(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government should set up a body to buy homes to help Britons reduce their debts and increase spending, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc economist Richard Barwell.

Computer towers once used by 38 Studios employees are lined up in neat rows, tagged and ready for sale. A hand-recognition security system and sleek touch-screen tablets are on the block, too, poignant reminders of the high-tech ambitions the company once fostered. A pool table where employees might have idled away time while brainstorming ideas can be had for a price, not to mention Xbox 360 and Wii consoles and shelves of video games.

Americans snapped up goods from cars to iPhones in September at a faster pace than forecast by economists, showing consumer demand was heading into the year-end holidays on a high note.

Real estate investment trusts that buy mortgage debt slumped the most in a year, continuing a decline that started last month after the Federal Reserve announced it would expand its buying of home loan securities.

STOCKHOLM (AP) _ Two American scholars won the Nobel economics prize Monday for work on match-making -- how to pair doctors with hospitals, students with schools, kidneys with transplant recipients and even men with women in marriage.

A late-day surge left oil prices virtually unchanged Monday, erasing losses of more than two percent.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Softbank Corp. agreed to pay $20.1 billion to acquire about a 70 percent stake in Sprint Nextel Corp. as Japan’s third-biggest mobile-phone operator seeks growth overseas amid a declining local market.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has narrowed the race against President Barack Obama by showing assertiveness on national security and taxes. Now those positions may be working against him.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A 14-year-old activist who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen was flown to the U.K. for more medical treatment today after doctors in Pakistan concluded she was stable enough to travel.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in the U.S. rose more than projected in September, reflecting broad-based gains that indicate household spending helped bolster economic growth last quarter.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among European chief executive officers is declining to the lowest level since the financial crisis, based on share repurchases falling to a three- year low and the disappearance of mergers and acquisitions.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said the central bank won’t cut back record monetary stimulus too quickly when the economy begins to gain strength.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Indian inflation accelerated to a 10-month high in September after an increase in diesel prices, limiting room for an interest-rate cut to revive the economy.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold fell to the lowest level in more than two weeks in New York as commodities fell and the dollar held steady. Silver declined to a one-month low.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Coutts & Co., the wealth management unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, is advising clients to shift from bonds into equities amid tumbling yields.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Oil traded close to a four-day low in New York amid concern that the global economy is weakening, threatening to curb demand for fuels.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Copper erased declines in New York as buyers in Europe took advantage of lower prices.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Analysts covering Brazil’s economy lowered their estimate for economic growth this year for the first time in four weeks, after the central bank cut rates last week to spur recovery from a yearlong slowdown.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Options traders are lining up behind the most-accurate foreign-exchange strategists and betting the dollar will break with history, emerging unscathed from the Federal Reserve’s latest cash-printing stimulus efforts.

U.S. authorities believe that Iranian-based hackers were responsible for cyberattacks that devastated Persian Gulf oil and gas companies, a former U.S. government official said. Just hours later, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the cyberthreat from Iran has grown, and he declared that the Pentagon is prepared to take action if American is threatened by a computer-based assault.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their work on matching supply and demand for everything from single men and women to organ donors and their recipients.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley was accused in a race-bias lawsuit of urging lenders to originate high-risk mortgages that disproportionately targeted black borrowers so that the bank could profit from buying and securitizing the loans.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. appealed a Tokyo ruling that said Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t infringe on the iPhone maker’s patent as the world’s top two smartphone sellers continue their global legal dispute.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is the only U.S. drugmaker among the top 12 to decline in trading this year, and investors and analysts say they don’t expect a comeback in 2012 because of drug pipeline setbacks.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive lawsuits that blamed Citigroup Inc. and McGraw-Hill Cos. for the drop in value of employee retirement plans that invested in company stock.

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Kirin Holdings Co., the biggest Japanese brewer by market value, cut its 2015 sales forecast because of a weaker outlook for its domestic beer operations and slower growth in its Australian subsidiary.

Some of the nation's leading manufacturing companies announced a new program Monday to help veterans gain the skills necessary to fill some of the estimated 600,000 high-tech, manufacturing jobs that remain open because employers can't find qualified applicants.

New research shows Asia's top powers have doubled defense spending in the past decade, spurred by the explosion in military expenditure by China.

