Wall Street slips, weighed by Wells Fargo, banks

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dipped on Friday, weighed by losses in the banking sector, after Wells Fargo & Co reported a decline in net interest margin despite a record profit in the latest quarter.

"It (Wells Fargo results) is weighing on the sector. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this won't be a sector thing and more confined to Wells Fargo, but it's definitely playing a factor today," said Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at Cabrera Capital Markets LLC in Boston.

Wells Fargo, the fourth-biggest U.S. bank and the nation's largest home lender, said its fourth-quarter net interest margin - a key measure of how much money banks make from loans - fell, even as profit jumped 24 percent. The bank also made fewer mortgage loans than in the third quarter.

The bank's shares were down more than 1 percent at $35.02. The S&P 500 financial sector index <.gspf> fell 0.5 percent and the KBW Banks index <.bkx> fell 0.9 percent.

Wells Fargo was the first big U.S. bank to report fourth-quarter results. Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc are due to report next week.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 0.70 points, or 0.01 percent, at 13,471.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 2.56 points, or 0.17 percent, at 1,469.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 4.49 points, or 0.14 percent, at 3,117.27.

Keenly watched Friday were also shares of Dow component Boeing , which fell 2.4 percent to $75.25 after a cracked cockpit window and an oil leak on separate flights in Japan added to other mishaps earlier in the week, compounding safety concerns about its new 787 Dreamliner. The US Department of Transportation said the jet would be subject to a review of its critical systems by regulators.

Best Buy shares rallied after its results showed a bit of a turnaround in its U.S. stores, though same-store sales were flat during the key holiday season. Shares jumped 11.4 percent to $13.60.

Basic materials shares were pressured after China's annual consumer inflation rate picked up to a seven-month high, narrowing the scope for the central bank to boost the economy by easing monetary policy. The S&P basic materials sector <.gspm> fell 0.6 percent.

Dendreon Corp shares jumped 15.3 percent to $5.89 after Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded the drugmaker's stock to "outperform" from "market-perform" and said it could be one of the best performers in 2013.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Extreme Weather Grows in Frequency and Intensity Around World

Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Snow blanketed Jerusalem on Thursday, an example of weather extremes that are growing more frequent and intense. More Photos »

WORCESTER, England — Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace.

Especially lately. China is enduring its coldest winter in nearly 30 years. Brazil is in the grip of a dreadful heat spell. Eastern Russia is so freezing — minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and counting — that the traffic lights recently stopped working in the city of Yakutsk.

Bush fires are raging across Australia, fueled by a record-shattering heat wave. Pakistan was inundated by unexpected flooding in September. A vicious storm bringing rain, snow and floods just struck the Middle East. And in the United States, scientists confirmed this week what people could have figured out simply by going outside: last year was the hottest since records began.

“Each year we have extreme weather, but it’s unusual to have so many extreme events around the world at once,” said Omar Baddour, chief of the data management applications division at the World Meteorological Organization, in Geneva. “The heat wave in Australia; the flooding in the U.K., and most recently the flooding and extensive snowstorm in the Middle East — it’s already a big year in terms of extreme weather calamity.”

Such events are increasing in intensity as well as frequency, Mr. Baddour said, a sign that climate change is not just about rising temperatures, but also about intense, unpleasant, anomalous weather of all kinds.

Here in Britain, people are used to thinking of rain as the wallpaper on life’s computer screen — an omnipresent, almost comforting background presence. But even the hardiest citizen was rattled by the near-biblical fierceness of the rains that bucketed down, and the floods that followed, three different times in 2012.

Rescuers plucked people by boat from their swamped homes in St. Asaph, North Wales. Whole areas of the country were cut off when roads and train tracks were inundated at Christmas. In Mevagissey, Cornwall, a pub owner closed his business for good after it flooded 11 times in two months.

It was no anomaly: the floods of 2012 followed the floods of 2007 and also the floods of 2009, which all told have resulted in nearly $6.5 billion in insurance payouts. The Met Office, Britain’s weather service, declared 2012 the wettest year in England, and the second-wettest in Britain as a whole, since records began more than 100 years ago. Four of the five wettest years in the last century have come in the past decade (the fifth was in 1954).

The biggest change, said Charles Powell, a spokesman for the Met Office, is the frequency in Britain of “extreme weather events” — defined as rainfall reaching the top 1 percent of the average amount for that time of year. Fifty years ago, such episodes used to happen every 100 days; now they happen every 70 days, he said.

