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Three films - "American Hustle," "Gravity" and "12 Years a Slave' - cemented their frontrunner status for the Oscars on Thursday in what is shaping up to be a highly competitive year for Hollywood's top honors. Director David O. Russell's 1970s con-men caper "American Hustle" and Alfonso Cuaron's space thriller "Gravity" each won 10 Academy Award nominations, while Steve McQueen's brutal depiction of slavery in "12 Years a Slave" secured nine. All three films garnered nods for best picture and best director. "This has been an amazing ride, and to receive nine nominations from the Academy is testament to all of the hard work," said McQueen, a British filmmaker who unearthed the real-life American story about a free man sold into slavery. But in a year hailed as one of high quality for the Hollywood industry, several other films could challenge the favorites in the race for the world's top film

The Dow and S&P 500 slipped on Thursday, with the S&P retreating from the previous session's record high, after earnings from Goldman Sachs ( id="symbol_GS.N_0"> GS.N ) and other banks disappointed investors. Financials were the biggest drag on the market after both Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( id="symbol_GS.N_1"> GS.N ) and Citigroup Inc ( id="symbol_C.N C.N ) reported that lower bond trading revenue took a bite out of their quarterly profits. Goldman's earnings fell 21 percent. Citigroup's profit missed expectations. _2"> The results followed fairly positive reads on the financial sector with earnings from Bank of America Corp ( id="symbol_BAC.N BAC.N ), JPMorgan Chase & Co ( id="symbol_JPM.N JPM.N ) and Wells Fargo & Co ( id="symbol_WFC.N WFC.N ) earlier this week. _3"> Goldman's stock slid 2 percent to close at $175.17. It was the biggest drag on the Dow. Citigroup's stock dropped

A 12-year-old boy accused of opening fire with a shotgun at a New Mexico middle school, seriously wounding two students, has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, authorities said on Thursday. The boy, Mason Campbell, will be tried as a juvenile in connection with what authorities have described as a planned attack at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, said New Mexico State Police Lieutenant Emmanuel Gutierrez. Campbell is accused of taking a 20-gauge shotgun from his home and modifying it. With the weapon concealed in a duffel bag, he entered the school gymnasium and opened fire on students waiting for classes to start on Tuesday, police said. Police have not revealed a motive for the attack, and investigators continue to look into the possibility that Campbell warned some friends before the shooting. The charges against the boy were filed in children's court on Wednesday in the state's Fifth Judicial District Court. In accordance wit

Ask self-employed workers about retirement savings, and a shocking number give exactly the same answer: "What retirement savings?" The potential consequences are scary not only for them - the nation's growing ranks of entrepreneurs, freelancers, consultants and contractors - but also for the United States as a whole. With more and more people without regular jobs and the benefits that come with them, the nation faces a retirement time bomb. New data from TD Ameritrade Holding Corp reveals the worrisome state of the retirement savings of independent workers. The brokerage company's Self-Employment and Retirement Survey found that 28 percent of the self-employed were not saving anything at all, and another 40 percent were only saving occasionally, when they said they were able. At the same time, the ranks of U.S. freelancers, contractors and temp workers are growing every year - to an estimated 40 percent of the workforce by 2020, according to a study by software co

U.S. venture funds raised $4.85 billion last quarter, up 53 percent from the same period a year ago, but full-year 2013 fundraising fell 15 percent compared to the year before. For the full year, venture capital firms raised $16.7 billion, the weakest annual total since 2010, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters released on Monday. Some 48 funds were raised over the quarter, on par with a year earlier. The last quarter of the year usually is the slowest for venture fundraising. For the full year, 185 funds were raised, down slightly from 208 in 2013. "If the IPO market continues to strengthen and receive quality offerings, we can expect more VCs involved in those exits to raise money in 2014," said Bobby Franklin, the NVCA's president. Last week, the industry said that venture-backed IPOs totaled $5.3 billion last quarter, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier. Mergers and acquisitions of venture-backed companies totaled

Nadya Suleman, the California single mother of 14 children including octuplets who has been popularly dubbed "Octomom," has been charged with welfare fraud over accusations she lied about her income to authorities, prosecutors said on Monday. _0"> The 38-year-old mother who became a media sensation five years ago after giving birth to octuplets conceived through in vitro fertilization, is accused of failing to report nearly $30,000 in earnings from personal appearances and residuals from videos, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office said. Suleman, whose legal name is Natalie Denise Suleman, was charged on January 6 with a single count of aid by misrepresentation and two counts of perjury by false application for aid. The district attorney's office said that Suleman had failed to report extra income between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013. She had filed for public assistance in Lancaster, California, in January 2013. Suleman will be arraigned in L

