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– The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a modestly lower opening on Friday, with sentiment remaining lackluster following the release of a report showing a less than expected addition to payrolls but a modest drop in the jobless rate. The week’s strong advances may make traders wary of further upside, especially since the situation surrounding Europe’s debt saga is still fluid. Traders expect some strong communiqué from the G20 leaders meeting set to conclude at Cannes today.

After some initial hiccups, U.S. stocks advanced solidly on Thursday, as Greek headlines, policy support and expectations regarding policy catalyzed a strong upward move. The Dow Industrials ended up 208.43 points or 1.76 percent at 12,045 and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed 57.99 points or 2.20 percent higher at 2,698, while the S&P 500 Index closed at 1,261, up 23.25 points or 1.88 percent.

All thirty of the Dow components closed higher, with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Kraft Foods (KFT) advancing strongly. American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing (BA), Disney (DIS) and General Electric (GE) were among the other notable gainers.

Transportation, resource, semiconductor, financial, retail and housing stocks were among the best performing sectors of the session, while biotechnology stocks came under selling pressure.

On the economic front, jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 397,000 in the week ended October 29th.

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Walmart, the world’s leading box store, has been steadily losing customers in the United States. To lure shopper back, the store is using heavy coupon promotions and free samples on its website.

Though it is the largest retailer worldwide, Walmart’s revenue has been on the decline in the U.S. for more than two years now. The retail giant has been steadily losing business amid the rise in the popularity of the dollar store. Walmart’s holiday season last year was another disappointment that made stocks dip. Recently, press about the failed class action suit, which accused Walmart of discriminating against women employees, also damaged the mega store’s image.

Walmart’s move to combat losses is to lean heavily on an old ploy, coupon promotions and free samples. But by concentrating the heaviest promotions on the store website, Walmart is attempting to adapt to the way consumers shop today. Walmart’s site, according to the research firm ComScore, was the 29th most visited site in the U.S. in May. The store is offering more coupons than ever and making the site more user-friendly. The site even offers a download for PCs to make it easier for customers to print out coupons.

The store’s site today showed bargains on everything from chili to specific movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. There was a g

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Fitch Ratings says the European Central Banks 25bps interest rate cut today puts into focus the pressure on life insurers margins and earnings from low interest rates. Although insurers are exposed to long-term bond yields rather than the ECBs short-term interest rates, the ECBs rate decision means long-term interest rates are expected to remain low. Although not generally a threat to capital or existing ratings in the near-term, prolonged low interest rates will create challenges.

Life insurers are exposed to interest rate risk through investment leverage, product guarantees and policyholder options. Most sensitive would be insurers with a duration of liabilities in excess of assets and a high exposure to bonds that exhibit negative convexity ie, whose prices do not rise as much as most bonds when interest rates go down.

There has been sustained pressure on life insurers profitability for several years as their investment portfolios need to produce sufficient returns to meet the guarantees on their products.

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Are your cabinets and files flooded with the years and years of financial documents? Do you even need all the financial documents in your daily life? If no, then you can destroy and dispose some of the financial documents. Read along to know about 5 financial documents you can destroy and dispose immediately. Financial Documents You Can Destroy Without Any Problem Go through the following lines to know about the financial documents you can destroy without getting into serious problems- 1. Plastic card offers: Do you receive hundreds of credit card offers just like most of the average American citizens in a month? Do you accept all the offers? Most likely not! Then whats the point of retaining them? Retain the credit card offers which you are going to accept in reality. Destroy the offers which you are not going to accept. It has been observed that the maximum number of identify-theft cases occurs within the family members. For example, you have kept credit card offer in your dashboard. Your brother finds it, and decides to take up the offer. The catch is he takes up the offer in your name. Read more…

Dr. Mary Jo Gorman decided to help patients in intensive care units five years ago when she saw a problem brewing in hospitals.

“There’s a crisis in the intensive care units today based on the shortage of specialists taking care of patients in ICU combined with the aging population,” says the founder of Advanced ICU Care.

Gorman’s company uses telemedicine to allow communication between doctors, patients and their families. “Our physicians and staff are watching and interacting with patients 24 hours a day from our central office in St.Louis, Missouri,” says Gorman.

Her company is one of 10 recipients of Ernst & Young LLP’s 2011 Entrepreneurial Winning Women program. The winners from different industry sectors and geographies will be provided with advisors, resources and insight with the goal of becoming reaching their full potential. The program coaches its recipients in the following areas:

Setting higher goals

“Through our 25-year history of working with and supporting entrepreneurs, we’ve seen that the biggest challenges women business owners face is lack of access to capital and not having the same business networks as male entrepreneurs,” says Herb Engert, Americas Strategic Growth Markets Leader for Ernst & Young LLP.  “We launched the E

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