management to join its private client group in Maryland, Janney said on Tuesday. _0"> Advisers Alfred DeRenzis and Scott Ford joined Janney in late May from Morgan Stanley, where they managed $159 million in client assets and had annual revenue production of more than $1.2 million. DeRenzis, who has worked in the advising industry for 32 years, joined Janney as a senior vice president. Ford, a 26-year industry veteran, joined Janney as a first vice president. They were joined by registered private client assistant Karen Seipp, also from Morgan Stanley.   The team joined Janney's new Westminster, Maryland, office, a satellite of the Baltimore branch. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, formed in the merger of Morgan Stanley's wealth unit and Citigroup's Smith Barney, is the largest U.S. brokerage by client assets and adviser headcount. Morgan

Hedge funds, once seen as a quick route to riches for managers and investors alike, are trying to reinvent themselves as more socially conscious and make money all the same. After an extended run of poor returns, executives at a slimmed-down annual industry conference in Monaco on Tuesday were as likely to be found talking about charitable giving as top trading ideas. Managers have latched onto the idea that social responsibility and making money could go hand in hand.   "I think impact investing is the new buzzword," said Jeroen Tielman, CEO of hedge fund investor IMQubator. "It's after things like the Bangladesh factory disaster. Investors are starting to think and are realizing they can make a difference." This year's mood marked a dramatic change from the 2008 conference, when the industry was at the height of its powers and superstar of the moment John Paulson - fresh from earning $3.7 billion personally from betting on the subprime meltdown - pred

Investors accustomed to late market volatility at the end of the quarter should expect an extra jolt on June 28, when billions of dollars in stock trades will be executed in less than two seconds. That is the day Russell Investments sets the final update for the annual reconstitution of its indexes after the close of trading. This rebalancing creates a surge of liquidity as investors readjust portfolios and try to take advantage of dislocations in stock prices.   "If you are looking to significantly alter your basket or portfolio, or liquidate or try to buy on the dip... this is a good place to go to do that because there is going to be more volume in the last few minutes of trading on the day of the Russell then there might be over the course of a whole day on another day," said Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York This year's changes do not contain an addition as dramatic as the inclusion of Berkshire Hathaway was, but there are a

The number of millionaires in the world jumped 9.2 percent to 12 million last year, in part because of simultaneous strength in the stock, bond and real estate markets, according to a study of the high-net-worth population. The survey, released Tuesday by RBC Wealth Management and Capgemini Financial Services, tracked high-net-worth people, whom it defined as those with more than $1 million that they can invest. North America was home to the highest number of millionaires - 3.7 million. But the study projected that the Asia-Pacific region, which held the top spot in 2011, would reclaim it. Part of the strength in North America came from rising equities markets - the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index gained 13 percent in 2012. North American investors put 37 percent of their money into stocks, a higher proportion than people in the Asia-Pacific region, where investors tend to be more conservative, the study said.   The amount of wealth held by the world's richest peopl

Inflation showed signs of stabilizing in May after a long decline, a potential comfort to Federal Reserve policymakers who want to avoid any chance of a debilitating bout of deflation. The Labor Department said on Tuesday the consumer price index edged 0.1 percent higher last month after two straight months of declines, while the so-called core index, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.2 percent, just above the pace clocked in April.   The core index, which the U.S. central bank monitors closely because it is less volatile and provides a better sense of price trends, was up 1.7 percent in the 12 months through May. The increase matched the gain in April and suggested that a worrisome downward trend in core inflation, which began a year ago, might be coming to an end as consumer demand strengthens. That would be a relief to Fed officials who worry that a big drop in inflation could lead to a spiral of falling prices and wages. Removing this risk could make the Fed more c

New York state lawmakers on Tuesday announced plans to create a financial restructuring board and binding arbitration process to help struggling municipalities manage their finances. _0"> The legislation, which will be taken up by the state legislature soon, is designed to shore up fiscally distressed communities with shrinking tax bases and high expenses. "Localities across the state are facing a growing financial crisis of soaring retirement costs while their populations stagnate and property values drop," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announcing the deal with the majority leaders in both houses of the state legislature. "The only options for struggling municipalities cannot be bankruptcy or being subject to a financial control board."   The governor did not indicate which cities and towns would likely take part in the new program. The board would be charged with making recommendations on improving fiscal stability, management and the delivery

A New York City real estate company offered to buy the Empire State Building for $2 billion, a written offer showed, significantly below the skyscraper's appraisal price and about three weeks after investors in the iconic building approved a plan to take the tower public in a real-estate investment trust. _0"> On Tuesday, Cammeby's International Group, a privately held company headed by real-estate mogul Rubin Schron, offered to buy the building for cash from the Malkin family which controls the Empire State Building and allow the current investors to remain stakeholders if they chose. Schron was not available for comment late Tuesday.   The Malkin family's law firm has received the offer but a representative had no comment when contacted by Reuters. Both the Malkins and the Helmsely Trust, which majority-owns a sublease, would have to approve the proposed deal. It also would have to be endorsed by the other investors. The offer, described as "out-of-left

Rhode Island remains on track to make a $2.5 million interest payment next year on bonds that were used to finance the facilities of 38 Studios, a now-bankrupt videogame company founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. _0"> The state's House Finance Committee approved a budget late Tuesday night that included making an interest payment next May on $75 million of taxable bonds that the state sold in 2010 to make a loan to the company and lure it to Rhode Island.   The company's loan payments were originally supposed to secure the bonds. Now the state could wind up paying $89 million for them, according to its director of administration, Richard Licht. Recently, some lawmakers had suggested the state walk away from the debt as it confronts a budget gap of $30 million for the fiscal year starting July 1, raising concerns about Rhode Island's credit rating and also about the willingness of issuers in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market to honor

Shares of U.S. hospital operators have been on a tear this year, on average posting triple the gains of the broader stock market, as investors tallied up the benefits of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform. While some on Wall Street have held back amid signs of trouble as U.S. states prepare to implement the reform law, long-term investors still see more reward than risk on the horizon for hospital stocks.   They expect company earnings to strengthen as more Americans gain insurance coverage and hospitals lose less money treating the uninsured. The reform law has spurred consolidation among hospitals, and further merger activity could lift valuations. "We believe there is still a significant amount of upside in the stocks, particularly if you believe these companies have the ability to sustain their earnings growth through acquisitions," said Jessica Bemer, analyst with Snow Capital Management. Snow Capital identified the potential in hospital shares early on