SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook on Wednesday filed to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering. Here are a few highlights of its meteoric rise, several of which were chronicled in David Fincher's seminal Oscar-winning 2010 movie, "The Social Network":

October 28 2003 – Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard psychology sophomore, writes "Facemash," a website that asked users to judge students' attractiveness based on their dorm-directory photos. The authorities — and many students — were not amused.

February 4 2004 – Zuckerberg launches Thefacebook.com, a social network that allows users to create basic profiles including personal information and photos.

February 10 2004 – Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narenya send Zuckerberg a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Zuckerberg of independently developing thefacebook.com while he was hired to work on their social networking project, HarvardConnection.

June 2004 – Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist, invests $500,000 in Facebook.

May 26, 2005 – Accel Partners, the venture capital firm headed by investor Jim Breyer, invests $12.7 million in Facebook, valuing the company at roughly $100 million.

October 24, 2007 – Microsoft Corp announces that it purchased a 1.6 percent share of Facebook for $240 million, giving the company a total implied value of around $15 billion.

April 7, 2008 – Facebook settles with the founders of "ConnectU", the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra, for a purported $65 million, according to promotional material later published by ConnectU's lawyers.

May 26, 2009 – Russian investor Yuri Milner's Digital Sky Technologies invests $200 million for a 1.96 percent stake, bringing Facebook's value down to $10 billion.

June 3, 2010 – Zuckerberg sweats profusely as he takes questions about Facebook's privacy policy while onstage at the All Things Digital conference. The episode, which the Twittering classes dubbed a "Nixon Moment," renewed questions about Zuckerberg's viability as the CEO of a company rumored to go public soon.

June 30, 2010 – In one of the more bizarre twists in Facebook's history, New York businessman Paul D. Ceglia files suit against Zuckerberg, claiming he had struck a deal with the founder in 2003 for half of Facebook's revenue and rightfully owned 84 percent of the company. Three successive lawyers withdrew from his legal team within a period of four months in late 2011. The litigation remains ongoing.

October 10, 2010 – Columbia Pictures releases "The Social Network," a film about Facebook's beginning, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin.

January 2, 2011 – Facebook raises $500 million from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the company at $50 billion.

January 2011 – Goldman controversially markets as much as $1.5 billion worth of Facebook shares to its private investors, but withdraws the offer from American clients on January 18 following intense media coverage and scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The offer was withdrawn because of accusations that it ran afoul of regulations prohibiting share-placement sponsors from aggressively promoting a deal to potential investors.

November 29, 2011 – Facebook agrees to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived users on what information it would keep private. The incident underscored how user concerns about privacy were spurring top-level government scrutiny of Silicon Valley.

January 25, 2012 – Trading of Facebook shares is halted on the secondary market as rumors of an impending IPO gain steam.

February 1, 2012 – Facebook files its Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to raise $5 billion in a highly anticipated IPO.

(Reporting by Gerry Shih)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Eastman Kodak Co. has been warned by the New York Stock Exchange that its stock will be delisted if the price remains below $1 per share for the next six months, the ailing photography company said Tuesday.

The exchange put the company on notice after its shares’ average closing price was below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days.

Under NYSE rules, the Rochester, N.Y., company has six months to regain compliance with the minimum share price requirement. That means its stock must have a closing price of at least $1 a share on the last trading day of any calendar month during the period and must maintain that average over the previous 30 trading days or on the last day of the six months.

Kodak shares, which traded as high as $5.85 in the past year, closed at 65 cents Tuesday, up a penny, and slid nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading. The stock has not closed above $1 since Dec. 2. Shares have slid precipitously since the fall as Kodak, which has posted losses in six of the last seven years, seeks to avert a cash crunch by selling its digital-imaging patent portfolio. The photography pioneer, which has been reinventing itself as a digital imaging and printing company, warned in November that its survival over the next year hinges on an ability to sell its potentially lucrative patents or raise extra funds by selling debt.

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines’ parent company, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, said Thursday that its stock will be dropped from the New York Stock Exchange.

The shares will stop trading on the NYSE before the opening bell next Thursday. The delisting includes AMR common stock and some company-issued notes.

AMR Corp. said that the NYSE notified the Fort Worth, Texas, company of the move after the average closing price of AMR shares fell below $1 for 30 straight trading days.

