NEW YORK (Reuters) – Corporate America has been talking a good game this earnings season, but a closer look shows the results are not nearly as strong as CEO optimism might lead investors to believe.

In fact, a number of companies are coming up short on either earnings or revenue as measured against Wall Street estimates, even as their leaders try to paint a picture of steady returns and solid prospects for 2013. Some investors say earnings expectations have been managed so low they are easy to beat, even if sales come up short.

By Ben Berkowitz and Nicola Leske

(Reuters) – Wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it has acquired a majority interest in Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) by buying a stake from the company’s founder.

A similar attempt by Sprint to take control of Clearwire last week was scuttled by a dispute with Intel and other investors.

Oct 18 (Reuters) – Travelers Cos Inc posted a record
quarterly operating profit as prices rose and losses from
natural disasters fell sharply, the property insurance company
said on Thursday.

Travelers was able to increase rates in all business lines
and also retain customers, a strong sign for the rest of the
industry. The company has been a bellwether of insurers’ ability
to raise pricing after years of weakness.

By Alister Bull and Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Friday named the banks that borrowed at its discount window during the third quarter of 2010, but the period showed very low levels of activity and none of the biggest Wall Street firms had turned to the facility for help.

Some of the decline in discount window borrowing may have reflected banks steering clear because they knew their actions would be disclosed, albeit with a two-year lag, once the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was passed.

, Sept 20 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s new
stimulus policy is essential to get the U.S. recovery back on
track and to avoid damaging economic stagnation, a top Fed
official said on Thursday.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said he strongly
supported the U.S. central bank’s decision last week to launch a
potentially massive program of asset purchases, arguing its
risks are considerably smaller and more manageable than doing
nothing.

QUINCY, Massachusetts (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s “forceful” new policy accommodation is essential to get the U.S. recovery back on track and to avoid a damaging economic stagnation, a top U.S. Fed official said on Thursday.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said he strongly supported the U.S. central bank’s decision last week to launch a potentially massive program of asset purchases, arguing its risks are considerably smaller and more manageable than doing nothing.

QUINCY, Massachusetts (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s “forceful” new policy accommodation is essential to get the U.S. recovery back on track and to avoid a damaging economic stagnation, a top U.S. Fed official said on Thursday.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said he strongly supported the U.S. central bank’s decision last week to launch a potentially massive program of asset purchases, arguing its risks are considerably smaller and more manageable than doing nothing.

BOSTON (Reuters) – A prominent Boston physician, who served as medical director of the famed prep school Phillips Academy for nearly two decades, was arrested on Thursday and charged with receiving child pornography at his school office.

A search of Richard Keller’s home turned up more than 500 photographs and as many as 100 DVDs full of pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston said in a statement. An associated complaint described the content of some of the DVDs, which mostly featured young boys in a variety of situations.

By Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – Insurance rates continued to rise in the third quarter for both businesses and individual customers, extending the pricing power that developed late last year, insurer Travelers Cos Inc said on Tuesday.

Travelers’ shares rose 1.4 percent to an all-time high in early trading.

In a slide presentation prepared for a Barclays financial services conference, Chief Executive Jay Fishman said business insurance rates were up an average of 7.7 percent so far in the third quarter, against gains of 7.2 percent last quarter.

By Ben Berkowitz

(Reuters) – MetLife Inc (MET.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) still expects to hit its long-term targets for return on equity, even if 10-year U.S. Treasury yields remain at their historically low levels, the chief executive officer of the largest U.S. life insurer said on Thursday.

The company also said it still had no sense of when federal regulators might consider its pending deal to sell its online deposit-taking operations to GE Capital, a transaction crucial to its plans to return capital to shareholders.