Wednesday, May 23, 2012 | 5:50 p.m.

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National Business Update

Latest business news from around the nation

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Facebook stock climbs, but company faces lawsuits

Facebook's fourth day of trading as public company brought shareholder lawsuits, and an increase in the company's stock price as the fallout continued from the social network's botched initial public offering. Facebook Inc.'s stock climbed $1, or 3.2 percent, to close at $32 on Wednesday. The gain was only a ...

FILE - In this March 9, 2012 file photo, Hewlett Packard CEO and President Meg Whitman speaks at a conference on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif. Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday, May 23, 2012 that it's laying off 27,000 workers, 8 percent of its work force, as it restructures the business. The Palo Alto, Calif., company said it'll save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from cost cuts, including the layoffs. Hewlett-Packard Co. expects to complete the job cuts by the end of fiscal 2014. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

HP to cut 27,000 jobs to save up to $3.5B annually

Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to cut 27,000 jobs as the growing popularity of smartphones, the iPad and other mobile devices makes it tougher for the company to sell personal computers. The cuts announced Wednesday represent HP's largest payroll purge in its 73-year history. The reductions will affect about 8 percent of ...

In an April 16, 2012 photo trader Richard Newman, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street headed for another day of losses, Wednesday May 23, 2012 with Dow Jones industrial futures down 0.5 percent to 12,410 and S&P 500 futures 0.6 percent lower at 1,306.50. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Late rally erases steep losses on Wall Street

A big final-hour comeback pulled the Dow Jones industrial average nearly back to where it started Wednesday. The Dow was down as much as 191 points earlier as the threat of a financial crisis spreading from Europe shook markets. The euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar, ...

Pre-market prices for Nasdaq stock, left, and Facebook stock are shown, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. Facebook stock rose in early trading Wednesday, although still far below the $38 it was priced at before its initial public offering Friday. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Between Facebook and JPMorgan, Wall St. woes mount

Almost four years after the financial crisis, Wall Street still can't get it right. Investor anger mounted Wednesday over the initial public offering of Facebook stock last week, which was fumbled by the banks that managed the deal and complicated by technical problems at the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shareholders filed ...

Feds add 2012 model year to Chevy Cruze fire probe

U.S. safety officials have added the 2012 model year to an investigation of engine fires in the Chevrolet Cruze compact car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last month it was investigating the 2011 Cruze because of two complaints of fires that engulfed and destroyed the cars. In documents ...

Oil drops below $90 for 1st time since October

The price of oil dropped below $90 per barrel Wednesday, the latest milestone in a weekslong decline brought on by uncertainty surrounding economies from Europe to China. Benchmark U.S. crude fell by $1.95 to end at $89.90 per barrel. Oil has tumbled more than 15 percent this month and is ...

French President, Francois Hollande, centre, reacts with Spain's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

Pressure on EU leaders to solve Greek crisis

Europe's leaders gather in Brussels under mounting pressure to soften their tough-love approach to the weaker economies among them. With Greece locked in political chaos, much bigger Spain warns it can't keep afloat without help, as stock markets around the world tank over fears the leaders won't have the political ...

HP laying off 27,000 workers in restructuring

Hewlett-Packard says it's laying off 27,000 workers, 8 percent of its work force, as it restructures the business. The Palo Alto, Calif., company says it'll save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from cost cuts, including the layoffs. Hewlett-Packard Co. expects to complete the job cuts by the end of ...

Jury: Google didn't infringe on Oracle patents

A federal jury ruled Wednesday that Google didn't infringe on Oracle's patents when the Internet search leader developed its popular Android software for mobile devices. Wednesday's verdict comes about two weeks after the same jury, with two additional members, failed to agree on a pivotal issue in Oracle's copyright-infringement case ...

Stewart becomes non-executive chairman of company

Martha Stewart, on Wednesday, was named as non-executive chairman of the lifestyle, media and merchandising company that she created. Stewart rejoined the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in September at the end of a five-year ban on serving as a board member or as an executive of a ...

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 22, 2012 file photo, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The privately built space capsule that's zipping its way to the International Space Station has also launched something else: A new for-profit space race. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Commercial space race gets crowded behind SpaceX

A privately built space capsule that's zipping its way to the International Space Station has also launched something else: A new for-profit space race. The capsule called Dragon was due to arrive near the space station for tests early Thursday and dock on Friday with its load of supplies. Space ...