The shares closed at $1.62 the day before the Nov. 29 bankruptcy filing and fell to 26 cents that day. They closed Thursday down 3 cents at 52 cents, and sank another 21 cents, or 40 percent, to 30 cents in after-hours trading.

The company said that because of its Chapter 11 filing, it could not try to “cure” the weakness in its share price, and would not oppose the delisting.

AMR expects that the shares will trade on the over-the-counter bulletin board and pink-sheets electronic trading as soon as next Thursday under a new ticker symbol, not the familiar “AMR.”

AMR noted that in most Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, stockholders get little or nothing for their shares.

AMR filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after posting about $11 billion in losses since 2001. AMR shares had fallen 79 percent this year before the bankruptcy filing.

American hopes to reduce debt and cut labor costs in the bankruptcy process, then emerge as a slightly smaller but tougher competitor for United and Delta, the world’s two biggest airlines.

American has promised passengers that it will operate normally while in bankruptcy. A judge in New York has granted the airline permission to keep paying for fuel, labor, new planes and other key expenses to keep flying.

AMR also owns the American Eagle regional airline, which it had planned to spin off or sell. Those plans are on hold.

NEW YORK – Stock futures are mixed and nearly flat after four straight sessions of gains.

In the first day of trading following the holiday weekend, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were down 16 points at 12,201. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 2.6 points at 1,257.70. And the Nasdaq composite was down 1.25 at 2,277.25.

A run of strong data from the U.S. ahead of the long holiday weekend had buoyed investors around the world and particularly on Wall Street. The Dow Jones index closed Friday at a five-month high.

European shares eked out modest gains Tuesday despite an earlier retreat in Asia.

Due later Tuesday are reports on October home prices at 9 a.m. ET and consumer sentiment at 10 a.m. ET.

In Europe stock markets have recovered some ground recently, but most are still down on the year.

On Tuesday, France’s CAC-40 rose 0.2 percent to 3,108 while Germany’s DAX was up 0.2 percent at 5,888. The FTSE index of Britain’s leading shares remained closed.

One market bucking the trend was Italy’s FTSE MIB, trading 0.5 percent lower as the yield on the country’s ten-year bonds struck 7 percent once again — a level that is considered unsustainable in the long-run and eventually forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek outside financial help.

Italy is the eurozone’s third-largest economy and is considered to be too big to save under current bailout facilities. Mario Monti, the country’s new premier, got parliamentary approval last week for a big austerity package that is intended to save the country from financial disaster.

Markets have grown increasingly fearful over the past few months that Italy will find it difficult to pay off its massive debts, which stand at around euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion).

Despite ongoing worries over the spread of Europe’s debt crisis to Italy, the euro remained relatively well-supported, trading 0.1 percent higher too at $1.3070.

The narrow ranges across stock markets reflect light holiday trading. Markets in Europe and the U.S. were closed Monday and trading is expected to be light most of this week, though there could be some year-end movement on Friday as investors look to lock in any gains they may have made.

Earlier, Asian shares fell after disappointing profits from Chinese companies and a warning that Japan faces “significant downside risks” due to Europe’s debt problems. That warning came from a Finance Ministry representative at a November Bank of Japan meeting, the bank said Tuesday.

Japan’s Nikkei index lost 0.5 percent to 8,440.56, while Seoul’s Kospi shed 0.8 percent at 1,842.02. Taipei, Singapore and Jakarta also declined. Hong Kong and Sydney were closed.

China’s benchmark Shanghai index dropped nearly 1.1 percent to 2,166.21 after the country’s government reported that profit growth slowed at its major industrial companies. Total profit in the January-November period rose 24.4 percent over a year earlier, down 0.9 percent from the growth rate for the first 10 months of the year.

Oil markets were fairly subdued — benchmark crude for February delivery rose 29 cents to $99.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

___

AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed to this report from Beijing.

CAIRO – Egypt’s benchmark stock index rebounded on Wednesday, ending a 10-day losing streak as investors stepped in for bargains after escalating protests against the military rulers and violence battered the market and raised questions about the country’s political stability.

The Egyptian Exchange’s EXG30 index ended the day about 1 percent higher at 3,717 points, partly reversing the previous day’s nearly 4.8 percent slide. Brokers, however, were not optimistic that the gains could be sustained, given continued clashes between protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and security forces and the activists’ rejection of concessions offered late Tuesday by Egypt’s military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

Tantawi, in a bid to end days of violent demonstrations that have left dozens dead, offered to hold a referendum that would allow Egyptians to decide whether the military should return to its barracks. The military took power following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in mid-February.

