NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS, RBS.LN) will pay $52 million in order to settle charges filed by the state of Massachusetts that a unit put unfair residential mortgages into investment pools. The Attorney General for the state, Martha Coakley, said in a statement Monday the bank will put $40.2 million to reducing the principal amounts on more than 700 subprime... 

Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. MRX -2.54% won a bankruptcy auction bid to acquire Graceway Pharmaceuticals LLC for $455 million, topping another company’s stalking horse bid. Graceway, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, is a specialty pharmaceutical company that makes products that treat various dermatological and women’s health conditions. Medicis Chairman and... 

Applied Materials Inc.’s AMAT -2.49% fiscal fourth-quarter profit eased 2.6% as soft demand in its solar and electronic display businesses dragged down sales. Looking ahead, the company, which makes tools used to make semiconductors, television screens and some solar panels, projected an adjusted first-quarter profit of 8 cents to 16 cents a share and a sequential sales decline between 5% and... 

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Dominion Resources Inc. D -0.37% says its North Anna nuclear plant is ready to restart following an Aug. 23 earthquake in central Virginia that forced it to shut down. After conducting several inspections of the nuclear plant, Dominion has “found no damage whatsoever that could preclude operation,” David Heacock, president of Dominion Nuclear, said during... 

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Panasonic Corp. will drastically scale down the size of its mainline television business as profits in the sector are being squeezed by the strong yen and price competition from overseas rivals, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday. The electronics giant will halt production at its liquid crystal display panel factory in Hyogo Prefecture, central Japan, within this fiscal... 

MELBOURNE -(MarketWatch)- Wesfarmers Ltd. said Thursday that food and liquor sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 rose 5.5% on the year to 6.28 billion Australian dollars (US$6.43 billion), but warned trading conditions remained challenging in the face of weak consumer confidence. Managing Director Richard Goyder said in a statement he was generally pleased with the conglomerate’s retail... 

Boreal is a personalized bottled water company specializing in premium custom bottled water for your company. Whether it’s for publicity, promotion, marketing, internal use or a specific event, Boreal custom labeled bottle water is a one-stop shop, a turnkey operation offering customers fully integrated services literally from the ground up. With the most extensive distribution network in North America... 

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Citigroup Inc. C +0.70% appointed veteran banker Michael O’Neill to succeed Jerry Grundhofer as chairman of Citibank NA, according to the bank’s website. O’Neill, like Grundhofer, joined Citigroup’s board during the dark days of the financial crisis when Citi was forced to overhaul its board. Among the many changes the bank made to its operations... 

Arch Coal Inc. ACI -5.14% slashed its full-year adjusted earnings outlook for the second time this year, attributing the lower view mostly on lost metallurgical coal production at the Mountain Laurel mine complex in West Virginia. Shares of the coal company slid 10% to $13.11 in after-hours trading. Arch Coal now sees full-year adjusted earnings of $1 to $1.40 a share, down from the already lowered... 

General Electric Co. GE +0.13% Vice Chairman John Krenicki said Tuesday that prospects are bright for the company’s business of selling natural-gas turbines and gear related to natural-gas exploration, at a time when the energy source is cheap and political uncertainty has hobbled some other segments of the energy sector. “In an environment where public policy is paralyzed, all roads lead...