Industrials

By Martinne Geller

Wall Street cheered a softer-than-expected ruling from the Department of Justice in favor of for-profit education stocks. 

Goldman upgraded DryShips to "buy" from "neutral" on the stock's more appealing valuation.

By Mike Miller

Carpenter Technology is acquiring high-performance materials maker Latrobe for $558 million in cash and stock. 

Sealed Air said it has agreed to acquire cleaning products company Diversey for $2.9 billion.

By Alexei Oreskovic

By Kyle Peterson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett has been buying amid this week's sharp declines in the market, and has not yet seen anything that suggests another downturn is emerging, the legendary investor told Fortune magazine.

Ralcorp has inked a deal to buy the North American refrigerated dough business from Sara Lee for $545 million in its ongoing effort to revamp operations as it struggles to keep pace with rising raw material costs.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' president said there is no plan to start merger talks with Hitachi , the Mainichi daily reported on Monday.

By Brad Dorfman and Phil Wahba

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer confidence fell sharply this month, touching its weakest level in over a year and signaling that recent volatility in financial markets has curbed the enthusiasm of higher-income shoppers, according to data released on Wednesday by Consumer Edge Research.

By Ben Berkowitz

By Nick Zieminski

By Dhanya Skariachan

LONDON (Reuters) - Commodities trader Glencore met forecasts with a 50 percent rise in first-half profit thanks to rising commodity prices and rosy oil trading conditions in the first months of the year, and said it remained optimistic on global growth.

Comcast posted a 16% rise in second-quarter profits as the cable giant capitalized on strength in its cable and NBC Universal businesses.

Heavy equipment makers and rental companies could benefit from reconstruction efforts after Irene damaged roads and other infrastructure up and down the East Coast. 

Battling the anemic housing market, home builder Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) revealed a 54% leap in fiscal third-quarter profits on Wednesday, but tepid new orders and steeper-than-expected revenue declines.