“The general situation is not encouraging,” said Khaled Nagah, senior broker with Mega Investments. “Tahrir still hasn’t calmed down, and it’s unlikely that tomorrow there will be any significant gains in the market.”

Nagah said that Western and Arab investors are leaving the market and that “there’s no buying power and no liquidity.”

“As long as the situation continues like this in Tahrir, the stock market is not safe to invest in, even though there are great bargains to be had,” he said.

The past few days of losses on the exchange have pushed its year-to-date losses to almost 48 percent, making it one of the worst performing markets in the world.

Traders said the losses so far this year have reached nearly 190 billion Egyptian pounds ($31.8 billion), of which 12 billion came in Tuesday’s session.

The clashes and continued protests come days before the Nov. 28 parliamentary vote — a ballot that was to be a milestone moment in Egypt’s transition to democracy after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule by Mubarak. But the violence, and calls by some for a second revolution, have cast a pall on the process and raised questions about whether it will go ahead as scheduled.

They also underscore a rift in Egypt, where youth activists and their backers maintain that the military has largely undercut the earlier popular uprising by pursuing the same policies as Mubarak’s regime.

Their complaints reverberate against criticism by millions of others who feel that the constant protests and strikes since Mubarak handed over power have done nothing but batter the economy and make their lives even more difficult.

The Egyptian pound again breached the 6 pounds to the U.S. dollar mark on Wednesday, according to currency website, XE.com. The government has been intervening for months to keep that from happening.

Further reflecting how investors view the current political situation in Egypt, the country’s five-year credit default swaps — the cost of insuring its sovereign debt against default — climbed by 7.26 basis points to reach 552.26 basis points, according to market data provider CMA.

NEW YORK – Flanked by police scooters, about two dozen Occupy Wall Street protesters started a two-week walk from New York to Washington on Wednesday.

The activists left Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, marched past the World Trade Center site and boarded a ferry to New Jersey. The group planned to stay overnight at a private home in Elizabeth, N.J., and resume their walk on Thursday morning.

“Everything is going well so far, everyone is in good spirits” Kelley Brannon, the walk’s main organizer, said during a phone interview Wednesday night, shortly before they arrived in Elizabeth. “We’re doing well and looking forward to our travel.”

They plan to walk through Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland and arrive in Washington by Nov. 23 — the deadline for a congressional committee to decide whether to keep President Barack Obama’s extension of Bush-era tax cuts. Protesters say the cuts benefit only rich Americans.

Michael Glazer, a 26-year-old actor from Chicago, smiled as he boarded the ferry across the Hudson River, cheered by supporters shouting, “Thank you!” Walking in well-worn boots, he said: “I’ve had these for years and years, and they’ve served me well for many miles of marches.”

They hope to pick up other participants along their 240-mile march and have likened the effort to long-distance walks during the civil rights era. They say they’ll overnight by camping or at volunteered accommodations.

Among those seeing off the Occupy marchers was Rabbi Chaim Gruber, 42, the self-appointed “resident rabbi” of the New York protest.

“Anyone need a sleeping bag?” he asked the group, handing over two — along with a bag containing shampoo and extra socks.

WASHINGTON – Encouraging news from Europe helped ignite stock prices in October. This week, investors will shift their focus to U.S. economic data, which might temper their exuberance.

Three events this week will command attention: the U.S. jobs report for October, the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s quarterly news conference.

A report Thursday showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a solid 2.5 annual rate in the July-September quarter. That helped ease concerns that another recession might be nearing. Yet the news may have also raised unrealistic expectations about the economy. Investors could end up disappointed.

“There’s a big difference between avoiding recession and stronger growth,” said Eric Green, chief U.S. economist at TD Securities. “The economic data will be OK, but it’s not going to be a catalyst to move stocks up” significantly.

Last week, investors were cheered by the deal European leaders reached Thursday. European banks agreed to take a 50 percent loss on their holdings of Greek government bonds. They will also set aside more money to cushion against future losses.

Leaders also pledged to expand the European Union’s bailout fund.

The announcement catapulted U.S. stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average rocketed 339 points Thursday and appears headed for its sharpest monthly gain since 1987.

Economists caution that European officials must still fill in the details of their plan and implement it. Even then, it might not work. When world leaders meet in France on Thursday and Friday, investors will want to see signs that China and other nations are prepared to help bolster Europe’s bailout fund.

