VENTURE CAPITAL POST

U.S. stocks advanced on Monday, with the Dow Industrials up roughly one percent, as the threat of an escalation of tensions in Ukraine appeared to wane and the latest flurry of merger action supported equities.

The four biggest U.S. brokerage firms are facing an exodus of employees who are finding they can make more money and save on taxes by taking their clients and starting an independent firm before they retire.

World shares and the dollar tumbled on Friday and oil and gold jumped after U.S. President Barack Obama authorised targeted air strikes in Iraq, stoking fears of another drawn-out conflict in the region.

President Barack Obama will announce on Tuesday that U.S. businesses have committed to investing $14 billion in construction, clean energy, banking, and information technology projects across Africa, a White House official said.

Wall Street banks have found a U.S. review of their junk-rated loans to have yielded similar results to last year, easing some concern among bankers about a crackdown on one of their most lucrative businesses.

FlexWage Solutions announced it was able to secure $3.5 million in growth funding from several unidentified investment companies as well as high net-worth financial technology executives.

Argentina looks set to default on its debt for the second time in 12 years next Thursday as negotiations with "holdout" investors seemingly go nowhere and neither side shows signs of blinking first, though a last minute deal can't be discounted.

Individual Retirement Account contributions are getting larger - an encouraging sign of a recovering economy and improved habits among retirement savers.

Volatility spiked on Thursday after the tragedy of a downed civilian jetliner in Ukraine and the mounting death toll in Gaza and Israel interrupted the summer trading slumber.

The Institute of International Finance warned on Friday that further sanctions on Russia would have a "broader chilling effect on Russia" and its companies who are already largely excluded from raising foreign capital.

Getting low-risk yield has been one of the toughest challenges for retirees ever since the financial meltdown of 2008-2009. Interest rates are near zero, and many retirees are nervous about bonds out of fear that rates might jump.

EBay Inc posted a 13 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, as better-than-expected results from its fast-growing PayPal division helped the online retailer overcome increasing competition from Amazon.com Inc and a well-publicized cyber attack.

Trading in shares of Cynk Technology Corp (CYNK.PK) was suspended Friday in the loosely regulated over-the-counter market, amid concerns about possible market manipulation after a 24,000-percent surge in the stock price in the last month.

Searchtech Ventures Inc., is pleased to announce that it has completed its initial public offering today of 6,847,000 common shares at a purchase price of $0.10 per Common Share by way of a prospectus for gross proceeds of $684,700.

500 Startups, the $100 million Silicon Valley venture fund perhaps best known for its incubator program for young companies, said on Thursday it would tap a new source of cash for its latest fund: the public.