(Business) - NEW YORK - The Galleon Group, caught up in the largest-ever hedge fund insider-trading scandal, is liquidating its funds even as investors enjoy one of the firm's best years.

(Business) - WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - Top earners at financial and auto companies bailed out by the U.S. government will see their pay slashed under an Obama administration plan aimed at addressing public outrage over eye-popping paychecks, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

(Business) - SAN FRANCISCO - EBay Inc forecast results for the current quarter at the low end of Wall Street estimates, disappointing hopes of a substantial turnaround for the holidays and pushing shares down 5 percent.

(Business) - SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp and Google Inc have sealed separate agreements to access real-time content from Web phenomenon Twitter, intensifying their battle for a search market that Google now dominates.

(Business) - NEW YORK - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, hurt by a late sell-off in financial shares after an influential bank analyst recommended selling Wells Fargo shares and a wider-than-expected loss from Boeing disappointed investors.

(Business) - NEW YORK - Morgan Stanley's riskier trading operations have stolen the thunder from its growing brokerage -- at least for now.

(Business) - WASHINGTON - U.S. economic conditions stabilized or improved modestly in most parts of the country, according to a Federal Reserve report on Wednesday that suggested the economy was slowly clawing out of a recession.

(Business) - DETROIT - U.S. auto sales are projected to rise nearly one-fifth to 11.8 million units in 2010, influential industry tracking firm CSM Worldwide said on Wednesday, citing signs that the worst of the economic downturn had passed.

(Business) - CHICAGO - Boeing Co on Wednesday posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss on costs related to its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner program, but the world's second-largest planemaker reaffirmed that the aircraft is on track to fly this year.

(Business) - NEW YORK - Oil jumped more than 3 percent toward $82 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest level in a year, due to a drawdown in U.S. refined oil inventories and as a rise in U.S. equities showed optimism about the economy and a potential rebound in energy demand.

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(Business) - NEW YORK - Some investors defrauded by epic swindler Bernard Madoff on Tuesday added accounting firm KPMG , JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon to a civil lawsuit in a New York court, lawyer Joseph Cotchett said.

(Business) - SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc's quarterly profit more than tripled as cost cuts and asset sales offset revenue declines, and the Internet company said its top advertisers are beginning to spend again.

(Business) - NEW YORK - An obscure hedge fund said it offered to buy $1 billion in debt from CIT Group Inc but declined to identify its source of capital. CIT would not comment on whether it was seriously considering the offer.

(Business) - WASHINGTON - U.S. securities regulators are considering ways to shed light on anonymous trading venues known as dark pools, including treating so called "indications of interest" as regular quotes, a source familiar with the Securities and Exchange Commission's position said on Tuesday.

(Business) - LONDON - Bumper payouts to bankers should be seen as part of a longer term investment in London's economy, the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International told a debate on ethics at St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday.

(Business) - NEW YORK - California's attorney general sued State Street Corp on Tuesday for committing an "unconscionable fraud" against the state's largest pension funds and is seeking to recover more than $200 million in alleged illegal overcharges and penalties.

(Business) - WASHINGTON - The internal watchdog for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is expected to warn the agency for the fourth time about fraud in the multibillion dollar homebuyer tax credit program, according to a report to be released at a congressional hearing later this week.

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