Investors pulled out money from hedge funds at the fastest rate for more than four years in December, following a year in which many managers' performance disappointed, new data showed on Monday. _0"> The SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index, which calculates monthly hedge fund subscriptions less redemptions, measured minus 3.56 percent for December, the biggest negative reading since September 2009. While the end of the year period usually sees a pick-up in redemptions as investors look to move money around their portfolio ahead of the new year, December's reading is notably high. In the same month last year the index measured minus 2.61 percent. Hedge funds made their investors an average of 12.32 percent last year following a 0.72 percent gain in December, the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index separately showed on Monday, but this compares poorly with the rise of most stock indexes, the performance of which investors can access cheaply. The MSCI

Brokers who give retiring workers bad advice about what to do with their 401(k) plans should expect some headaches: U.S. securities regulators are taking a closer look at what happens when investors roll their workplace balances into private individual retirement accounts. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are reviewing firms' practices for advising customers about so-called rollovers. The SEC said on Thursday that the issue is one of its 2014 examination priorities, after FINRA announced its own plans on January 2. Brokers should recommend a rollover only after thinking about several factors for the investor, such as low-cost funds available through some 401(k) plans and differences in fees between the two types of accounts, FINRA said. Violations can lead to fines, suspensions or being thrown out of the industry. FINRA's announcement marked the second time in less than a week that the regulator sounded an alarm b

Americans run into big problems when they travel outside the country because their credit cards are not high-tech enough and because some issuers charge high fees for foreign transactions. In the wake of a large data breach at retailer Target Corp, you're going to be hearing more and more about embedded chip technology used overseas, along with personal identification numbers for credit cards. Pay attention: if you don't plan ahead, you're going to run into extra charges while traveling that could add up to hundreds of dollars. You may even get stuck without a payment method in places that won't take your low-tech American card. That's what happened to Lance Longwell, 37, of Ambler, Pennsylvania, when he tried to pay for a meal in Ireland in October. "We tried one card... and then another," says the co-author of the Travel Addicts blog ( traveladdicts.net ). "I had a Visa, an Amex and a MasterCard on the table." None worked. The waitress l

In the wake of a massive data breach that affected up to 100 million shoppers over the holidays, Target Corp has offered all of its customers - whether or not they were directly affected - a year of free credit monitoring. Is it an offer you should take? Here are some questions and answers about what this sort of protection does - and does not - do and what you should keep in mind if you do sign up. Q: What is Target offering? A: One year of free credit monitoring from the credit bureau Experian if you request an authorization code from Target and activate it by April 30. Q: What does that give me? A: In addition to getting a copy of a credit report from Experian, consumers will be notified when there are changes to their credit history. Such changes include applications for credit and any new accounts that are added. Every consumer is entitled to a free copy of their credit report once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax and Transunion. The o

Nasdaq OMX Group is prepared to walk away from running the data processor that was at the center of a three-hour trading halt in August, in a sign of its frustration with the pace of talks over implementing fixes for the system, according to documents seen by Reuters. The fairness and transparency of the U.S. equity markets depends in part on three "securities information processors" (SIPs) that provide investors with the same stock quotes and last sale prices, across venues. One SIP is run by Nasdaq and two by units of IntercontinentalExchange Inc's NYSE Euronext. Each SIP is controlled by a committee that decides on finances and upgrades, and members from all of the other exchanges sit on those committees. The costs of running a SIP come out of the revenues from the sale of its data. A software glitch crippled Nasdaq's SIP in August, forcing the exchange to halt trading on stocks it lists. Soon after, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White

Wells Fargo & Co has called finance executives, virtual currency experts and U.S. government representatives to discuss "rules of engagement" with Bitcoin amid concern about the money laundering risk of the currency, the Financial Times reported. _0"> The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday in San Francisco, focuses on the security issues surrounding banking and Bitcoin as financial regulators warn consumers on the risks of using unregulated online currencies, the London-based financial daily reported. ( link.reuters.com/jen95v ) The fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets has shown interest in dealing with a potential new Bitcoin economy, but regulatory uncertainty has deterred banks from offering services to virtual currency start-ups, the newspaper said on Tuesday. Bitcoin, which unlike conventional money is bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of any central authority, has grown popular among users who lack faith in the established banking system.