The same thing is true in Australia, where bush fires are raging across Tasmania and the current heat wave has come after two of the country’s wettest years ever. On Tuesday, Sydney experienced its fifth-hottest day since records began in 1910, with the temperature climbing to 108.1 degrees. The first eight days of 2013 were among the 20 hottest on record.

Every decade since the 1950s has been hotter in Australia than the one before, said Mark Stafford Smith, science director of the Climate Adaptation Flagship at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

To the north, the extremes have swung the other way, with a band of cold settling across Russia and Northern Europe, bringing thick snow and howling winds to Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow. (Incongruously, there were also severe snowstorms in Sicily and southern Italy for the first time since World War II; in December, tornadoes and waterspouts struck the Italian coast.)

In Siberia, thousands of people were left without heat when natural gas liquefied in its pipes and water mains burst. Officials canceled bus transportation between cities for fear that roadside breakdowns could lead to deaths from exposure, and motorists were advised not to venture far afield except in columns of two or three cars. In Altai, to the east, traffic officials warned drivers not to use poor-quality diesel, saying that it could become viscous in the cold and clog fuel lines.

Meanwhile, China is enduring its worst winter in recent memory, with frigid temperatures recorded in Harbin, in the northeast. In the western region of Xinjiang, more than 1,000 houses collapsed under a relentless onslaught of snow, while in Inner Mongolia, 180,000 livestock froze to death. The cold has wreaked havoc with crops, sending the price of vegetables soaring.

Way down in South America, energy analysts say that Brazil may face electricity rationing for the first time since 2002, as a heat wave and a lack of rain deplete the reservoirs for hydroelectric plants. The summer has been punishingly hot. The temperature in Rio de Janeiro climbed to 109.8 degrees on Dec. 26, the city’s highest temperature since official records began in 1915.

Reporting was contributed by Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem; Irit Pazner Garshowitz from Tzur Hadassah, Israel; Fares Akram from Gaza City, Gaza; Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth from Moscow; Ranya Kadri from Amman, Jordan; Dan Levin from Harbin, China; Jim Yardley from New Delhi; Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon; Matt Siegel from Sydney, Australia; Scott Sayare from Paris; and Simon Romero from Rio de Janeiro.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 11, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated part of the name of the organization for which Omar Baddour works. It is the World Meteorological Organization, not the World Meteorological Association. It also misspelled the name of a location in Cornwall, England. It is Mevagissey, not Megavissey.

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Sprint confirms it will launch BlackBerry 10 later this year

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Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow Biggest Oscar Snubs?

By PEOPLE Critic Alynda Wheat

01/10/2013 at 01:05 PM EST

Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow

Fred Duval/Filmmagic; Eric Charbonneau/Wireimage

Today might be the only day any of us will ever feel sorry for Ben Affleck. The nominations for the 85th annual Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning and the Argo director shockingly didn't make the cut.

But here's who did – and who should have:

Best Director

The shock: Two huge snubs! Not only did Argo's Affleck get dissed, even though he had one of the best-reviewed films of the year, but so did Zero Dark Thirty's Kathryn Bigelow, a previous Best Director winner for The Hurt Locker – which I'd argue isn't nearly the accomplishment that Zero Dark Thirty is. Both of the films about terror made the cut for Best Picture, however. But then, that was expected.

What that means: While it's likely a race between Hollywood machers Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) and Ang Lee, whose Life of Pi stormed through with 11 nominations, it's great to see newcomer Benh Zeitlin on the list, whose $1.8 million Beasts of the Southern Wild picked up four nominations. Though their films made strong showings, Amour's Michael Haneke and Silver Linings Playbook's David O. Russell have far less buzz than the buzzed-out Affleck.

Best Actress

The shock: Three former Oscar winners – including two who picked up their golden guys in this very category – couldn't muscle their way in this year. Marion Cotillard, the emotional heart of the gritty romance Rust and Bone, and Helen Mirren, who was the best thing about Hitchcock, playing the great director's wife, Alma, won't be repeating as Best Actress next month. Rachel Weisz, 2006 Best Supporting Actress winner for The Constant Gardener, also didn't get quite enough momentum for her role as a lovelorn judge's wife in the murky period drama The Deep Blue Sea.

What that means: It's likely a three-way battle between the beloved French cinema vet Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), who would be the oldest Best Actress winner at 86 (Oscar Sunday is her birthday), Jessica Chastain, who gave a riveting performance in Zero Dark Thirty, and my personal favorite, Jennifer Lawrence, who showed incredible range and humor in Silver Linings Playbook. Still, Naomi Watts (The Impossible) and the Academy's youngest-ever nominee for Best Actress, 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts), could still take it in a squeaker.

