Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words financial+trading. 3 news.

Stocks closed higher Monday afternoon at the end of a half-day of trading on the eve of a Christmas pause, as investors flocked to financial services firms after yet another Wall Street firm announced a big foreign cash investment.

(AP) -- CME Group Inc.'s stock slipped Monday after a group of banks and trading firms said they plan to launch their own futures exchange to try to garner cheaper commissions. Late Friday, 12 financial institutions including Merrill Lynch & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Bank of America Corp. ...

FT.com - Wall Street stocks rose on Monday after Merrill Lynch announced a capital injection of up to $6.2bn, spurring a rally in financial stocks at the start of an abbreviated Christmas-Eve trading session.