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Stock index futures signal dip in early trade (Reuters) |
 Reuters - Stock index futures pointed to a dip at the open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.06 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.05 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.05 percent at 5:30 a.m. ET.
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Glencore-Xstrata deal meets shareholder opposition (Reuters) |
| Reuters - Two top 10 shareholders in miner Xstrata said on Tuesday they would vote against a takeover by commodities trader Glencore, threatening the industry's biggest deal to create a powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading. |
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Greek leaders face crunch talks as unions strike (Reuters) |
| Reuters - Greek party leaders face crunch talks on Tuesday to secure a new international bailout and avoid a chaotic debt default, caught between EU demands that they accept painful reforms now and a national strike against more austerity. |
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Toyota raises annual profit forecast, eyes recovery (Reuters) |
 Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp raised its full-year profit forecast by more than a third as it cuts costs, trims spending and expects Japanese government schemes to boost sales, though the guidance was still some way below analysts' expectations.
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BP preparing "vigorously" for oil spill lawsuits (Reuters) |
| Reuters - BP said it was preparing "vigorously" for lawsuits related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which are due to start later this month, as it unveiled a rise in fourth-quarter earnings boosted by higher oil prices and one-off gains. |
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With sparse data, focus returns to Europe (Reuters) |
| Reuters - Europe will again be at the center of investors' focus this week as the U.S. earnings season passes the halfway mark and there is little on the economic calendar to give the market direction. |
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Dozens of Washington DC workers probed in benefits fraud (Reuters) |
| Reuters - About 130 Washington DC municipal employees may have scammed the city by collecting jobless benefits while still at work, the District of Columbia said on Monday, in the latest scandal to hit the local government. |
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ArcelorMittal posts $1 billion loss in Q4 (AP) |
| AP - Steel maker ArcelorMittal was cautiously optimistic about its near-term prospects even after it reported a heavy fourth quarter loss generated by a deteriorating European economy and big tax and restructuring charges. |
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Greek party leaders seek deal as bankruptcy looms (AP) |
 AP - Greek party leaders on Tuesday will meet to seek a long-delayed agreement on harsh cutbacks demanded to avoid looming bankruptcy, amid intense pressure from its bailout creditors to reach a deal, a general strike disrupting public services and thousands of protesters taking to the streets of Athens.
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Key states move closer to foreclosure-abuse deal (AP) |
| AP - California and New York, the key holdouts in a long-awaited settlement over foreclosure abuses, moved closer Monday to backing a deal that would force the five largest mortgage lenders to reduce loans for about 1 million households. More than 40 U.S. states have agreed to a nationwide settlement. |
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IMF's Blanchard sees "very large" Greek haircut (Reuters) |
| Reuters - The IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, said on Monday it looks like the 'haircut' on Greek private debt will be "very large" as negotiations between bondholders and the government drag on to cut Greece's debt burden. |
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Euro zone sales tumble at Christmas, no sign of growth (Reuters) |
| Reuters - Retail sales in the euro zone tumbled unexpectedly in December, the biggest drop in the Christmas period in three years, data showed on Friday, with rising joblessness and stubborn inflation undercut signs of a stabilization in Europe's economy. |
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AP Enterprise: Brown bank regulator an insider (AP) |
| AP - Gov. Jerry Brown's appointee to head the department that oversees banking, financial and consumer regulations in California led a trade association that fought against tighter lending restrictions before the subprime mortgage crisis exploded and was an executive with Washington Mutual when the now-failed bank was among the most aggressive marketers of loans to high-risk borrowers. |
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Oil hovers near $97 as traders eye US supplies (AP) |
 AP - Oil prices hovered near $97 a barrel Tuesday in Asia amid trader concern U.S. crude supplies will continue to rise because of weak demand.
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The Worthless Junk the 1 Percent Waste Their Money On (ContributorNetwork) |
| ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | Strictly speaking, the 1 percent -- people whose incomes put them above the other 99 percent of us, starting at about $340,000 a year as of 2009, according to IRS data -- don't actually spend much of their money. |
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Toyota lifts profit forecast as disaster woes fade (AP) |
 AP - Toyota's quarterly profit slid 13.5 percent on production setbacks caused by last year's tsunami disaster and the flooding in Thailand, but Japan's top automaker raised its annual earnings forecast, saying a recovery is on track.
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