CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Morgan Stanley shares fell Wednesday after an analyst predicted investment banks would face prolonged challenges, saying recovery still looks quarters away.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares in Novatel Wireless Inc. plunged Wednesday to its lowest in more than four years as the wireless modem maker issued disappointing preliminary results, lowered its outlook and received downgrades from analysts.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Wachovia Corp. rose Wednesday after a private real estate company reported buying up some of the bank's troubled land and construction loans.

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) -- Aerospace and technology company Lockheed Martin Corp. said Wednesday it received a $5.8 million contract from the U.S. military to run and maintain a message routing system.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street stumbled through an uneven session Wednesday, ratcheting up and down as the price of oil also seesawed and worries persisted about the financial sector.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Troubled home borrowers with loans from IndyMac Federal Bank will be able to switch to fixed-rate mortgages under a new plan from federal regulators, who seized the bank last month after it became the largest regulated thrift to fail.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the media conglomerate News Corp., received compensation valued at $30.1 million in the fiscal year ended June 30 -- an increase of 24 percent from a year ago -- according to an analysis of a regulatory filing.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A new national newspaper insert covering issues of race and ethnicity called RiseUp has stopped publishing for two months while it prepares to nearly double its circulation to more than 7 million.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Partial payments for people claiming withdrawn painkiller Vioxx caused heart attacks will go out starting Aug. 28 under the $4.85 billion settlement between drugmaker Merck & Co. and plaintiffs' lawyers, the claims administrator said Wednesday.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The price of oil dipped back to the $113-a-barrel level Wednesday after the government reported a massive increase in the nation's crude supplies amid a slowdown in fuel demand.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- For school bus driver Jamille Aine, a cold is more than an inconvenience. His employer does not offer paid sick days, so if he can't shake the bug, he may not be able to pay his bills.

NEW YORK (AP) -- PDL BioPharma Inc.'s stock gained ground Wednesday after pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. signed a deal to license the biotechnology company's developing blood cancer drug.

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) -- Chevron Corp. said Wednesday that a Canadian subsidiary and its business partners -- including Exxon Mobil -- have finalized a deal to develop an oil field off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of FirstFed Financial Corp. soared Wednesday after the regional bank reported that it has reduced its exposure to problematic adjustable-rate loans and mortgage-backed securities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Shares of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued their plunge Wednesday as investors are increasingly convinced that the stocks will drop to zero if the government bails out the troubled companies.

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) -- A jury has ruled that a ranch company's negligence helped lead to the huge 2005 landslide that crushed part of a seaside community and killed 10 people.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Swedish wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson AB and Switzerland-based chip-maker STMicroelectronics NV's on Wednesday unveiled plans to create a 50-50 joint venture to make wireless chipsets for mobile handsets.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They survived war, but for some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans going to work back home isn't easy, either.

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Everything will be all right if we just fix the housing problem. That was the hope investors clung to as they watched Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crumble this week.