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla on Tuesday issued a harsh rebuke to "60 Minutes" a week after the news magazine TV show broadcast a report saying that Silicon Valley and Washington have little to show for their investments in clean technology. _0"> In an open letter to both "60 Minutes" and its network, CBS, Khosla said a January 5 segment for which he was interviewed "grossly misrepresented the state of the sustainable energy industry." The letter, which was posted on the website of Khosla's Menlo Park, California firm, Khosla Ventures, went on to list what he called "numerous" reporting errors in "60 Minutes." A spokesman for "60 Minutes" responded saying, "While we respect Mr Khosla's views, we are not in agreement with the points he makes about our story." "We began and ended the piece with him, and devoted time to his ideas and to one of the companies he backs." The news magazine

Women hedge fund managers have outperformed their male rivals, on average, for the second year in a row, according to professional services firm Rothstein Kass which tracks the industry. From January 1, 2013, through the end of November, the small number of hedge funds around the world run by women returned 9.8 percent while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund index was up only 6.13 percent, Rothstein Kass said on Wednesday, citing its own index of female-run hedge funds. Meredith Jones, a director at Rothstein Kass, said the comparison could feed speculation that women are better investors. "There have been studies that show that testosterone can make men less sensitive to risk-reward signals, and that comes through in this study," she said. The numbers are even more eye-popping for the six years from January 2007 through June 2013. Hedge funds run by women returned 6 percent compared with a 1.1 percent loss at the HFRX Global Fund Index. The Standard & Poor's 500 index

QFS Asset Management, which used a quantitative approach to global macro investing during 26 years in the business, said on Tuesday that it is shutting down its last remaining fund, citing difficult market conditions. _0"> The Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm, founded by economist Sandy Grossman, said in news release on Tuesday that it will return nearly $1 billion to clients by the end of the month. It added that QFS will continue its market research efforts and seek to develop new sources of returns. "The current market environment does not offer adequate risk adjusted opportunities for fundamentally-driven quant macro strategies, and that is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future," QFS Chief Executive Officer Karlheinz Muhr said in a statement. Muhr joined the firm as part of a merger in 2011. The QFS fund becomes one of the new year's first hedge fund industry casualties after a difficult 2013 marked by generally lackluster returns. The Hedge Fund

As more cyber thieves steal personal and financial information, can you insulate yourself from the risk of having your money and identity stolen by giving up credit and debit cards? Many consumers are rethinking their use of plastic after a massive cyber attack on retailers such as Target Corp and Neiman Marcus. For most Americans, living without credit and debit cards seems inconceivable. But Brie Hoffman has tried it, and mostly succeeded over the past six years. Hoffman, 52, says an occasional online purchase and buying an airline ticket are the only uses for her sole debit card, which sometimes serves as a second form of ID. It's a relief not having a credit card, says the California resident, who has worked as a schoolteacher and as a companion to an elderly man. "I don't even miss it," she says. "There's a freedom in not having bills." A side benefit, Hoffman says, is not getting junk mail. As much as she has enjoyed living mostly off the pla

If you are like most investors, you probably mistake catching a wave for being able to swim fast. And considering that you also very likely can't swim fast or invest well, that is a dangerous combination. It is easy to observe that people are more likely to give themselves credit for good investment returns while blaming their reverses on things outside their control, but now at last we have data. A new study by Dutch academics Arvid Hoffmann and Thomas Post of Maastricht University ( here ) was able to quiz customers of a discount brokerage about how good they felt they were while also gaining access to their trading records. The results are startling, if not surprising. Investors who beat the median return agree more with a statement asserting that their performance reflects skill, and the higher their returns go the more they agree. What's more, overall market returns have no bearing on how investors rate themselves, suggesting they invest in a bit of a psychological bu

Investors in U.S.-based mutual funds added $2.65 billion into bond funds at the start of the year after 14 straight weeks of outflows, data from the Investment Company Institute showed on Wednesday. _0"> Taxable bond funds particularly gained in the eight-day period ending January 8, posting their first net advance since early October. But investors pulled money out of municipal bond funds, a 33rd straight week of net outflows, according to data from ICI, a U.S. mutual fund trade organization. Investors were also wary of funds that mainly hold U.S. stocks over the period, pulling out a net $3.36 billion. U.S. stocks kicked off the year with a whimper, with the Standard & Poor's 500 down 0.6 percent from the close of last year through the close of January 8, in what some market participants worry could be a sign of a lackluster year to come. While stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve helped push U.S. stocks to a gain of nearly 30 percent last year, the Fed in De

A doctor testifying in the insider trading trial of Mathew Martoma said Wednesday the former SAC Capital Advisors trader appeared to already know results from a drug trial that many researchers in the study themselves had only just learned. Joel Ross, a New Jersey doctor involved in the clinical trial for an Alzheimer's drug, told jurors in federal court in New York that he met with Martoma in July 2008 just after he and other doctors involved in the study were told the results of the trial. But during the meeting in the lobby of a Chicago hotel, Ross said Martoma "flabbergasted" him by appearing to know almost exactly various statistics the doctor had just learned at a presentation for researchers and which would not be made public until the next day. "It was like he was in the room with me with the slides I had just seen," Ross said. Martoma is one of eight current or former employees at Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital hedge fund to face charges over i

