Wall Street retreats, Nasdaq and S&P 500 off 1 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks declined on Monday after a disappointing report on factory orders, retreating from gains in the prior session that left the S&P 500 at a five-year high and the Dow above 14,000. Investors also grew wary on political uncertainty in the euro zone, leading to a sharp rise in Spanish government bond yields. Chevron and Wal-Mart were among the biggest...

Read More..

Indiana moves back into No. 1 in AP poll

For the fifth straight week there is a new No. 1 in The Associated Press' college basketball poll. This time it's Indiana.The Hoosiers, the preseason No. 1 who held the top spot for the first five weeks of the regular season, moved up two spots Monday, following their weekend win over No. 1 Michigan and No. 2 Kansas' loss to Oklahoma State.Duke started the current streak of new No. 1s and was followed...

Read More..

Hot, dry weather returns to threaten Ivory Coast cocoa

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Dry, hot weather returned to top grower Ivory Coast‘s main cocoa regions last week, raising concerns over output and bean quality as the October to March main crop harvest wound down, farmers and analysts said on Monday.Aside from a spate of showers in late January, there has been no measurable rainfall across most of the West African nation’s cocoa belt since the onset of the...

Read More..

$5 million bail in 'exceptionally brutal' Aurora murder

An Aurora man was ordered held on $5 million bail today for allegedly beating a young woman to death with a hammer and then...

Read More..

Syrian opposition chief says offers Assad peaceful exit

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib urged President Bashar al-Assad on Monday to respond to his initiative for dialogue, saying it was aimed at ending the bloodshed and helping "the regime leave peacefully". Speaking after meeting senior Russian, U.S. and Iranian officials at the weekend, Alkahtib said none of them had a plan to end the civil war and Syrians must...

Read More..

"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights. That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January. Late-stage bull markets...

Read More..

What comes now for NFL after tumultuous season?

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Super Bowl closes a tumultuous year for the NFL.Suicides by former NFL players. Thousands of others filing concussion lawsuits. New studies linking football to brain disease. Still no testing for human growth hormone. The specter of other purported performance-enhancing products — deer-antler spray, anyone? — being peddled to players.A pay-for-pain bounty scandal. A lockout...

Read More..

Exxon’s 2012 profit of $44.9B just misses record

Exxon Mobil Corp. nearly set a record for annual profit. The oil giant reported Friday that 2012 net income was $ 44.88 billion, just $ 340 million — less than 1 percent — short of the company’s record set in 2008, when crude oil prices hit an all-time high. Exxon‘s profit for the last 10 years totals $ 343.4 billion.— $ 44.88 billion in 2012— $ 41.06 billion in 2011— $ 30.46 billion in 2010— $ 19.28...

Read More..

Hillary: Secretary of empowerment

Girls hug U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2010 tour of a shelter run for sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.STORY HIGHLIGHTSDonna Brazile: Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. Maybe she'll run for presidentShe says as secretary she expanded foreign policy to include effect on regular people She says she was first secretary of state to focus on empowering women and girlsBrazile:...

Read More..

Syrian opposition chief under fire for talks with Assad allies

MUNICH (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to skeptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran, in hope of a breakthrough in the crisis. The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's...

Read More..