By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hinted in an interview aired on Monday that he may be looking for a new chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, saying current Chairman Ben Bernanke has stayed a lot longer than he had originally planned. Obama, speaking to Charlie Rose, host of a PBS interview …

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Monday but ended well off their highs as investors speculated over the Federal Reserve's intentions about its massive stimulus program to aid the economy before a meeting of policymakers that begins on Tuesday. Major indexes climbed from the start of the session and …

(Reuters) - Apple received over the last six months between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for customer data from U.S. law enforcement authorities relating to criminal investigations and national security matters, the company said on Monday. Microsoft and Facebook Inc published similar data last week after reaching a deal about …

By Jonathan Stempel and Sruthi Ramakrishnan (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp on Monday said it has sued Dish Network Corp to block its tender offer for Clearwire Corp, on the eve of a key deadline in a takeover battle that also includes Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank Corp. The lawsuit filed on Monday in Delaware Chancery …

By Dan Wilchins (Reuters) - Over the past few years, Citigroup Inc has been grappling with an unusual problem - how to incur more U.S. taxes. The third-largest U.S. bank tried to buy the foundering Wachovia Corp in the fall of 2008 in part because the deal would have brought it more taxable domestic income, a person familiar …

(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc is looking to enter Canada's cellular telephone business, potentially fulfilling the government's hopes of having a fourth major wireless company, the Globe and Mail reported on Monday. Verizon could look at taking over a smaller player in Canada, such as Wind Mobile, and participating …

TOKYO (Reuters) - New York-based hedge fund Third Point said it has raised its stake in Sony Corp and urged the Japanese company to create an independent board to run a partially spun-off entertainment arm with Sony's CEO, Kazuo Hirai, as its chairman. Third Point, a $13 billion hedge fund founded by billionaire investor …

By Xiaoyi Shao and Jonathan Standing BEIJING (Reuters) - China's house prices rose at the fastest pace this year in May from a year earlier, though the pace of gains eased from the previous month, highlighting the dilemma facing the central bank as it balances the need to support the economy against holding down housing …

By Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson said it would pay up to $1 billion for Aragon Pharmaceuticals and its experimental drugs for prostate cancer, to bolster J&J's role in the field after it acquired another experimental prostate-cancer treatment four years ago that has become a leading brand. J&J on Monday …

By Stanley White TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese cabinet ministers welcomed the Group of Eight summit's stance on Tokyo's sweeping stimulus policies as a vote of confidence in the government's strategy to end 15 years of entrenched deflation and revive a lackluster economy. Japan's economics minister also moved to parry any …

MUNICH (Reuters) - German industrial conglomerate Siemens is shutting down the last of its solar energy businesses after it failed to find a buyer, the company said on Monday. Confirming a report in German newspaper Handelsblatt, a spokesman for Siemens said the group would close Solel by early next year. The Israeli business …

By Leah Schnurr NEW YORK (Reuters) - Confidence among U.S. homebuilders surged in June, staging its biggest gain since 2002 in one of the strongest signs yet that the housing recovery is gaining traction. A majority of homebuilders say conditions for new construction are favorable, rather than poor, for the first time since …

By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies hoping to export natural gas are frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await U.S. Department of Energy approval of their applications and may turn to the courts to speed up the process. Both the slow pace of decisions on applications to ship U.S. liquefied …