Citigroup Inc posted weaker-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday, as lackluster bond-trading results weighed on overall revenue. The third-largest U.S. bank said its fixed-income revenue fell 15 percent to $2.33 billion in the fourth quarter from the same quarter last year, in what it called a "challenging trading environment." The bond trading results lagged rivals' including Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bank still posted rising profit, helped by cost-cutting, but the size of the decline in bond trading revenue surprised many analysts. Much of the drop came from falling client activity in corporate bonds and secured debt, said Jon Gerspach, chief financial officer, on a conference call with reporters. Rising bond yields have cut into demand for issuing and trading corporate debt. "We just saw a fall-off in client volumes," Gerspach said. When asked if there was any explanation, he responded, "No, it's just what we s

This is the time of year when many of us take stock of our financial plans. New Year's resolutions are in place, and tax season is just around the corner. But when it comes to retirement planning, the resolutions shouldn't just revolve around how much you'll sock away this year. It's just as important to get a handle on how much you'll need to spend when you retire. One common approach is to estimate the "replacement rate" - the percentage of household income you would need to maintain your current standard of living in retirement. And the rule of thumb is a replacement rate of 80 percent. The Internet is littered with retirement calculators that let you plug in your expected final pre-retirement income, and most use the 80 percent replacement rate to generate an income target. The rule is problematic for near-retirees who suffered investment losses in the market meltdown of 2008 and 2009, or lost jobs near retirement. It doesn't start with the ri

Suvretta Capital Management, founded by a former portfolio manager for billionaire investors George Soros and Steven A. Cohen, told clients on Thursday that its bet against shares of J.C. Penney Company Inc. helped contribute to solid returns in the last two years. "On the short side, we have now generated profits three times (generating a total return of approximately 130 percent) in the past two years with our J.C. Penney positions," Suvretta Chief Investment Officer Aaron Cowen said in a client letter obtained by Reuters. Cowen, who was a former portfolio manager for Soros Fund Management and SAC Capital Advisors, said his $700 million-plus Suvretta Capital Management generated net returns of 8.9 percent for the fourth quarter and net returns of 26.3 percent for 2013. Soros Fund Management, which invests about $20 billion on his and his family's behalf, announced a large stake in J.C. Penney shares in early 2013 and began adding to its exposure as the year went on

Goldman Sachs Group Inc reported a 21 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as revenue from fixed-income trading fell in what Chief Executive Lloyd C. Blankfein described as "a somewhat challenging environment." The bank's bond trading revenue slid 11 percent, adjusted for an accounting charge, and was greater than those of competitors that have already posted fourth-quarter results. It is also a blow to a bank that counts bond trading, including fixed income, currency, and commodities, as one of its biggest businesses. While Goldman is still a big player in bond markets, fixed-income trading revenue fell to 25.3 percent of total revenue in 2013 from 48 percent at its peak in 2009, including accounting charges. The bond market began to soften in the middle of last year as investors prepared for the U.S. Federal Reserve to scale back on its bond-buying stimulus, and longer-term yields started rising. Trading income across Wall Street has been hurt by the move.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's top IT services provider by market value, expects sales growth to accelerate next fiscal year after it beat quarterly profit estimates on increasing overseas demand for outsourcing services. Signs of economic revival in the United States and Europe, the biggest markets for India's $108 billion IT outsourcing industry, have increased demand for the services offered by TCS and its domestic rivals. Worldwide IT spending growth is expected to accelerate to more than 5 percent in 2014 after growing last year at its slowest pace since the financial crisis, according to the International Data Corporation, a research firm. TCS, which posted a 49.6 percent quarterly profit rise to log its fastest pace of increase in at least two-and-half years, raised its hiring target for the fiscal year that ends in March by 5,000 to 55,000, underscoring the strong outlook. "Based on initial discussions with our customers we believe 2014 will be a stro

Apple Inc's various objections to a court-appointed antitrust monitor in a case involving fixing e-book prices only confirm the importance of his work, a federal judge said on Thursday. "If anything, Apple's reaction to the existence of a monitorship underscores the wisdom of its imposition," U.S. District Judge Denise Cote wrote. Cote's comment came in a 64-page opinion explaining why earlier this week she had rejected Apple's request to stay an order installing an external compliance monitor, after she found Apple liable for conspiring to fix e-book prices. The judge said she would allow Apple until Tuesday to file an appeal of her decision to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Apple did not immediately comment on the written opinion. A lawyer for the company, Theodore Boutrous, said on Monday that Apple planned to appeal. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the government was pleased with Cote's decision. The ruling is the latest step in a