SunTrust CEO Plans to Speed Branch Closings to Control Expenses Businessweek SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI), the eighth- largest U.S. commercial lender by deposits, is closing branches and trimming staff as it seeks to cut costs, according to Chief Executive Officer William Rogers. The reductions may come at an "increased pace," Rogers ...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama rejected a Republican proposal to resolve a looming fiscal crisis on Tuesday as "still out of balance" and said any deal must include a rise in income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans. Obama told Bloomberg Television that the Republicans' reliance on eliminating tax deductions instead of letting taxes rise on Americans making more than $250,000 a year would not raise enough money to fund the government. Obama pledged to work with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, to go after what he called excessive healthcare costs in the budget but that a deal was not possible without raising tax rates on the wealthy. (Reporting By Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal)

(Reuters) - Republicans in the Congress attacked each other on Tuesday over their leadership's "fiscal cliff" offer to Democratic President Barack Obama as a group of governors visited the White House to voice concern about the impact on the states of the year-end tax-and-spending deadline.

Gross Says Structural Headwinds May Drop Growth Below 2% Businessweek Bill Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said structural headwinds may reduce real economic growth below 2 percent in the U.S. and other developed nations. "The biblical metaphor of seven years of fat ... and more »

The Federal Housing Administration said it sold off more than 9,400 delinquent home loans to investors and nonprofits for about $617 million this fall, as part of a move to take bad loans off the agency's books and help stabilize its finances.

--6.3 Percent Increase Recorded in October, Pending HPI Forecasts 7.1 Percent Increase for November-- CoreLogic ® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its October CoreLogic HPI ® report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 6.3 percent in October 2012 compared to October 2011 . This change represents the biggest increase since June 2006 and the eighth consecutive increase in home prices nationally on a year-over-year basis. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices decreased by 0.2 percent in October 2012 compared to September 2012*. Decreases in month-over-month home prices are expected as the housing market enters the offseason. The HPI analysis from CoreLogic shows that all but five states are experiencing year-over-year price gains. Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide also increased on a year-over-year basis by 5.8 percent in October 2012 compared to October 2011. On a month-over-month basis excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 0.5 percent in October 2012 compared to September 2012, the eighth consecutive month-over-month increase. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions. The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicates that November 2012 home prices, including distressed sales, are expected to rise by 7.1 percent on a year-over-year basis from November 2011 and fall by 0.3 percent on a month-over-month basis from October 2012 as sales exhibit a seasonal slowdown going into the winter. Excluding distressed sales, November 2012 house prices are poised to rise 7.4 percent year-over-year from November 2011 and by 0.5 percent month-over-month from October 2012. The CoreLogic Pending HPI is a proprietary and exclusive metric that provides the most current indication of trends in home prices. It is based on Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data that measure price changes...

Toll Brothers Says Profit Jumped on Revenue, Tax Benefit Bloomberg Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL), the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings jumped as the company profited from an increase in revenue and a net tax benefit of $350.7 million. Net income was $411.4 million, or $2.35 a share, in the three ...

Recently released government data for 2011 from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) shows just how tight mortgage credit has been. Incomes of prospective purchasers have increased since 2004, but the loan to income ratio has declined. The median household income for a homebuyer using conventional financing rose from $79,000 in 2007 to $ 90,000 [...]

Bond investors including Pimco's Bill Gross and strategists, including those at RBS Securities and Credit Suisse, are looking for where to put their money in 2013.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a few weeks remaining before the onset of "fiscal cliff," a bipartisan delegation of governors is set to meet Tuesday with President Barack Obama and congressional leaders in search of some answers about the impact of deficit reduction measures on their state budgets, which rely heavily on federal aid.

As President Obama and Republican leaders race to avoid the fiscal cliff, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan says the uncertainty has already hurt business spending for next year and that no resolution by year-end presents not only a near-term recession risk but also the possibility of longer negative effects.