Wall Street Week Ahead: Earnings, money flows to push stocks higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power higher, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal. The U.S. equity benchmark closed the week at a fresh five-year high on strong housing and labor market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations. Sector indexes in transportation...

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Jan. 19

NEWS Defying the Algerian Army’s demands to give up, kidnappers still held at least 10 hostages in Algeria. Adam Nossiter reported from Bamako and Rick Gladstone from New YorkHostages who escaped or were freed from the grip of Islamic militants in Algeria described gunshots ringing out during breakfast, followed by foreigners being separated from Algerians at the end of their ordeal. Lydia Polgreen...

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Samsung, Apple seen pulling ahead in smartphone race: poll

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Samsung and Apple pulled ahead in the global smartphone race last quarter, according to forecasts by analysts in a Reuters poll, while Nokia and others are expected to have fallen further behind.Overall shipments of handsets are expected to have risen in the fourth quarter, with most of that growth dominated by Samsung. Analysts forecast the South Korean company shipped 61 million...

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Marla Sokoloff Blogs: Adventures in Baby Traveling

Shady ladies in Hawaii – Courtesy Marla Sokoloff Our celebrity blogger Marla Sokoloff is a new mama!Since audiences first got to know her at age 12 as Gia on Full House, Sokoloff has had many memorable TV roles — Jody on Party of Five, Lucy on The Practice, Claire on Desperate Housewives – as well as turns on the big screen in Whatever It Takes, Dude, Where’s My Car? and Sugar & Spice.Sokoloff,...

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Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer's prevention study

Researchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it.The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients' brains.Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate...

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Housing, job data push S&P to five-year high; Intel down late

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stronger-than-expected data on housing starts and jobless claims lit a fire under stocks on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500 to a five-year high and its third day of gains. A pair of economic reports lifted investors' sentiment. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-year low last week and housing starts jumped last month...

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David Cameron Delays Talk on New Role in Europe

LONDON — The stage for the one-man show was set, the drama widely anticipated and the critics assembled. But the star dropped out at the last moment, saying he would reschedule when he could. So it was on Thursday when Prime Minister David Cameron canceled a long-anticipated, much-delayed speech in Amsterdam on Britain’s future in Europe. Mr. Cameron cited the need to stay in London to be...

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Inspiring Singers Outshine American Idol's Feuding Judges

TV Watch American Idol By Steve Helling 01/17/2013 at 11:00 PM EST From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban George Holz/FOX The second episode of American Idol delivered more drama, but a handful of singers managed to eclipse...

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Will Obama's order lead to surge in gun research?

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Nearly as many Americans die from guns as from car crashes each year. We know plenty about the second problem and far less about the first. A scarcity of research on how to prevent gun violence has left policymakers shooting in the dark as they craft gun control measures without much evidence of what works.That could change with President Barack Obama's order Wednesday to ease research...

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Asian shares retreat on caution ahead of Chinese data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Thursday, erasing earlier gains amid worries about the global growth outlook as investors remained cautious ahead of Chinese data on Friday. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.2 percent, extending declines for a third consecutive session, led by a slump in Chinese shares. The index's financial...

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Jan. 17

NEWS The U.S. State Department said Americans were among hostages captured by Islamist extremists in Algeria on Wednesday, in what the attackers called retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali. Adam Nossiter and Scott Sayare report.Nearly half of Germany’s gold reserves are held in a vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — billions of dollars worth of postwar geopolitical history squirreled...

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Mysterious Samsung smartphone pictured with Verizon branding

Earlier this week, a mysterious Samsung (005930) smartphone appeared on GLBenchmark’s database with the model number SCH-I425. The number fell in line with previous Verizon (VZ) devices, leading us to speculate that it could be the Stratosphere III. New images posted by Engadget on Wednesday confirmed that the handset is real, however it does not feature earlier Stratosphere devices’ signature QWERTY...

