General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, reported a third-quarter profit that surpassed analysts’ estimates by more than 50 percent and said it wants to break even in Europe by mid-decade.

Facebook Inc. declined the most in more than five weeks on concern that employees will start selling their shares now that prohibitions on insider sales have ended.

Netflix's slumping stock price and weakening financial performance has finally attracted an opportunistic and sometimes nettlesome investor in Carl Icahn.

Facebook's stock price fell Wednesday, the day employees were eligible to start selling restricted stock in the company.

Employment costs rose at a slower pace in the third quarter compared with the prior three months, indicating workers have limited scope to bargain for higher wages as the economy struggles to pick up.

I’m amazed that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has emphasized the beneficiaries of low interest rates and has never bothered to mention the losers.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, said third-quarter profit quadrupled on reduced disaster claims in the period before Hurricane Sandy lashed the East Coast.

Campbell Soup Co. on Wednesday named its first ever chief marketing officer, as the world's biggest soup maker looks to revitalize its brand and connect with younger consumers.

(Bloomberg) -- Mortgage applications in the United States fell last week for the fourth consecutive time, paced by a decrease in refinancing as interest rates climbed.

(Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc.’s (NYSE: AIG) headquarters building in lower Manhattan suffered heavy flooding from superstorm Sandy, the property’s landlord said.

(Bloomberg) -- Ashford Castle, the hotel that charges the most in Ireland per night, was put up for sale at 25 million euros ($32 million), about half of what Irish developer Gerry Barrett paid for the property at the market’s peak five years ago.

(Bloomberg) -- New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London’s police service, may be sold as part of a plan to reduce costs by 500 million pounds ($803 million), the Metropolitan Police Authority said.

London's police force may move from its headquarters, known as New Scotland Yard, as it faces making budget cuts of more than 500 million pounds ($800 million).

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Oil rose for a second day as refineries resumed operations after Hurricane Sandy dissipated, increasing demand for crude.

Shares of General Motors surged Wednesday after the company announced big job cuts in Europe and reported third-quarter earnings that were far better than Wall Street expected.

As the fiscal cliff, the federal spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect in January, looms ever closer, an informal consensus along the Acela corridor is coalescing around a placeholder deal with details to be filled in over, say, nine months. The deal would come with some backstop enforcement mechanism in case those details never materialize. (Sound familiar?)

Once again, we have suffered through a full month of pink, pink and more pink, all in the name of “breast cancer awareness.” What once was a health-related cause has become the feel-virtuous-and-buy-stuff season wedged between back-to-school and holiday gift giving.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Rosetta Stone Inc., a maker of language-learning software, agreed to drop a lawsuit it brought against Google Inc. for selling its trademarks to other companies for search-engine advertising.

Financial markets were volatile on Wednesday as trading resumed on Wall Street following a two-day suspension due to superstorm Sandy.

Wall Street is back in business.

There's nothing like a natural disaster to test the depth of politicians' preference for small government.

President Barack Obama put campaign battleground travel on hold to tour the ravaged New Jersey coast Wednesday, while down-to-the-wire campaigning resumed in swing state Florida that is critical to Republican Mitt Romney's victory plan.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Business activity in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted in October for a second month, adding to signs manufacturing has retreated from its central role in the economic recovery.

Stock futures rose Wednesday, the first day of trading this week after Hurricane Sandy shut down Wall Street and darkened a broad swath of the East Coast.

Two major airports reopened and the floor of the New York Stock Exchange came back to life Wednesday, while across the river in New Jersey, National Guardsmen rushed to rescue flood victims and fires still raged two days after Superstorm Sandy.

Unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit a record high of 11.6 percent in September, official figures showed Wednesday, a sign the economy is deteriorating as governments struggle to get a grip on their three-year debt crisis.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose for a second day in New York, narrowing the first monthly drop since May, as the dollar weakened and holdings of the metal in exchange-traded products increased to a record.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Gina Rinehart, Asia’s richest woman, lost a bid to have a lawsuit by three of her children over their multibillion-dollar family trust thrown out.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. declined after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook embarked on a sweeping management overhaul at the world’s most valuable company.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co. agreed to buy George Lucas’s Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion, pressing Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger’s $15 billion bet on creative franchises by adding “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”

Drug company GlaxoSmithKline saw its third-quarter fall by nearly a fifth as sales fell in Europe and the United States.

Rowan said Wednesday that its net income dropped 86 percent in the third quarter, dragged down by a higher-than-expected tax expense and other costs.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Hyatt Hotels Corp. fell the most in six months in New York trading after the chain controlled by the Pritzker family reported third-quarter results that missed estimates, hampered by a sluggish Washington market and slower growth in international markets.

Take-Two Interactive blew past Wall Street expectations for the second quarter Wednesday with gamers snapping up popular sequels like “Borderlands 2” and “Grand Theft Auto IV.”

