Austin Home Mortgage LLC

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A surge in hiring in the world's largest economy last month drove the Nasdaq to an 11-year high on Friday as optimism grew that the labor market is on a steady path to recovery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to a near three-year low, giving a boost to President Barack Obama.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas financier Allen Stanford drew on a secret Swiss bank account for personal expenses such as yacht maintenance and to pay bribes, the government's top witness said at Stanford's fraud trial on Friday.

(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's core profit topped analysts' expectations for the fourth quarter, boosted by a rise in revenue from market data and technology, which helped offset a soft trading environment.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday sued three major U.S. banks, accusing them of fraud for using an electronic mortgage database that resulted in deceptive and illegal practices.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - By day, Robert Leitao manages a Catholic church in Southern California. By night, he indulges his other passion: predicting Apple Inc's results.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - It's the year's hottest initial public offering, but some wealth managers find themselves having a hard time recommending Facebook to their clients.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for U.S. factory-made products posted a second straight monthly rise in December and business capital spending also picked up, a government report on Friday showed.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock-picking once again matters on Wall Street.

LONDON (Reuters) - After a blockbuster January for both equities and bonds - rallies that caught many in the market by surprise - investors will be paying keen attention to the world's central banks in the coming week for signs of continued easy money.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp forecast a record annual net loss of $10.2 billion on Friday, joining beleaguered rivals Sony and Sharp in a sea of red ink as they struggle to fix their broken TV businesses and overcome criticism that they have lost their way.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employment growth probably slowed in January as messengers hired during the busy holiday shopping season were laid off, but the improving labor market trend should remain intact.

LONDON (Reuters) - A dip in figures on China's non-manufacturing sector helped dampen financial markets optimism on Friday ahead of U.S. jobs data that will offer more clues on the strength of the world's top economy.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland said on Friday it was investigating a dozen U.S., European and Japanese banks suspected of conspiring to manipulate interbank lending rates used to set interest rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars of securities.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand court refused an appeal by the founder of online file-sharing site Megaupload.com to be freed on bail, Friday, agreeing with prosecutors there was a risk he would attempt to flee before an extradition hearing.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's headline consumer price index (CPI) is on track to fall on a month-to-month basis in the coming months and mark a year-on-year decline in the second half of 2012, a government economist said in comments published on Friday.

(Reuters) - U.S. small business hiring was flat in January, a poll released on Friday showed, slightly better than the previous month's reading but still far from levels consistent with strong employment growth.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A third round of large-scale asset purchases by the Federal Reserve is not needed and would compound the difficulties of tightening monetary policy when the time finally comes, a top Fed official said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Despite the determination of President Obama to take Wall Street to court for the financial crisis, prosecutors face an uphill struggle to win more convictions like the two they scored on Wednesday against former Credit Suisse Group AG mortgage traders.