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PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - July 20

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:11 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

July 20 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Long envied as one of the savviest gamblers around, Goldman Sachs Group Inc surprised Wall Street with a steep decline in trading revenue because it stopped rolling the dice. Goldman's nimble trades routinely put the firm at the top of the heap over the past decade, notably during the financial crisis. But executives said Tuesday that economic and political turmoil around the world has caused the firm to lose much of its appetite for taking chances.

* Since Steve Jobs went on medical leave this winter, some members of Apple Inc's board have discussed CEO succession with executive recruiters and at least one head of a high-profile technology company, according to people familiar with the matter.

* HSBC Holdings PLC is moving to mollify federal authorities investigating how the banking industry has helped U.S. clients evade taxes. The global banking giant is cutting ties with wealthy American clients who bank offshore, as U.S. prosecutors turn up the heat on the bank to produce information about account holders who may be evading taxes, people familiar with the matter say.

* Even with the economy stuck in neutral, three of the nation's biggest lenders -- Bank of America Corp , Wells Fargo & Co and KeyCorp -- are sounding more hopeful that businesses are accelerating their borrowing.

The trio of banks reported second-quarter results Tuesday, each giving hope that businesses are taking loans used for everything from hiring to buying equipment, though the rate at which the customers are actually using lines of credit remains low.

* Caterpillar Inc has slipped in a crucial part of the Chinese construction market. The company, which has made sales of construction machinery in China a top priority, has lost market share to local rivals there over the past five years in one of the most important product categories, hydraulic excavators.

* The financial crisis showed how much the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have struggled to shoulder their regulatory loads. Now the law aimed at preventing the next crisis is making the agencies' jobs even tougher. As the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law nears its first anniversary on Thursday, SEC and CFTC officials are straining to write dozens of rules required by the law. (Compiled by Swetha Gopinath; Bangalore Equities Newsdesk +91 80 4135 5800 within U.S. +1 646 223 8780)