Ben again

Federal Reserve Chair man Ben S. Bernanke told his staff that the US cen tral bank faces “enor mous challenges” as he was sworn in for a sec ond four-year term.

Lazard loss

Lazard reported an un expected loss on higher compensation costs. The fourth-quarter loss was $54.9 million, or 46 cents a share, vs. profit of $61.2 million, or 50 cents, a year ago. Lazard fell $1.11, or 2.7 percent, to $39.89 on the NYSE, and earlier dropped as much as 5.7 percent, the biggest de cline since last June.

Hands down

UK moneyman Guy Hands is asking investors in his buyout firm Terra Firma for 100 million pounds ($159.9 million), saying its music label EMI will be unable to meet its loans from Citi group this year, the Fin ancial Times reported.

Redstone

Sumner Redstone, the chairman of CBS and Vi acom, and former directors of Midway Games won dismissal of claims brought by Midway’s creditors over disputed loans to the video-game maker.

Monster

Yahoo! plans to sell its HotJobs Web site to Monster Worldwide for $225 million in cash.