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American Idol's New Judges Make Their Debut

TV Watch American Idol 01/16/2013 at 11:00 PM EST From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban Michael Becker/FOX. American Idol is back! Season 12 premiered Wednesday night with the first auditions in New York City. And fans...

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Asian shares fall on growth caution, Nikkei hit as yen gains

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Wednesday as cautious investors waited for crucial economic data from China later this week, while the yen's extended gains spurred profit taking in Japanese equities after their recent rally. Japan's benchmark Nikkei average <.n225> shed 2.6 percent for its largest daily decline in eight months, sharply reversing Tuesday's rally that lifted...

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Bomb Strikes Disputed Iraqi City of Kirkuk

BAGHDAD (AP) — A powerful suicide car bomb struck the local headquarters for the party of a key Kurdish leader early Wednesday in the disputed Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least four and wounding dozens, according to officials. The blast outside the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party caused widespread damage, mangling cars and tearing apart storefronts. The KDP is led by Massoud...

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Apple scoops PBS on “Downton Abbey” episodes, but PBS is cool with it

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Apple is making the entire third season of “Downton Abbey” available on iTunes before every episode airs on PBS – and that’s just fine with PBS.Fans who buy a season pass on iTunes beginning January 29 will get to see three episodes before they air on PBS. The Season 3 finale airs February 17.But PBS CEO Paula Kerger isn’t worried that viewers will watch the show online, then...

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It's a Boy for Elton John

Mom & Babies Celebrity Baby Blog 01/15/2013 at 10:00 PM ET George Pimentel/WireImageElton John is a father again!The musician and David Furnish welcomed their second child, son Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, via surrogate on Friday, Jan. 11 in Los Angeles, the couple confirm to HELLO.Born at...

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Risk to all ages: 100 kids die of flu each year

NEW YORK (AP) — How bad is this flu season, exactly? Look to the children.Twenty flu-related deaths have been reported in kids so far this winter, one of the worst tolls this early in the year since the government started keeping track in 2004.But while such a tally is tragic, that does not mean this year will turn out to be unusually bad. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, and it's...

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Apple drags on S&P, Nasdaq; Dell jumps after report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended lower on Monday as worries over demand for Apple products drove down its shares and investors braced for earnings disappointments. Running counter to that was Dell Inc's stock which jumped 13 percent to about a five-month high at $12.29 after Bloomberg reported the No. 3 personal computer maker is in talks with private equity firms...

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Jan. 15

NEWS Despite intensive airstrikes by French warplanes, Islamist fighters overran a strategic village and military post in central Mali on Monday, indicating that the war against extremists who have carved out a jihadist state in the nation’s north could be a long and difficult one. Steven Erlanger, Alan Cowell and Adam Nossiter report.President Barack Obama and Republican Congressional leaders dug...

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Can We Trust CNET Again After a Scandal This Shady?

CNET, one of the Internet’s first and most influential authorities on gadgets and tech news, watched its editorial integrity spiral out of control Monday, with staffers quitting and editors left to explain themselves in the wake of explosive new charges over its annual Consumer Electronics Show awards — a scandal, it would appear, that goes all the way to the top of its corporate umbrella, and could...

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Bachelor Sean Lowe: My Girl Must Love Dogs

For any of the 25 women looking to win over this season's Bachelor, Sean Lowe, here's a tip straight from the source: "The girl I'm dating must be into my dogs," he tells PEOPLE. The proud pet parent to two pooches, a boxer named Lola and a chocolate Labrador named Ellie, Lowe says, "For so long it's just been me and my two dogs, and I'm certainly not going to replace them with any woman." Having...

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Hospitals crack down on workers refusing flu shots

CHICAGO (AP) — Patients can refuse a flu shot. Should doctors and nurses have that right, too? That is the thorny question surfacing as U.S. hospitals increasingly crack down on employees who won't get flu shots, with some workers losing their jobs over their refusal."Where does it say that I am no longer a patient if I'm a nurse," wondered Carrie Calhoun, a longtime critical care nurse in suburban...

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