DENVER - A Colorado Springs man and his two oil and gas companies have agreed to pay $510,000 to settle civil fraud allegations, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets declined on Wednesday, with automakers hit by the rising cost of crude oil, and amid ongoing jitters about the impact of the global credit crunch, dealers said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday as surprisingly strong data on durable goods orders soothed some concern about the sluggish economy while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led a rally in financial shares.

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators on Wednesday proposed a plan to allow public companies to begin using international accounting standards for reporting financial results in two years, and may require them to do so starting in 2014.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EDGAR, the computer database for filing documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is giving way to a new system that aims to let investors more easily analyze corporate reports and other financial information.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Shares of casino operators fell sharply on Tuesday amid concerns that the Chinese government may act to curtail visits by mainlanders to Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. securities regulator plans to propose a new short selling rule in the next few weeks which would be broader than an emergency order covering just 19 financial stocks which ended last week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a new idea called Idea -- short for interactive data electronic applications -- to help investors.