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LOS ANGELES Japanese stocks moved sharply lower in early Wednesday trading, following U.S. losses overnight on concerns about upcoming earnings, with the Nikkei Stock Average losing 1.3% to 8,653.00 and the Topix also dropping 1.3%. Just as tech shares were among the leading decliners in the U.S., their Japanese peers also saw some of the largest drops, with Sony Corp. losing 2.3%, Toshiba Corp. falling 3.4%, Nintendo Co. retreating 2.8%, and NEC lower by 2.3%. The sector took an additional hit from overnight gains for the Japanese yen against both the dollar and euro. Auto shares also suffered after news [...]

Facebook is working with a data company that tracks whether Facebook users end up buying advertised products.Facebook working with data company that tracks whether its users purchase advertised productsDatalogix matches purchasing data from retailers with Facebook users, based on corresponding identifying informationPrivacy advocates raising concerns(Financial Times) — Facebook is working with a controversial data company called Datalogix that can track whether people who see ads on the social networking site end up buying those products in stores.Amid growing pressure for the social networking site to prove the value of its advertising, Facebook is gradually wading into new techniques for tracking [...]

Dear Insurance Adviser, My new husband and his now-deceased former wife bought a motor home in 2004. They got credit-life insurance on all of their loans because of their age and huge loan for the motor home. When his wife discovered several years later that she had terminal bone cancer, they went to find the paperwork for the loans to prepare for the inevitable. When they couldn’t find the motor home documents, they tried to get them from the lien holder/bank they were paying. Their original bank had been taken over, and the new bank told them there was no [...]

California is turning into a battleground for technology that allows auto insurers to track their customers’ driving behavior and offer them lower premiums, but that privacy advocates reject as an excessive intrusion with serious consequences. Insurance companies are increasingly installing small boxes in clients’ cars that monitor everything from how much customers drive to their average speeds to where they drive. Auto insurer Progressive Corp, which leads the market for so-called usage-based insurance, estimates that about 70% of the people who sign up for the program drive well enough to get a discount. But privacy advocates say the lower premiums [...]

LOS ANGELES Japanese stocks rallied out of the open Wednesday, aiming at a third straight day of gains, as exporter shares headed higher after U.S. gains overnight. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.2% to 8,912.49, with the Topix up 1.1%. Sony Corp. advanced 1.9%, Fujitsu Ltd. improved by 2%, and Honda Motor Co. climbed 2.2%. Shares of Sharp Corp. jumped 4.9% after a Nikkei news report that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. would soon publicly confirm its investment in Sharp remains in place despite concerns to the contrary. Steel makers moved higher, with JFE Holdings Inc. up 3.6% and Kobe [...]