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BEYOND TAMPA BAY

 
Published Jan. 26, 2012|Updated Jan. 26, 2012

Apple briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil again as the most valuable U.S. company on Wednesday after posting an excellent quarter, though the oil giant regained the lead at the market's close. Exxon Mobil's stock closed up 4 cents at $87.22 for a market capitalization of $418 billion. Apple's increased 6 percent to $446.66 for a market cap of about $415 billion. Apple said Tuesday that net income in its latest quarter more than doubled, while revenue grew 73 percent.

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The Federal Trade Commission announced settlements Wednesday with six online marketers who were accused of using fake news sites on the Internet to entice customers to buy acai berry weight-loss products, promising rapid and substantial weight loss. The FTC says it was all a scam. Under the agreements, the sites are barred from making deceptive claims and required to make clear that their messages are advertisements and not objective journalism. In all, the six marketers will pay about $500,000 to the commission.

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The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes fell in December after hitting the highest level in a year and a half a month earlier. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday its index of sales agreements fell 3.5 percent last month to a reading of 96.6,down from November's reading of 100.1. A reading of 100 is considered healthy.

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Wal-Mart Stores has removed greeters from the overnight shift at its U.S. supercenters, chipping away at a 30-year tradition of making sure all shoppers are welcomed to the store. The move will save money and ensure appropriate staffing levels at Walmart stores during peak and nonpeak hours, said spokesman David Tovar. For the past six months, the discounter has been reassigning greeters at the company's approximately 3,000 U.S. supercenters from the third shift, which runs from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., to other jobs.

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"We thought we were betting bold. We didn't bet high enough."

APPLE CEO TIM COOK, saying the company underestimated the "staggering" demand for the iPhone 4S when it started sales in China this month

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$2B

AMOUNT NISSAN is investing to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico, the Japanese carmaker's third in the country

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THE BOTTOM LINE: Netflix regained 600,000 U.S. customers in the fourth quarter as its net income fell 14 percent to $40.7 million ... ConocoPhillips' fourth-quarer profit rose 66.1 percent to $3.39 billion ... Boeing's fourth-quarter net income jumped 20 percent to $1.39 billion