US stocks finished mostly higher on Friday to wrap up a subdued week - with technology companies doing most of the heavy lifting.

Within easy reach and open all hours, Robert Hume pays tribute to the automated telling machine (ATM), or ‘hole-in-the-wall’, which celebrates its 50th birthday today.

Royal Bank of Scotland pursued last-minute settlement talks with a group of investors to avoid a potentially embarrassing trial over allegations the lender misled them about a 2008 capital increase.

“Jump into January” programme was notorious for the impact it had on staff.

Verizon Communications has said it would buy Yahoo’s core business for $4.48bn (€4.22bn), lowering its original offer by $350m in the wake of two massive cyber attacks at the internet company.

Banks led US stock indexes mostly higher on Friday, propelling the Nasdaq composite index to its fourth record high this week.

Banks and other financial companies have led US stocks slightly lower, wiping out much of the market's gains from a day earlier.

Charlotte's police chief has said he plans to show video of an officer shooting a black man to the slain man's family, but the video will not be immediately released to the public.

The global dairy industry is being reshaped by a wave of dealmaking driven by low milk prices and growing demand for products like yoghurt and baby formula in Asia and the Middle East.

As oil flirts with $50 a barrel, investors are trading drilling stocks as if crude were selling for $80, and that’s the kind of optimism that leads to corrections.

Billionaire Warren Buffett said on Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway is poised to do well no matter who wins the White House in November, and the billionaire investor defended the performance and tactics of the conglomerate’s several large investments.

More borrowers in the US with spotty credit are failing to make their monthly car payments on time, a troubling sign for investors who have snapped up billions of dollars of securities backed by risky auto debt.

American companies are increasingly looking like some of the biggest beneficiaries of Mario Draghi’s unprecedented efforts to stimulate Europe’s economy.

Often people form an opinion of you before you even open your mouth, says communications expert and CNN veteran Gina London. She tells Áilín Quinlan why she needs to watch her body language

Divided global bank regulators are preparing for a showdown on rules intended to make sure taxpayers will not be on the hook when one of the world’s biggest lenders fails.

KINGSLEY Wheaton found himself in the middle of a coup d’état. It was 1999. At 23, he had joined the cigarette manufacturer, Rothmans, who had sent him to Dubai.

A Harvard Business School instructor who blasted a Boston-area Chinese restaurant for overcharging him by $4 (€3.20) on a takeaway order has apologised for an email exchange with restaurant management.

A strong jobs report has boosted US and European stocks, leaving the Dow Jones industrial average just short of the 18,000 mark.

A slump in energy stocks hit a rebound in Wall Street indexes yesterday as the price of oil plunged the most in two years.

After pushing stocks to record levels last week, investors on Wall Street turned cautious yesterday ahead of a batch of corporate earnings reports.

It was a loaded question and Rory McIlroy delivered the correct answer when asked what would be the perfect 25th birthday gift this coming Sunday, which is also the final day of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Eurozone markets closed the day on a positive note. The Iseq was no exception, up 6.7 points to 3975.42 on the back of positive results from the likes of Paddy Power and Origin.

US banking giant Wells Fargo is eyeing up a potential move into the Irish market.

US stocks rose last night after a strong gain in retail spending suggested that consumers could be getting more confident about the US economy. Bank stocks rose broadly after Citigroup delivered a strong earnings report.

Morgan Stanley saw its revenue fell sharply in the second quarter, dragged down by weak results from its investment banking unit.

The euro weakened for a seventh successive day against the dollar as Greek politicians struggled to form a new government after elections raised the prospect of the country withdrawing from the currency bloc.

All but four of 19 major US banks got a green light from the Federal Reserve, after being declared strong enough to survive a downturn worse than the Great Recession.

CITIGROUP fourth-quarter profit fell 11% and missed Wall Street estimates as the European debt crisis battered capital markets, hurting trading revenue and discouraging clients from doing deals.

BANK of Ireland sold a London-headquartered lending division to US bank Wells Fargo for around €690 million yesterday putting it closer to meeting its target of selling €10 billion in assets under an EU-IMF bailout.

BANK of Ireland may sell Burdale Finance, a unit that extends loans secured against assets, to Wells Fargo&, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

SAN FRANCISCO-based bank Wells Fargo has said that it has completed the purchase of just under half of the commercial loans it is buying from the former Anglo Irish Bank.

THE ISEQ index ended the week in negative territoryyesterday, with a drop of 10.53 points to close at 2,755.85.

World markets slumped today as fears of a global recession were reignited by a gloomy outlook from America’s central bank.

BANK of Ireland (BoI) is in talks with one party on the sale of its British commercial real-estate portfolio, according to comments contained in documents handed out to lawmakers in Dublin, ahead of Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s meetings with the Oireachtas finance committee this week meetings.

BANK of Ireland has reported an underlying pre-tax loss of €723 million for the first six months of this year.

REPUBLICAN lawmakers yesterday challenged Democratic foes to vote for their debt plan or risk a calamitous US default, in an acrimonious, lengthy showdown now threatening the world’s fragile economy.

MATTEL Inc, after waging a seven-year legal war against a tiny California company, swallowed a surprise defeat after a US jury decided that MGA Entertainment Inc is the rightful owner of the once-billion dollar line of pouty-lipped Bratz dolls.

A warning from Standard & Poor's (S&P) that the agency might lower its rating on US government debt sent American stocks on their steepest slide in a month last night.

US stocks ended a rough week with slight gains today after Libyan government forces declared a ceasefire and a group of the world’s seven largest countries announced a plan to bring the yen down from historic highs.