HSBC sale

HSBC Holdings, which has been scaling back its US operations, will sell 195 upstate New York retail-banking branches to First Niagara Finan cial Group for $1 billion in cash.

Oil rises

Crude oil for Septem ber delivery rose as much as $1.40 to $97.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on optimism surrounding the lifting of the federal debt limit.

July jobs

Payrolls are forecast to climb significantly in July, by 90,000 work ers, after an 18,000 in crease in June that was the smallest this year, according to econo mists surveyed by Bloomberg News be fore a Labor Depart ment report on Friday.

Raw truth

Funds lifted bets on ris ing commodity prices last week to a six-week high after traders snapped up raw materials as alterna tive assets amid the esca lating US debt crisis. Speculators raised their net-long position in 18 commodities by 10,063 futures and options con tracts to 1.27 million in the week ended July 26, according to government data.