Helen Mirren (left) and Marion Cotillard

Wireimage(2)

Best Actor

The shock: It may not qualify as a "shock" that John Hawkes, truly wonderful in The Sessions, and Jack Black, who did his best work last year in Bernie, didn't get nods. But this was easily the year's toughest category, with brilliant performances from a dozen actors who could have filled the slots.

What that means: I'm still sticking with my prediction that Daniel Day-Lewis will stroll home victorious for his role in Lincoln, which, including his, picked up 12 nominations this morning, the most of any film. If anyone can challenge him, though, it's Hugh Jackman. Les Misérables may have divided critics, but Jackman gives such a well-rounded performance as Jean Valjean, and he's such an inherently likable guy, Academy voters could decide to share the love – particularly since Day-Lewis already has Best Actor bookends. Bradley Cooper impressed in Silver Linings, but given that it's such a tough year for the fellas, I'm betting that he, Denzel Washington (Flight) and Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) will be applauding politely from their seats.

Best Supporting Actor/Actress

The shock: There are no jaw-droppers in either category, though it would've been nice to see Javier Bardem nominated for his deliciously sinister blond baddie in Skyfall.

What that means: Anne Hathaway can stop dreaming her dreams, as she'll likely wake up the morning after the Oscars a winner for Les Mis, while five veteran actors fight it out for Best Supporting Actor. Sentimental love may go toward Alan Arkin, so cuttingly funny as a producer helping in Argo, but truly, it's anyone's game when you've got Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Christoph Waltz (Django), Robert De Niro (Silver Linings) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master) playing to win again.

Best Picture

The shock: None really. If it still blows your mind that there are nine nominees, then take it as a reflection that last year was such a great one for movies. But yes, in a perfect world Moonrise Kingdom, Skyfall and even The Avengers would have found a place on the red carpet.

What that means: If we go by the numbers, then this looks like a showdown between Lincoln (12 nominations) and Life of Pi (11 nominations). But I don't think it's that simple. Life of Pi's nods are largely technical, with no acting notices in the bunch. Silver Linings, though, is a far stronger contender than Pi, with four acting nominations, plus its director and editor (an often overlooked harbinger of Oscar gold) also picked up nods.

And don't count out Les Mis or even Amour, which has real momentum behind it. I would hope that the director snubs haven't knocked Argo and Zero Dark Thirty out of their frontrunner spots, either, but that certainly doesn't bode well for either of them. Like I said, it may seem strange to feel sorry for Affleck on a day his movie gets a Best Picture Oscar nomination, but I do.

We'll all find out the results when the Academy Awards air live Sunday, Feb. 24, on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

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Retooling Pap test to spot more kinds of cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, doctors have lamented that there's no Pap test for deadly ovarian cancer. Wednesday, scientists reported encouraging signs that one day, there might be.

Researchers are trying to retool the Pap, a test for cervical cancer that millions of women get, so that it could spot early signs of other gynecologic cancers, too.

How? It turns out that cells can flake off of tumors in the ovaries or the lining of the uterus, and float down to rest in the cervix, where Pap tests are performed. These cells are too rare to recognize under the microscope. But researchers from Johns Hopkins University used some sophisticated DNA testing on the Pap samples to uncover the evidence — gene mutations that show cancer is present.

In a pilot study, they analyzed Pap smears from 46 women who already were diagnosed with either ovarian or endometrial cancer. The new technique found all the endometrial cancers and 41 percent of the ovarian tumors, the team reported Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

This is very early-stage research, and women shouldn't expect any change in their routine Paps. It will take years of additional testing to prove if the so-called PapGene technique really could work as a screening tool, used to spot cancer in women who thought they were healthy.

"Now the hard work begins," said Hopkins oncologist Dr. Luis Diaz, whose team is collecting hundreds of additional Pap samples for more study and is exploring ways to enhance the detection of ovarian cancer.

But if it ultimately pans out, "the neat part about this is, the patient won't feel anything different," and the Pap wouldn't be performed differently, Diaz added. The extra work would come in a lab.

The gene-based technique marks a new approach toward cancer screening, and specialists are watching closely.

"This is very encouraging, and it shows great potential," said American Cancer Society genetics expert Michael Melner.

"We are a long way from being able to see any impact on our patients," cautioned Dr. Shannon Westin of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She reviewed the research in an accompanying editorial, and said the ovarian cancer detection would need improvement if the test is to work.

But she noted that ovarian cancer has poor survival rates because it's rarely caught early. "If this screening test could identify ovarian cancer at an early stage, there would be a profound impact on patient outcomes and mortality," Westin said.