Omnicare Inc., which dispenses drugs for nursing homes and other long-term care centers, saw its third-quarter earnings more than double, as an increase in more profitable generic drugs and some lower costs helped balance prescription declines.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc.’s power to wield customer data should be taken into account by European Union regulators as settlement talks on an antitrust probe reach the final stages, a consumer rights group said.

Quanta Services Inc., which builds and repairs electricity and natural gas transmission systems, said Wednesday its third-quarter earnings nearly doubled as demand increased for its services. The company also raised its earnings and revenue outlook for the year.

Acorda Therapeutics Inc. said Wednesday its net income dropped 49 percent in the third quarter despite greater sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Ampyra as the year-earlier period benefited from a one-time payment.

Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc. said Wednesday its net income rose 17 percent in the third quarter as the welding equipment maker cut its expenses, making up for a decline in sales.

Both the Focus _ with 160-horsepower four cylinder delivering 146 foot-pounds of torque at 4,450 rpm _ and the Golf _ with 170-horsepower five cylinder generating 177 foot-pounds of torque at 4,250 rpm -- provide more power.

Cameron posted a 36 percent spike in profit during the third quarter on booming sales of the drilling equipment it sells, but shares tumbled on lackluster expectations for the rest of the year.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Atlantic superstorm Sandy may cut U.S. economic growth as it keeps millions of employees away from work and shuts businesses from restaurants to refineries in one of the nation’s most populated and productive regions.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- At Gold’s Gym in Riyadh, Majdi Omar is using his childhood inspiration to get Saudis into shape.

Eastman Kodak says its losses widened to $312 million in the third quarter as the photo and printing company struggles to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

The federal government has joined a whistleblower's lawsuit against a major defense contractor in Iraq.

About 3.6 million tax returns from as far back as 1998 were hacked in South Carolina in what experts say is the largest cyber-attack against a state tax agency in the nation.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Banks in the U.S. reported stronger demand for auto loans and commercial and residential mortgages during the third quarter, according to a Federal Reserve survey.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Demand for construction workers and materials is likely to receive a boost as homeowners in coastal areas of New York and New Jersey rebuild after their properties were devastated by flooding and heavy winds.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- A 1959 Ferrari GT racer sold for $3.2 million in London tonight at a classic-car sale that also includes an Aston Martin once owned by Paul McCartney.

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion said Wednesday that its much-delayed new smartphones are now being tested by 50 wireless carriers around the world.

something the Web giant has always done for free.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Hyatt Hotels Corp. fell the most in more than three months in New York trading after the chain controlled by the Pritzker family reported quarterly results that missed estimates, hampered by a sluggish Washington market and slower growth in international markets.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Visa Inc., the world’s biggest payments network, posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as the company reversed $627 million in previously recorded tax reserves.

Visa beat Wall Street's expectations for the latest quarter, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading.

See a hot toy online, but don't like using your credit card on Web purchases? Or prefer cash? Toys R Us is offering customers the option of paying in stores for online orders, its latest effort to beef up services for customers ahead of the busy holiday season.

The Obama administration told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it does not object to reopening a Christian college's challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul.

Here was Chas Kaufmann's life before the Great Recession: $28,000 in restaurant tabs in a year, cruises, house parties with fireworks. His Mr. Gutter business was booming in the Pennsylvania Poconos.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. dollar weakened versus most of its 16 major peers on speculation reports tomorrow will show improvement in Chinese manufacturing, brightening the global economic outlook and damping demand for haven assets.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries fell as the market opened following yesterday’s closure for Atlantic storm Sandy and after a report showed improvement in the U.S. real-estate market.

A day after UBS AG announced it was cutting up to 10,000 jobs by 2015, the Swiss banking giant's chairman Axel Weber warned Wednesday that many of its global rivals may have to follow suit.

A government official says the European Central Bank's offer to buy bonds has lowered Spain's borrowing costs and taken the heat off the country to seek a bailout in the short term.

Vonage Holdings Corp. on Wednesday said that its third-quarter net income fell 18 percent compared to last year, as customers paid less for their Internet calling services.

The German government has revised up its tax income forecast for this year and expects to raise (euro) 29 billion ($37.5 billion) more than in 2011.

Directors of the former Anglo Irish Bank say its failure may cost taxpayers (euro) 25 billion ($32.5 billion), several billion less than previously estimated.

U.S. Treasury officials say they still expect the government will hit the current debt borrowing limit at the end of this year. But they say they can employ “extraordinary” measures that they have used in the past to keep the government functioning until sometime early next year.

Greece's government on Wednesday outlined the new austerity measures it intends to take over the next two years, as it revised its 2013 budget figures which predict the debt load will increase sharply as the recession deepens into a sixth straight year.

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. declined the most in more than five weeks on concern that employees will start selling their shares now that prohibitions on insider sales have ended.

Vice President Joe Biden is calling advertising released by Republican Mitt Romney “an outrageous lie” for asserting that automakers General Motors and Chrysler are adding jobs in China at the expense of workers in Ohio.

Romney also had a Republican governor at his side Wednesday _ ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- as he campaigned across Florida. And he also sought contributions to the Red Cross.