Glenn Bridges can tell that the market for home remodeling is picking up -- when he's hanging cabinets or laying a floor in a customer's house, a next-door neighbor is bound to knock on the door and ask if he's available for another project.

U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a third day, as better-than-forecast growth in American employment and service industries offset concern about China’s economy.

T-Mobile and MetroPCS have agreed to combine their struggling cellphone businesses in a deal aimed at letting them compete better with their three larger rivals.

Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman forecast 2013 profit that missed estimates and said a turnaround at the computer maker won’t happen any time soon, sending shares to lowest closing price in a decade.

Service industries expanded in September by the most in six months, underpinning an economy that lost momentum in the first half of the year.

A pair of encouraging economic reports helped nudge the stock market higher Wednesday. Measures of business activity in the service sector and job growth last month came in better than economists had expected.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Erroneous trades that sent Kraft Foods Group Inc. up as much as 29 percent in the first minute of trading were canceled by exchanges, the latest incident to fuel scrutiny of the electronic infrastructure of U.S. markets.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell to a two-month low in New York after the government reported that U.S. crude production climbed to the highest level in more than 15 years and fuel consumption decreased.

Coming off the biggest quarterly loss in Hewlett-Packard's history, CEO Meg Whitman braced investors for even more trouble ahead as she methodically tries to fix a wide range of longstanding problems. Those challenges will be compounded by a feeble economy that Whitman expects to weaken even more during the next year.

Mortgage prepayment rates have soared to the highest in seven years as homeowners take advantage of the lowest borrowing costs on record to refinance.

Mortgage applications in the United States climbed last week to the highest level in more than three years as borrowing costs dropped to a record low.

Markets remained subdued Wednesday despite some moderately encouraging U.S. jobs figures as investors awaited a key government report later in the week and more clarity over Spain's request for a bailout.

Much is said of the gaffes, zingers and awkward gestures that have lurked in presidential debates. But only a handful of significant missteps have occurred in over half a century of television-era debates.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell to its lowest in four days after U.S. crude stockpiles climbed for a fourth week and a measure of China’s economy declined, signaling fuel demand may be faltering in the world’s biggest users of the commodity.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures rose, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s first back-to-back gains in two weeks, as a private report showed companies added more workers to payrolls in September than economists forecast.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Companies added more workers than projected in September, evidence the labor market may be perking up, a private report based on payrolls showed.

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney come face to face for the first time in this presidential campaign Wednesday night for a nationally televised debate that will give millions of Americans a chance to size up two fierce competitors in a moment of high-risk theater.

NEW YORK (AP) _ Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Sanofi SA are restructuring their longtime partnership selling popular heart medications that now have widespread competition from generic versions -- and plunging sales.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. oil production rose last week to the highest level since December 1996, reducing the country’s dependence on imports as new technology unlocks crude trapped in shale formations.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Labor unrest appears to be on the rise in China. Last month, as many as 2,000 workers skirmished with hundreds of police and security guards on the campus of the Taiwanese company Foxconn Technology Group. This 21st-century version of a company town within the industrial city of Taiyuan houses 79,000 workers who live in company-owned dorms, eat in company-owned cafeterias and put in long days on assembly lines.

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- On a tree beside a crumbling road in Myanmar’s biggest industrial estate, Thein Oo hangs plastic sheets, part of the trash he collects and sells for recycling to support his wife and five children.

Biopharmaceutical drugmakers have made up for a sluggish start to 2012 - despite turbulence in the global capital markets - to perform well in the 3Q, according to an analysis of financings and stock values by BioWorld.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Municipal bankruptcies in California, where three cities have filed for protection from creditors since June, are a spreading “disease” in the state, said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors.

Luxfer Holdings PLC's U.S. shares jumped in their first hours of trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Boeing Co. and the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric Co. have agreed on a firm order for 85 737s. The planes are worth $6 billion at list prices, although discounts for major customers are common.

Dozens of weight loss and immune system supplements on the market are illegally labeled and lack the recommended type of scientific evidence to back up their purported health claims, government investigators warn in a new review of the $20 billion supplement industry.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Netflix Inc. rose the most in almost three months after a Citigroup Inc. analyst said the video- subscription service has improved its customer satisfaction.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s rivals may face government lawsuits claiming tens of billions of dollars in damages tied to investor losses on mortgage bonds after New York’s attorney general filed a fraud lawsuit against the nation’s biggest bank by assets.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison envisions his recently acquired Hawaiian island becoming a “little laboratory” for experimenting with more environmentally sound ways to live.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Barry Sternlicht, the Starwood Capital Group LLC founder who got his start buying distressed apartments in the early 1990s during the savings-and-loan crisis, is hedging his bets on apartments as a recovering homebuying market limits rent and occupancy growth.