Pizza Hut is rethinking its contest daring people to ask “Sausage or Pepperoni?” at the presidential debate Tuesday.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank, wrote off about $635 million in mortgages to comply with tighter guidelines on loans to borrowers who went bankrupt.

French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton saw its revenue increase strongly in the third quarter, driven by its retail operations in developing countries.

A colorful and musical New Orleans neighborhood is marking the 200th anniversary of its origins as an early melting pot for the city and the nation.

The dollar rallied against most major currencies Monday after U.S. retail sales rose last month.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign says it raised $170.4 million in September.

College savings plans offered through the states of Alaska, Maryland, Nevada and Utah earned top marks from Morningstar Inc. in the company's annual update to ratings of so-called 529 plans.

Nearly six in 10 Medicare recipients would pay higher premiums under a hypothetical privatized system along the lines of what Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has proposed, according to a study released Monday.

ICU Medical Inc. said Monday that its net income climbed 32 percent in the third quarter on more sales of infusion therapy and cancer treatment products.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Solyndra LLC, the solar-panel maker that received a $535 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee before going bankrupt, rebuffed objections to its bankruptcy plan from the U.S. government and urged a court to approve the proposal.

WD-40 Co. said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit dropped 11.9 percent because sales in Europe slipped as customers delayed buying its lubricant and cleaning products.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. could face a fresh round of criticism from European watchdogs after a French regulator reports on whether changes to its privacy policy violate data-protection rules.

Chipmaker Microchip Technology Inc. said Monday that its sales for the quarter that ended two weeks ago were below its expectations, due to economic and industry conditions.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is mining her old advertising connections at Google to help her tackle the challenges facing her in her new job.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Russian output at factories, mines and utilities increased less than analysts estimated in September as electricity consumption declined, signaling a slowdown in the wider economy.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Mexichem SAB, the chemical producer that’s made 15 acquisitions since 2007 while keeping debt levels 50 percent lower than its biggest rival, is parlaying record sales into the biggest investment-grade bond returns in Mexico.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bayerische Motoren Werke AG opened its first dealership in Beijing today that is designated for its Mini-brand vehicles as demand for luxury cars in the world’s biggest auto market increases.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank, reported a $468 million profit for the third quarter, beating analysts’ estimates on a $582 million tax benefit and a surge in bond-trading revenue.

Americans stepped up their spending at retail businesses in September, reflecting higher consumer confidence. The increase was driven by another strong month of auto sales and the release of the iPhone5.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries traded in the tightest range in two weeks as the Federal Reserve bought $5 billion of Treasuries maturing from October 2018 and August 2020 in an effort to reduce borrowing costs and counter recession risks.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The yen weakened against most of its major counterparts as a report showed U.S. retail sales rose more than forecast in September, reducing demand for safety.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell for a second day in New York as commodities plunged on concern that the global economy is weakening, reducing demand for raw materials.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- TomTom NV, the company that provides data for Apple Inc.’s maps for the iPhone, rose the most in more than two months in Amsterdam after SNS Securities said the founders could bid for the company, using financing from Apple.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gannett Co., the owner of 82 daily newspapers and 23 television stations, reported a jump in third- quarter profit as a decline in publishing revenue was offset by political and Olympics television ad spending.

Abbott Laboratories says its experimental hepatitis C drug regimen cured 99 percent of patients with the most common and hardest-to-treat type of the disease in a midstage study.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink said the U.S. economy may shrink at the start of 2013 as companies curb hiring ahead of spending cuts and tax increases from the so-called fiscal cliff.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co.’s experimental stomach cancer drug helped patients with advanced disease live longer, a study found. The shares rose.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- An experimental drug combination from Abbott Laboratories wiped out all traces of the virus that causes hepatitis C in 99 percent of patients with the liver disease, a study showed.

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether states can demand proof of citizenship from people registering to vote, taking up an Arizona case with racial overtones and nationwide implications.

Health officials have broadened their warning to doctors about other medicines made by a specialty pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak.

A teenage Pakistani activist shot in the head by the Taliban arrived in Britain on Monday to receive specialized medical care and protection from follow-up attacks threatened by the militants.