Inch by inch, Americans are recovering some of their vast loss of wealth from the recession, thanks to gains in stock investments and home values. It’s likely to be a long trek. Net worth — the value of assets such as homes, bank accounts and investments, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards — rose 5 percent last quarter, to $53.4 trillion, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.

Finra expects to bring cases against brokerage firms involved in selling private placement offerings next year, its head of enforcement said today. “We have a number of investigations under way involving allegations of wrongdoing arising from the sales of these ‘Reg D’ private placements,” said James Shorris, executive vice president and executive director of enforcement at The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. arbitration panel has ruled that Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc

Stock prices jumped in early trading Thursday as data showing an improved trade deficit offset a weaker-than-expected reading on jobs. The Commerce Department said a surge in exports helped narrow the trade deficit in October to $32.9 billion. Economists had been expecting an increase.

Prudential’s insurance unit will get a big boost to its risk-based capital ratio when the carrier completes the sale of its minority stake in Wachovia Securities to Wells Fargo & Co., according to filings with the SEC. Prudential Financial Inc.

A top insurance executive is calling on government to endorse multi-employer pension plans, as federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and a number of his provincial counterparts prepare to meet in Whitehorse next week to brainstorm ways to tackle the challenges facing the nation’s retirement system. Dean Connor, president of Sun Life Financial Canada, says those challenges amount to one of the most important issues that Canada is facing. Millions of Canadians who should be saving for retirement are not, and millions more are not saving enough, he said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto Thursday

O il prices CL-FT fell to a two-month low of $70 (U.S.) a barrel on Thursday as excess inventories and sluggish demand outweighed gains on Wall Street and positive economic data. U.S. crude for January delivery fell 54 cents to $70.13 a barrel by 1:09 p.m