Greece's finance minister said Wednesday he hopes an elusive deal in crucial austerity talks with the country's bailout creditors can be struck by next week, despite considerable disagreements over where cutbacks will be made.

No Doubt has settled its lawsuit against gaming giant Activision over the use of the band's likenesses in the videogame “Band Hero.”

“It is an important piece in Wright’s career,” Halstead said, noting the spiral ramp in the home -- a similar theme to Wright’s design for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York -- and his attempts to make the house fit into its Southwestern desert surroundings. “It is very unique and it is critical that this building be preserved.”

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries erased gains after a private report showed U.S. employers added more jobs in September than economists forecast, suggesting progress in the labor market.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s billion-dollar trial victory in August was tainted by the jury foreman’s failure to disclose a lawsuit and his personal bankruptcy, Samsung Electronics Co. said in a request for dismissal of the verdict.

Primedia Inc. is asking a Delaware judge to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit challenging the acquisition of the Georgia-based house and apartment search guide publisher by private investment firm TPG Capital for $316 million.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, forecast fiscal 2013 earnings will rise as much as 17 percent on sales of the newest genetically engineered corn and soybean seeds in the U.S. and Latin America.

Marriott says it turned a bigger-than-expected profit in the third quarter on higher prices and strong occupancy rates.

Shares of Embraer SA lost 4 percent Wednesday after an analyst downgraded the Brazilian plane maker's stock citing weak demand for regional and business jets.

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Crown Castle International Corp. said Wednesday that it is launching an offering of $1.65 billion of senior notes, which are due in 2023.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar rose against most major peers as data showed euro-area services and manufacturing output contracted in September and China’s services industry expanded the least in more than a year, boosting demand for the greenback as a haven.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. stocks were little changed as investors awaited reports on hiring by companies and on the services industry in the world’s biggest economy.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble weakened for a second day as crude oil, Russia’s main export earner, slid on concern demand is flagging.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Poland’s central bank unexpectedly left borrowing costs unchanged, rejecting calls to undo the European Union’s only interest-rate increase this year even after the economy expanded at the slowest pace since 2009.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index, Asia’s cheapest benchmark gauge, rose to a record after banks and oil companies reported an increase in profits and the government amended a tax on shares.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell in New York on concern Europe’s lingering sovereign-debt crisis threatens growth and demand for metals.

Nokia Corp. says it plans to sell its headquarters in Finland as part of a cost-cutting program.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s gold-mining industry is “shackled” by poor regulation, limiting its development, according to Polymetal International Plc Chief Executive Officer Vitaly Nesis.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. says planned maintenance at its Horizon upgrader will begin Oct. 11.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Gold was seen climbing in New York on speculation central banks’ moves to bolster economic growth will spur demand for the metal as a protection of wealth.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans tumbled to the lowest in almost three months as an early U.S. harvest and improving weather conditions in South America, the largest growing region, eased supply concerns.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- A gauge of U.S. corporate credit risk fell to the lowest in more than a week as Italian bonds rose and Portugal completed a debt exchange.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Bovespa-index futures advanced, a sign Brazil’s benchmark equity gauge may rebound from yesterday’s drop, as a report showing euro-area services and manufacturing output contracted less than forecast eased concern about the region’s economic outlook.

A private survey shows that U.S. businesses hired fewer workers in September than August, a sign that slow growth may be holding back hiring.

Campaign cash from outside political groups is flooding into conservative states with close Senate races like Indiana, Arizona and Montana, where residents are more accustomed to local news promos between football games than the relentless, often snarky attack ads.

Shares of Javelin Mortgage Investment Corp. fell slightly in their Wednesday debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Portugal is tightening its belt another notch, with the government announcing steep income tax hikes to reduce the bailed-out country's debt load despite mounting discontent over austerity measures.

Shares of LifeLock fell more than 3 percent in its first day of trading as the online provider of identity theft protection services priced its initial public offering below the anticipated range.

U.S. service companies grew in September at the fastest pace in six months, helped by sharp increases in customer demand.

Federal regulators have charged 14 firms and 17 people with impersonating major companies to trick consumers into thinking their computers were plagued by viruses so they could charge hundreds to fix the problems.

Europe's top banking regulator says that the region's banks have increased their capital reserves by (euro) 205 billion ($265 billion) since December to meet new rules aimed at boosting investor confidence in the ailing sector.

Police threatened merchants who closed their shops in Tehran's main bazaar and launched crackdowns on sidewalk money changers on Wednesday as part of a push to halt the plunge of Iran's currency, which has shed more than a third its value in less than a week.

The White House is again discouraging defense contractors from warning their workers about potential layoffs from across-the-board budget cuts that are set to take place on Jan. 2.