For all that, some stock analysts remain bullish.

“The market was priced for meltdown, and didn’t get it,” Green said. “However inadequate the European package may appear, it is a decisive step in the right direction.”

Stocks had plummeted in September over fears that Europe’s debt burdens would trigger a financial catastrophe. With those fears fading, U.S. stock prices looked cheap last week, analysts said.

The U.S. economy appears more resilient than it did in August, when worries had grown that the United States would fall back into recession. Consumers’ sentiment tumbled that month after Congress fought over raising the nation’s borrowing limit and Standard & Poor’s downgraded long-term U.S. debt.

Yet the economy managed to expand in the July-September quarter at the healthiest pace in a year. Despite their gloomy outlook, consumers spent more. Companies increased their investment in software and equipment.

The focus on Europe “taught us something very important,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Fund. “Despite all the turmoil in Europe and the drop in confidence caused by it, the U.S. economy is still growing.”

All that makes the Fed less likely to announce any new steps Wednesday at the end of its two-day policy meeting. Several members of the policy committee have suggested more action may be needed to try to help the economy — perhaps another round of bond purchases to further cut long-term interest rates. But few analysts expect any such announcement yet.

Three of the 10 members of the policymaking committee have dissented from the Fed’s smaller-scale efforts to boost growth in recent months. Two of the three are scheduled to lose their voting privileges in 2012.

Investors might welcome a quiet Fed meeting, analysts said. It would suggest that the economy might be able to recover on its own.

“Every time the Fed administers medicine to the economy, it convinces people that the economy is sick,” Kelly said. “There would be incredible cheering if the Fed decided that the economy is on the mend and no further action is required.”

Also Wednesday, the central bank will update its economic forecasts, which Bernanke will discuss at his news conference. The Fed is expected to revise down its estimates for hiring and growth from its last forecast in June. Investors will scrutinize how Bernanke explains any such revisions.

The Fed’s meeting will be followed by the most closely watched economic indicator the government releases: the monthly jobs report.

The economy is growing, but not enough to generate many jobs for the 14 million people unemployed. Employers added 103,000 net jobs in September. That wasn’t enough to lower the unemployment rate, which has been stuck 9.1 percent for three months.

Analysts expect roughly 100,000 jobs to be added in October. Anything less could raise concerns that the economy may slow. Stocks might stumble.

A gain of 100,000 jobs is scarcely enough to keep up with population growth. More than double that total would be needed consistently to reduce unemployment significantly.

“The jobs report will be a sobering reminder … that all is not well with the economy,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at brokerage firm BTIG.

This week will bring other economic reports, too. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, will issue its surveys of purchasing managers for manufacturing and service-sector companies. Those will provide early reads of whether growth will accelerate in the final three months of the year or drop back.

And automakers will report their October sales, a gauge of whether consumers are willing to make big purchases. Consumer sentiment has fallen to recession levels. But that doesn’t necessarily mean shoppers will reduce their spending.

The auto sales data, in particular, will show “what the consumer does, not what the consumer says,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds.

(Reuters) – U.S. regulators are formally investigating whether Avon broke bribery laws overseas, and the cosmetics company said it was again reassessing its strategy after quarterly profit fell far short of expectations.

Shares of Avon fell as much as 19.6 percent on Thursday, as analysts blasted Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung and questioned whether she and her team can come up with a turnaround plan as quickly as they hope to.

Analysts took longtime leader Jung to task during Avon's quarterly conference call, as they have in prior quarters.

"Why should investors believe management and the board have any control over the business at this point?" asked Stifel Nicolaus' Mark Astrachan, who downgraded Avon to "hold."

"Look, the buck stops with me," replied Jung, who has been chief executive officer since 1999 and chairman since 2001.

U.S. regulators also subpoenaed Avon Products Inc over its contact with analysts and others as part of an investigation related to fair disclosure under Regulation FD.

Under Jung, Avon has turned in poor performances in key markets such as Brazil and Russia, poured tens of millions of dollars into its international bribery investigation and struggled to stem declines in a sluggish U.S. market.

New York-based Avon does most of its business outside North America. Other markets accounted for nearly 82.2 percent of revenue and 98.4 percent of profit in the third quarter.

The world's largest direct seller of cosmetics, which has been celebrating its 125th anniversary with celebrity-studded events this year, now plans to assess long-range business plans and give an update during the first quarter of 2012.