More than 22,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, and more than 15,000 die. Symptoms such as pain and bloating seldom are obvious until the cancer is more advanced, and numerous attempts at screening tests have failed.

Endometrial cancer affects about 47,000 women a year, and kills about 8,000. There is no screening test for it either, but most women are diagnosed early because of postmenopausal bleeding.

The Hopkins research piggybacks on one of the most successful cancer screening tools, the Pap, and a newer technology used along with it. With a standard Pap, a little brush scrapes off cells from the cervix, which are stored in a vial to examine for signs of cervical cancer. Today, many women's Paps undergo an additional DNA-based test to see if they harbor the HPV virus, which can spur cervical cancer.

So the Hopkins team, funded largely by cancer advocacy groups, decided to look for DNA evidence of other gynecologic tumors. It developed a method to rapidly screen the Pap samples for those mutations using standard genetics equipment that Diaz said wouldn't add much to the cost of a Pap-plus-HPV test. He said the technique could detect both early-stage and more advanced tumors. Importantly, tests of Paps from 14 healthy women turned up no false alarms.

The endometrial cancers may have been easier to find because cells from those tumors don't have as far to travel as ovarian cancer cells, Diaz said. Researchers will study whether inserting the Pap brush deeper, testing during different times of the menstrual cycle, or other factors might improve detection of ovarian cancer.

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Wall Street slightly higher on China data; S&P near resistance level

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks inched higher on Thursday, helped by stronger-than-expected exports in China, the world's second-biggest economy, but gains were capped as the S&P 500 hovered near a 5-year high.

Financial and telecommunications stocks were the day's top gainers, while the material sector was the biggest drag. The S&P 500 material sector index <.gspm> was off 0.3 percent. The financial sector index <.gspf> rose 0.6 percent and the telecom sector <.gspl> was up 0.5 percent.

The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index was near a five-year closing high of 1,466.47. On Friday, the index had ended at the highest close since December 2007.

"The market is technically right at the level of resistance, near 1,465-1,467. A solid breakthrough above the level would be the start of a next leg higher, but it looks like it is going to be difficult to break above that level for now," said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. He cited concerns about the earnings season and upcoming debt ceiling talks.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 9.84 points, or 0.07 percent, at 13,400.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 2.55 points, or 0.17 percent, at 1,463.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 2.01 points, or 0.06 percent, at 3,103.80.

In company news, shares of upscale jeweler Tiffany dropped 3.6 percent to $60.98 after it said earnings for the year through January 31 will be at the lower end of its forecast.

U.S.-traded Nokia shares jumped 17.3 percent to $4.40 after the Finnish handset maker said its fourth-quarter results were better than expected and that the mobile phone business achieved underlying profitability.

Herbalife Ltd stepped up its defense against activist investor Bill Ackman, stressing it was a legitimate company with a mission to improve nutrition and help public health. The stock was up 1.4 percent to $40.47.

Data showed China's export growth rebounded sharply to a seven-month high in December, a strong finish to the year after seven straight quarters of slowdown, even as demand from Europe and the United States remained subdued.

In the U.S., claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, though seasonal volatility made it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market's health.

Also, U.S. wholesale inventories rose more than expected in November and sales rose by the most in more than 1-1/2 years. The market's reaction to both reports was muted.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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Scotland Yard Officer Found Guilty in Phone Hacking Scandal

LONDON (AP) — A top British counterterrorism detective was found guilty Thursday of trying to sell information to one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids, becoming the first person convicted on charges related to Britain's phone-hacking scandal since a police investigation was reopened in early 2011.

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn was charged with misconduct for phoning the News of the World tabloid and offering to pass on information about whether London's police force would reopen its stalled phone-hacking investigation.

Prosecutors said the tabloid did not print a story based on her call and no money changed hands but she had committed a "gross breach" of the public trust by offering to sell the information.

Casburn, 53, also was accused of trying to ruin the phone-hacking inquiry — which centered on Murdoch journalists at the now-defunct News of the World — by leaking information to the press.

A key witness testified that Casburn wanted to torpedo the hacking inquiry because she feared it would drain resources from the fight against terrorism. The witness said she also was upset about the purported pressure being put on prosecutors by John Prescott, a deputy prime minister under Tony Blair who had been a hacking victim.

Prosecution lawyer Greg McGill said Casburn was guilty of a "very serious offense."

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that selling confidential information to journalists for personal gain would not be tolerated and that Casburn had "abused" her police position.

"Casburn proactively approached the News of the World, the very newspaper being investigated, to make money," the police statement said. "She betrayed the service and let down her colleagues."

