NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks recovered most of their lost ground Monday afternoon but struggled to pull out of the red as concerns over Greece continued to weigh on the market.

Stocks started the day down about 1% after the weekend came and went without Greek leaders reaching an agreement on a debt-relief deal. But as the trading session wore on, the major indexes trimmed most of those losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) finished 7 points lower, or 0.1%. Earlier, the blue chip index had declined 131 points. The S&P 500 (SPX) lost 3 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq (COMP) slumped 5 points, or 0.2%.

Full Story at Stock Markets – Jan. 30, 2012 – CNNMoney

Stocks trim losses, but end in red on Greek woes

When it comes to foreigners looking to plant roots in the United States, Florida is the hot spot, especially among Cubans, Haitians and Colombians.

The Sunshine State is the most popular among foreign home buyers with 31 percent of all home purchases made there coming from foreign residents, according to a study by Credit Sesame, an online credit and loan management firm, that used National Association of Realtors’ data.

Foreign buyers represented $82 billion of the U.S. real estate market in 2010, while in 2009 they represented only $66 billion.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Foreign firms, hungry to cash in on the American energy boom, have invested nearly $6 billion in U.S. gas and oil drilling in the last few weeks.

Energy giants from China, France and Spain have snapped up stakes in fields in Ohio, Mississippi, Colorado and Michigan.

These investments will likely add to the recent boom in U.S. natural gas production, pushing already low natural gas prices even lower.

Low domestic prices could drive natural gas producers to seek out European and Asian markets, according to analysts, where the fuel commands three or four times the price.

“Of course that will” lead to more exports, said Nansen Saleri, president of the oil field consulting firm Quantum Reservoir Impact. “And it will be a tremendous opportunity.”

DETROIT (AP) — The Dodge Dart, a 1960s compact car that gearheads turned into street racers, is making a comeback.

Chrysler said Tuesday that it will use the Dart name for a new compact car based on Italian technology that it will introduce in the U.S. next year.

The Dart, which is expected to get 40 miles per gallon of gas on the highway, is an extremely important car for Chrysler Group LLC, which currently has outdated offerings in the fast-growing compact car market. Young buyers in the U.S. generally pick compacts as their first new cars, and research shows they’ll stick with a brand if they like their first vehicle.

Protesters are occupying Wall Street and points beyond, and many investors may be looking sadly at their most recent statements after a couple of erratic months in the markets.

But a new survey finds that most Wall Street professionals are still expecting their bonuses to be the same or higher than last year.

The survey of nearly 1,100 Wall Street professionals, conducted in the last few weeks by the jobs website eFinancial Careers, found that about six in 10 financial services professionals expect their bonus will be the same or higher than last year.

(Reuters) – U.S. bank profits have been rising steadily for more than a year, but the recovery may be losing momentum due to weak loan demand and low lending rates.

For many of the biggest banks, earnings are likely to fall in the third quarter, dragged down by investment banking businesses like trading and underwriting. And the tough environment for traditional businesses like lending is only making things worse, analysts said.

Strong demand for full-size pickups and SUVs drove up General Motors’ U.S. sales last month, the automaker said Monday.

GM reported total sales of 207,145 vehicles in September — a 20 percent increase over the same month a year ago. Truck sales, which include full-size pickups and SUVs, jumped 34 percent, while sales of passenger cars rose 12 percent over September 2010.

“For GM, all of the factors that say this is a good time to buy a new vehicle outweigh the bad news that appears to be slowing down the broader economic recovery,” said Don Johnson, vice president for U.S. sales.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Stocks ended a dismal quarter with heavy losses Friday as investors remain worried about the debt crisis in Europe and the outlook for global economic growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 240 points, or 2.1%, to close at 10,913. The S&P 500 (SPX) slid 30 points, or 2.5%, to 1,131. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) fell 65 points, or 2.6%, to 2,415.

The losses capped the biggest quarterly drop for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq since the fourth quarter of 2008. The S&P 500 lost 14% and the Nasdaq fell 13% over the last three months.

Global investors overwhelmingly support President Barack Obama’s proposed tax increase for those earning annual incomes of $1 million or more in an effort to reduce the deficit.

By a margin of 63 percent to 32 percent, respondents in a Bloomberg Global Poll approved of the president’s proposal, known as the “Buffett rule” in a nod to Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., who has said it is wrong that he pays a smaller share of his income in taxes than does his secretary.

Global stock markets fell in lockstep this week because investors all share a common fear: The world is slipping back into recession and governments around the world are powerless to stop it.

Two years after the world emerged from the worst financial collapse since the 1930s, a repeat is looming. European Union officials have been unable to forge a political consensus among the union’s 17 members to head off a debt default by Greece. Some of Europe’s banks won’t have the capital to withstand the expected losses on their holdings of Greek debt.

European leaders are now preparing for an “orderly” default, according to published reports.

Seven states have joined a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit seeking to block AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of rival T-Mobile USA, officials said Friday.

The move strengthens the federal case against the proposed merger, setting up another hurdle to completion of the deal.

“We are pleased that these states have joined the department in its lawsuit,” the department said in a statement. “Together, we will seek to protect consumers from the anti-competitive harm that would result from this proposed transaction.”

The states involved are New York, Washington, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks were modestly higher Wednesday, on the last day of what has been a volatile month, as investors digested several economic reports on the labor market and manufacturing.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 44 points, or 0.4%, nudging into positive territory for 2011; the S&P 500 (SPX) rose 5 points, or 0.4%; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) was effectively flat, up less than a point.

The Dow was led higher by shares of manufacturing heavyweights Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) and Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), both up more than 3%, following two strong reports on factory orders and the Chicago purchasing managers’ index.