"It strikes me that you guys are so totally screwed up, in so many ways, the change has to be radical," said Citigroup analyst Wendy Nicholson, who noted that a first-quarter meeting may not give Avon enough time for a comprehensive review.

She also questioned whether Avon would consider other steps, including hiring consultants, exiting another market as it exited Japan or possibly taking the company private.

Avon could be a target for a private equity firm in the future, but for now the investigation is too risky for any buyer to take a look at it, consumer industry bankers said.

"Everything is part of the overall business review," said Charles Cramb, vice chairman of the developed market group and interim chief finance officer.

Another potential red flag is that Avon cannot fully fund its dividend with free cash flow. The payout was raised to a quarterly rate of 23 cents per share earlier this year.

Avon has had "disappointing" cash management as well as one-time cash outlays, said Cramb, who will end his six years as Avon's CFO at the end of November.

Avon's incoming CFO, Kimberly Ross of Royal Ahold, will be involved in the review, Jung said.

Avon changed its corporate structure and shook up management in February. It overhauled operations and cut thousands of jobs under a restructuring laid out in November 2005 and updated in February 2009, and eliminated the dual role of president and chief operating officer in 2006, leaving business units to report directly to Jung.

Avon shares were down 17.7 percent at $18.93 on Thursday afternoon. Nearly $2 billion of Avon's market capitalization was wiped out when shares fell to $18.51 earlier in the session. The shares had fallen 20.8 percent from the beginning of the year through Wednesday.

SEC PROBE

Avon said on Thursday that it received the subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The SEC is investigating the company's contact during 2010 and 2011 with certain analysts and other representatives of the financial community, Avon said in its quarterly filing.

The SEC adopted Regulation FD, short for "fair disclosure," in 2000 to prevent companies from tipping off analysts and investors about material information.

The SEC issued a formal order of investigation of both Regulation FD matters and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matter that Avon itself has been looking at since June 2008.

Avon said it could not say how long the investigations may take or what the consequences might be.

Meanwhile, Avon blamed disappointing results in Brazil on poor implementation of an "unforgiving" new computer system and said tough economic conditions in several areas crimped sales.

The company — which does not issue quarterly earnings forecasts — no longer expects to meet its 2011 goals of mid-single digit revenue growth or a 0.5 percentage point to 0.7 percentage point improvement in operating margin.

"The CEO is responsible for the overall outcome of a company, and she has to be under pressure with these results," said Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj. "It would be unfair to shareholders if there weren't pressure on management at this point."

Jung, a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, was ranked sixth on Fortune magazine's list of powerful women in U.S. business in September.

She co-leads the seven-member board at Apple Inc and chairs its compensation committee. When announcing her nomination to Apple's board in 2008, Steve Jobs referred to Jung as a "strong CEO and marketer."

She has also served on General Electric Co's board since 1998 and serves on two of its committees: nominating and corporate governance and management development and compensation. A GE spokesman said the company is not reviewing her position as a director, while an Apple spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

Avon's third-quarter profit fell to $164.2 million, or 38 cents per share, from $166.7 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 5.7 percent to $2.76 billion.

The results missed Wall Street estimates of earnings of 46 cents per share and revenue of $2.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Avon also sold 5 percent fewer products in the quarter. In North America, sales continued to slide as more sales representatives left, and operating profit fell 85 percent.

Avon option volume was heavy, running 14.8 times the norm with some apparently looking for a long-term rebound in shares by picking up January 2013 $20 calls.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Additional reporting by Brad Dorfman and Doris Frankel in Chicago, Phil Wahba and Jonathan Stempel in New York, Jessica Hall in Philadelphia, Scott Malone in Boston and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; editing by Dave Zimmerman, Lisa Von Ahn and Matthew Lewis)

NEW YORK – A grim profit report and forecast from manufacturing conglomerate 3M Co. is pulling stocks lower in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 130 points.

Netflix Inc. plummeted 37 percent after reporting that 800,000 customers left after the company raised prices in July.

3M, the maker of Post-Its and Scotch tape, said its third-quarter earnings fell 2 percent. It also expects growth to remain slow through the year and it cut its 2011 earnings forecast. 3M slumped 6.8 percent, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow average.

Ten minutes after the opening bell Tuesday, the Dow was down 129 points, or 1.1 percent, at 11,782.

The S&P 500 fell 16, or 1.3 percent, to 1,237. The Nasdaq fell 36, or 1.3 percent, to 2,663.