U.S.

Stocks in U.S. Advance on Economic Optimism as Financial Companies Rally U.S. stocks rose for a second day as a drop in wholesale inventories and improvement in corporate bond markets added to signs the economy is strengthening, overshadowing concern China will raise interest rates.

U.S. Budget Gap Rises to Record $221 Billion on Spending to Revive Economy The U.S. budget deficit widened to a record in February as the government boosted spending to help revive the economy.

El-Erian Says World Economy May Face Disruptive Sovereign Debt Imbalances Mohamed A. El-Erian, whose company runs the world’s biggest mutual fund, said deteriorating public finances around the world may affect the global economy more than is currently realized.

Wal-Mart Brings Back 300 Items to U.S. Stores After Losing Shopper Traffic Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, returned about 300 items to its U.S. stores after their removal last year hurt shopper traffic.

CA Agrees to Buy Nimsoft for $350 Million as Cloud-Computing Market Grows CA Inc., the second-largest maker of software for mainframe computers, agreed to buy closely held Nimsoft Inc. for about $350 million to expand in cloud computing.

Latin America

Slim Overtakes Gates, Buffett for Top Spot on Forbes's Billionaires List Mexico’s Carlos Slim beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the U.S. to lead the rankings in 16 years.

Batista Soars to World's Eighth-Richest Man as Wealth Surges $19.5 Billion Eike Batista jumped 53 spots in Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s richest people and had its biggest increase in worth as the value of his Brazilian oil, mining, energy and transportation companies soared.

Chile Quake Prompts Pulp Aftershock as Prices Rally on Supply Disruptions Chile’s earthquake and a Finnish port strike may propel pulp prices to a record, hastening a tightening of inventories after papermakers cut output.

Empresas ICA Rises to Five-Week High on Lower Tax Bill, Earnings Revision Empresas ICA SAB, Mexico’s largest construction company, rose to a five-week high in Mexico City trading after cutting an estimate for future payments under a new tax law and revising up its fourth-quarter earnings.

America Movil Proposes One-Time Dividend, Larger Stock-Buyback Program America Movil SAB plans to pay a one-time dividend and buy back more of its stock, rewarding investors as the Latin American wireless carrier pursues the region’s largest acquisition this year.

Vale's ADRs Cut to `Neutral' From `Buy' at UBS on `Disappointing' Results Vale SA’s American depositary receipts were cut to “neutral” from “buy” at UBS AG, which cut its valuation for the iron-ore producer to $32.70 from $34.38 after “disappointing” fourth-quarter results.

Exclusive

Obama Proving Pessimists Wrong as Rebounding Economy Converges With Stocks The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy has been weak. The judgment of money in all its forms has been overwhelmingly positive, and that may be the more lasting appraisal.

Buyout Firms Struggle to Spend $503 Billion of Investor Cash as Deals Wane Buyout funds sitting on half a trillion dollars committed by investors may need more than a decade to put the money to work if mergers and acquisitions continue at the current pace.

Monsanto 7-State Probe Threatens Profit From 93% Hold on U.S. Soybean Crop At least seven U.S. state attorneys general are investigating whether Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed producer, has abused its market power to lock out competitors and raise prices.

AIG's `Money in the Door' Asset Sales Garner $3.2 Billion for Bondholders American International Group Inc. bondholders reaped at least $3.2 billion after the bailed-out company announced deals to sell its two largest non-U.S. life insurance divisions for $51 billion.

Pink Floyd, Queen May Leave EMI as Guy Hands's Buyout Mission `Implodes' Pink Floyd and Queen, bands that have been with EMI Music for about four decades, may head for the door, according to two people familiar with their talks, as concern mounts about the U.K. record label’s finances.

Smartphones Eclipse PCs by 2012 as IPhone, Android Take Off: Chart of Day Demand for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Nexus One will help propel smartphone sales past those of personal computers in two years, Gartner Inc. forecasts.