Official: ailing Bankia needs at least $11BN

Spain's economy minister says the government will pump at least €9 billion ($11.3 billion) of public money into nationalized lender Bankia so it can meet new capital requirements. The government is seeking to shore up Spain's banking sector against market fears about the country's financial health. A recession and an ...

A woman receives money from an ATM machine outside Greece's Emporiki bank as a woman holds her child on the street at the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Greece's four biggest commercial banks will receive an euro 18 billion ( $23 billion) cash infusion from the European bailout fund. (AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis)

Greek banks to get $23 billion from bailout fund

Four of Greece's leading banks are to receive a €18 billion ($23 billion) capital injection to replenish reserves which were hit by country's massive debt restructuring deal. The country's Financial Stability Fund said Wednesday it had approved the funds' release to banks. The €18 billion will be split between the ...

Construction workers finish up on a new home seen for sale Wednesday, May 23, 2012 in Springfield, Ill. Americans bought more new homes in April, the latest signal that the U.S. housing market is steadily improving. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

US sales of new homes rose 3.3 percent in April

Americans bought more new homes last month, the latest evidence that the U.S. housing market could be starting to recover. New-home sales increased 3.3 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Sales rose sharply in every region of the ...

Passers-by check the electronic stock indicator of a securities frim in Tokyo Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.98 percent to 8,556.60 as a report that Greece is considering preparations to leave the euro common currency sent Asian stock markets lower Wednesday. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Europe's stocks hit on EU summit skepticism

Stock markets were hit hard and the euro skidded down to near 22-month lows against the dollar Wednesday as investors grew increasingly skeptical that European Union leaders will be able to cobble together a plan to kick-start the region's faltering economy and deal with its crippling debt. Leaders of the ...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference after a meeting of the federal government and the German states governors about the countries' energy future at the chancellery in Berlin on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Germany beefs up monitoring of nuclear shutdown

The German government will more closely oversee the country's move from nuclear power to renewable energy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday — a mammoth 10-year project for Europe's biggest economy that has been going slowly so far. Merkel said she will be meeting with all of Germany's 16 state governors ...

Buildings crowd the Rocinha shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, May 22, 2012. Local officials and human rights groups are working to give legal title to tens of thousands of residents of shantytowns like Rocinha, a process that increases their wealth and gives them greater access to credit, as well as peace of mind. The programs so far are just a start at tackling a widespread problem: A third of the people in Rio state, nearly 5 million people, don't have title to their homes, an uncertainty shared by most of the approximately 1 billion people who living in slums globally. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Rio issues land titles to slum residents

The home Jose Nazare Braga built in the Rocinha shantytown is his life's work, an investment that grew from a shack to a three-story building over 30 years. A restaurant and a paper-goods store on the ground floor provide income, and his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live above. The red-brick ...

Oil prices drop to lowest levels of the year

The price of oil is hitting new lows for the year as U.S. supplies grow. Benchmark crude on Wednesday lost $1.23 to $90.62 in New York. It fell as low as $90.18 earlier in the day. Prices haven't been below the $90 mark since Nov. 1. Prices dipped after the ...

In this photo of Monday April 30 2012, Somalis traders hurriedly remove their goods from their illegal kiosks and business sites after demolition in Mogadishu's Bakara market in Mogadishu Somalia . Bulldozers protected by government troops are demolishing small kiosks along a street in Mogadishu's largest market. The bulldozing operation taking place is a city-backed effort to help clean up Mogadishu and create space in a a crowded market throughway. For the affected traders, there is a certain irony in the government initiative. For years Somalis have lamented the fact that their city had no government. Now that life is returning to a semblance of normal in a city that has endured 20 years of conflict, the businessmen on the receiving end of the clean-up plan are voicing reservations about city management.(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Mogadishu's Bakara market clean-up upsets some

Like many other residents of Mogadishu, Ali Osman, who sells wares at the Bakara market, had longed for an end to lawlessness and violence that plagued the capital for two decades. Islamist insurgents controlled most of Mogadishu for several years. Combat often erupted in the city. Mortar rounds sailed overhead ...

Japanese video game author wins Spanish prize

Japan's Shigeru Miyamoto, considered the father of the modern video game, has been awarded Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. Miyamoto, 59, is the author of the Mario Bros. series that has become one of the most marketed video game sagas in history. Asturias award organizers praised ...