According to reports, the staff cuts aren’t related to the $2 billion loss at the New York-based company’s chief investment office in London.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan chief executive, said last week the strategy that was responsible for the losses was “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored.”

Sources told that the company, which has about 8,000 employees in the London investment bank, cut about 100 employees in its treasury and securities services unit in January.

JPMorgan Chase is one of the Big Four banks of the United States with Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase surpassed Bank of America as the largest U.S. bank by assets last year.

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The new device has a 4.8-inch H-D Super Amoled screen, an 8-megapixel camera and up to 64 gigabytes of storage.

According to company, the S III device will be available in two colors: marble white and pebble blue.

The phone comes in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB variants, and an additional 50 GB of space is offered on the Dropbox service for purchasers of the device for two years.

Samsung said the device will be powered by the company’s own quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor.

The Galaxy S III will run on Google’s Android 4.0 operating system.  It will also support 4G wireless networks.

The device will release in Europe on May 29, 2012, and in the US in June, according to sources.

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Master Card announced that its net income in the first quarter was $682 million, or $5.36 a share, compared with $562 million, or $4.29 a share in the same period last year.

Ajay Banga, MasterCard’s chief executive officer, said the number of transactions processed increased 29 percent to 7.7 billion, “the highest quarterly growth rate since our IPO, as well as positive volume growth in all regions as consumers continue to adopt electronic payments.”

“We are leveraging opportunities around the world. In the U.S., we have significantly improved our position in debit and now have the capability to process transactions on about half of all U.S. debit cards.”

MasterCard said the company repurchased 652,500 shares at a cost of approximately $248 million in first quarter of 2012.

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Fiat lost $274 million in Europe, it was only regional loss. Fiat’s revenue dropped 5.4 percent due to declining European auto sale.

Despite revenue in Europe falling by 13.1 percent to 4.5 billion euros, Fiat said it was on track with its business plan and confirmed all of its targets for 2012.

Chrysler’s auto sales increased 33 percent to 523,000 vehicles in the quarter. Fiat said net profit totaled 379 million euro, up from 37 million euro a year earlier.

“Another positive quarter – built on sales gains that have surpassed the industry average – is affirmation that the Chrysler team is maintaining its focus,” said Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both Chrysler and Fiat.

Fiat, which owns 58.5 percent of Chrysler, has a controlling interest in Chrysler and the companies are working together to develop and sell vehicles.

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The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index showed that prices fell in February from January in 16 of the 20 cities it tracks.

According to index, home prices dropped 0.8% from January to February, and 3.5% from February 2011.

“Broadly-speaking, home prices continued to decline in the early months of the year,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices.

Fifteen of the 20 cities in the index showed a year-over- year decline, led by a 17 percent plunge in Atlanta, a record for the city. Phoenix showed the biggest increase, with prices rising 3.3 percent in February.

“While there might be pieces of good news in this report, such as some improvement in many annual rates of return, February 2012 data confirm that, broadly-speaking, home prices continued to decline in the early months of the year,” said Blitzer.

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The latest generation tablet, which is compatible with 4G networks in the United States, does not work on Australian 4G networks.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission accused Apple last month of misleading customers with its new iPad, which claims the iPad is Wi-Fi + 4G, according to Australian sources.

According to AppleInsider, the third generation iPad uses the 700MHz and 2100MHz frequencies to connect with so-called 4G networks and can only use latter in Australia.

“There was at all material times information widely published in Australia which informed consumers that the iPad with WiFi + 4G was not compatible with Telstra’s 4G LTE network,” Apple said.

The company also recently updated its Australian website to make clear that the Wi-Fi + 4G iPad will not connect to LTE in Australia.

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Instagram is an app for iPhones and Android-based smartphones that allows users to take a photo and transform their photograph using 11 different filter effects, sharing them with other Instagram users and websites.

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, moved quickly on the deal, buying the photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion ever without consulting his board of directors, according to media sources.

27-year-old Zuckerberg has 28% of Facebook’s stock and controls 57% of Facebook’s its voting rights, allowing him to act independently if he wants. 28-year-old Instagram founder Kevin Systrom also owns about 45% of his company.

After a weekend of discussions between Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Systrom, the deal was finished on Sunday, April 8.

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.

“But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

Founded in 2004, Facebook became the world’s largest social network, with more than 845 million users and some 250 million photographs uploaded each day.

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52-year-old Kim, a surprise nominee of President Barack Obama, was selected Monday in a vote by the World Bank’s 25-member executive board. Kim will succeed the World Bank President Robert Zoellick, whose term ends on June 30.

Dr. Kim worked with international organizations, serving as a director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization.  Kim was one of the founders and former executive director of Partners in Health, a not-for-profit organization that supports health programs in poor countries.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised the selection saying:

“His deep development background coupled with his dedication to forging consensus will help breathe new life into the World Bank’s efforts to secure fast economic growth that is widely shared.”

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According to RealtyTrac Inc., the number of homes receiving foreclosure notices increased 7 percent in March from the previous month.

Foreclosure filings in the first quarter were down 2% from the fourth quarter of 2011 and 16% from the same period last year. It was the lowest level in more than four years, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

“The low foreclosure numbers in the first quarter are not an indication that the massive reservoir of distressed properties built up over the past few years has somehow miraculously evaporated,” RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer Brandon Moore said in the statement.

“The dam may not burst in the next 30 to 45 days, but it will eventually burst, and everyone downstream should be prepared for that to happen.”

The biggest U.S. banks agreed to a $25 billion settlement in February after their foreclosure practices were subjected to a 16-month probe by all 50 state attorneys general, according to sources.

Housing market is in decline in most major US cities because the home prices are still falling from December last year. The declines partly affected 18 of the nation’s 20 biggest cities in December, compared to a year earlier, according to the latest S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

“In terms of prices, the housing market ended 2011 on a very disappointing note,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices.  “In general, most of the regions also posted weak data in December.  Eighteen of the cities saw average

home prices fall in December over November. Seventeen of the cities have seen monthly declines for at least three consecutive months.”

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“Having a hybrid in the product lineup can certainly give a brand a competitive edge when it comes to attracting new customers,” said Brad Smith, director of Polk’s Loyalty Management Practice.

“The repurchase rates of hybrid vehicles are an indication that consumers are continuing to seek alternative solutions to high fuel prices.”

Hybrid vehicles represent only 2.4 percent of the new car market last year, down from a record high of 2.9 percent in 2008, according to the Polk study.

In 2011, 60 % of Toyota hybrid owners returned to the market to purchase another Toyota, according to the Polk study, while 41% of them purchased another hybrid from another brand.

The study also said that 52% of Honda hybrid owners stayed with the Honda brand, while just under 20% bought another hybrid car from any brand.

“Having a hybrid in the product lineup can certainly give a brand a competitive edge when it comes to attracting new customers,” said Brad Smith, director of Polk’s Loyalty Management Practice.

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