From wire reports
Ebay profits jump 69% in its third quarter
SAN FRANCISCO - Ebay Inc. reported Thursday that its profits leaped 69 percent in the third quarter, barely exceeding the online auction leader's conservative estimates and matching Wall Street's expectations.
The San Jose-based company earned $103.3 million, 16 cents per share, in the quarter that ended Sept. 30.
In the comparable period last year, eBay showed net profits of $61.0 million, 11 cents per share.
Revenue surged 84 percent to $530.9 million.
Ex-mutual fund exec pleads guilty to felony
ALBANY, N.Y. - A former mutual fund executive pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony and agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty in a growing investigation of improper mutual fund trading that prosecutors said cost other investors billions of dollars.
James P. Connelly Jr., former vice chairman and chief mutual fund officer at Fred Alger & Co., pleaded to tampering with physical evidence, said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Stephen Cutler of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Spitzer said Connelly deceived his firm's lawyers to withhold documents and directed employees to delete some e-mails sought in the subpoena.
Mortgage rates march up for a second week
WASHINGTON - Rates on benchmark 30-year mortgages, which had been going down, went up for the second straight week amid signs that the economic rebound is gaining strength.
For the week ending today, the average rate on 30-year mortgages increased to 6.05 percent, up from last week's rate of 5.95 percent, Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, reported Thursday in its weekly nationwide survey of mortgage rates.
Vivendi's Universal Music will cut 800 jobs
Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, plans to cut 800 more jobs by the end of March to help reduce costs as global music sales continue a 31/2-year slide.
The job reductions are part of a plan to cut the workforce by 12 percent to 10,850 employees by the end of the first quarter, said Adam Liversage, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based Universal Music.
The cuts will help save $200 million, he said.
Netflix rises 16% as Q3 profit tops forecast
Shares of Netflix Inc., the biggest Internet-based home-video rental service, rose 16 percent after the company's third-quarter profit topped forecasts.