The statement said vital information on the Casburn case was given to police by the Management and Standards Committee at Murdoch's News Corp.

Casburn, who managed the Metropolitan Police terrorist financing investigation unit, had admitted contacting the newspaper but denied that she offered confidential information or had sought payment.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court found her guilty of one count of misconduct. She will be sentenced later this month.

Britain's long-running phone-hacking scandal has led to dozens of arrests and to criminal charges against prominent journalists, including Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief. Other police officers and civil servants have also been questioned about possible wrongdoing.

The phone hacking scandal has involved allegations of illegal snooping on celebrities, crime victims, politicians and others. Media mogul Murdoch closed the News of the World tabloid in July 2011 after many of its misdeeds were exposed. His media company has also paid out millions to numerous victims to avoid lengthy and expensive trials.

Tim Wood, the News of the World news editor who took Casburn's call, told the court that the detective expressed concern that counterterrorism resources were being diverted to the phone-hacking investigation. Wood also said Casburn complained of interference from Prescott, a prominent hacking victim and a vocal Murdoch critic.

"The one thing that stands out in my mind is the fact that she kept going on about Lord Prescott," Wood said. "Her saying that he was pressing for them to put charges on the News of the World, and she was saying that she felt it was wrong that he was interfering in the scandal, so to speak, and she resented that."

Casburn has been suspended with pay, the force said.

A News of the World reporter and a private investigator were jailed in 2007 for hacking into the voicemails of royal aides. But the newspaper denied there was a wider problem and the police investigation was closed.

Police reopened the investigation in early 2011 as new evidence emerged about the scale of the law-breaking.

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Is BlackBerry back? Strong early BlackBerry 10 demand could signal RIM comeback

After hitting a rough patch that seemed to last for most of 2012, Research In Motion (RIMM) may finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. RIM plans to unveil the finished version of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform at a press conference on January 30th, and at least one new smartphone is expected to be revealed during the event. Generating interest in BlackBerry 10 within the crowded global smartphone market will be no easy task for the struggling vendor, but if demand at top Canadian Rogers is any indication, RIM is off to a promising start.

[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]

In mid-December, Rogers began taking reservations for RIM’s first BlackBerry 10-powered handset. The carrier offered almost no information about the BlackBerry smartphone, which has not yet been announced, but asked subscribers interested in purchasing the device to register on the company’s website.

[More from BGR: iPhone 5 now available with unlimited service, no contract on Walmart’s $ 45 Straight Talk plan]

BGR approached Rogers on Thursday to see how subscriber response has been thus far.

“While we can’t release the total number of reservations we have received for the BlackBerry 10 all-touch device, we can say that customer interest is definitely strong and reservations continue daily,” a RIM spokesperson told BGR via email.

The strong response from Rogers subscribers despite being provided only with the knowledge that the device will feature an all-touch form factor and will run the BlackBerry 10 OS is a good sign for RIM.

The vendor has a number of difficult challenges ahead, and convincing current BlackBerry users to upgrade en masse is near the top of the list. Strong early demand at Rogers for RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 handset is clearly a positive sign in this regard, as most early reservations likely came from current BlackBerry subscribers.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Chasing the Saturdays: First Look at the British Girl Group's U.S. Reality Show

From the Beatles in the '60s to the Spice Girls in the '90s and One Direction these days, American music fans have a long-running infatuation with British singing groups.

Now: meet The Saturdays!

The pop quintet – Rochelle Humes, Frankie Sandford, Mollie King, Vanessa White and Una Healy, who's Irish – are bringing their vivacious music and sexy dance moves to the U.S., and they're getting a boost from E!

Chasing the Saturdays, a new reality show on the network premiering Jan. 20, will follow the group's attempt to break into the U.S. market after their success at home.

"It's been our dream as a band since day one to actually come to America and try and break it," says Vanessa, the youngest member of the group, in a first look their series.

"It's a little bit like starting over for us," Frankie says.

"It's scary," adds Rochelle, "and a little bit daunting."

Their first U.S. single, "What About Us," featuring Sean Paul, is out now. The video is due out on Friday.

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Flu season has Boston declaring health emergency

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts public health officials are reporting 18 flu-related deaths in the state already this season, and Boston has declared a public health emergency.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino says the city is working with health care centers to offer free flu vaccines and also hopes to set up public locations where people can go for vaccinations. The city is reporting four flu-related deaths.

There have been about 700 confirmed cases of the flu in Boston so far this season, about 10 times more than in the same period last year.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says the state is one of many reporting above average flu hospitalization rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of a harsh flu season, which usually peaks in midwinter.

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