RPT-Wall St Week Ahead: 'Cliff' concerns give way to earnings focus

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Investors' "fiscal cliff"worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns,such as earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way thisweek.Financial results, which begin after the market closes onTuesday with aluminum company Alcoa, are expected to beonly slightly better than the third-quarter's lacklusterresults. As a warning sign, analysts' current estimates...

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Wall Street cheers "cliff" deal, but only for now

When lawmakers delivered a long-delayed, last-minute agreement on the budget, Wall Street celebrated. And it would be easy to think that the surge in the Dow the following day meant that investors had put their concerns about Washington's political gridlock behind them.The Dow Jones industrial average surged on the news, but that doesn't mean the volatility is over. In fact, there could be more turmoil...

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Analysis - U.S. fiscal crisis seen hurting tech earnings

Warning to investors: major U.S. technology companies could miss estimates for fourth-quarter earnings as "fiscal cliff" worries likely led some corporate clients to tighten their belts last month and refrain from spending all of their 2012 IT budgets.Tech companies usually enjoy a spike in orders in December as corporations use money left over in their budgets to buy goods on their wish lists -...

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Reports: sled crash kills 6 on Italian ski slope

ROME (AP) — Italian news reports say a motorized sled making a night run down an Italian ski slope slammed into a fence and flipped over into a ditch, killing six tourists and severely injuring two others aboard.RAI state radio reported early Saturday that the sled's occupants were Russian tourists. The crash occurred on an unlit slope late Friday on Mount Cermis in northeast Italy. Victims' names...

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Italy: 6 Russian tourists die in snowmobile crash

ROME (AP) — Italian news reports say six Russian tourists were killed and two others were injured after their snowmobile slammed into a fence and flipped over into a ditch during a night run down an Italian ski slope.RAI state radio reported early Saturday that the crash occurred on an unlit slope late Friday on Mount Cermis in northeast Italy. Victims' names were not immediately available. Cause...

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Excavators head to Myanmar to find WWII Spitfires

LONDON (AP) — An airplane-obsessed farmer, a freelance archaeologist and a team of excavators are heading to the Myanmar city of Yangon on Saturday to find a nearly forgotten stash of British fighter planes thought to be carefully buried beneath the former capital's airfield.The venture, backed with a million-dollar guarantee from a Belarusian videogame company, could uncover dozens of Spitfire aircraft...

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Hong Kong shares may trim strong 2013 start after Fed voices concern

HONG KONG, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares could end atwo-day rally on Friday, tracking Wall Street weakness aftersigns that the U.S. Federal Reserve has growing concerns aboutits stimulative monetary policy.Any losses could be limited if mainland China markets reopenstrongly on Friday, trading for the first day in 2013 after athree-day New Year holiday.On Thursday, the Hang Seng Index ended up...

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