* A major investor in Solyndra was instrumental in helping the firm compete for a lucrative U.S. Navy deal, a previously unreported connection that will likely fuel controversy surrounding the company.* The travails of the developed world are starting to take their toll on fast-growing countries like China, Brazil and Indonesia, which are moving to policies aimed at refueling growth.* European banks such as BNP Paribas SA , Dexia SA and Deutsche Bank AG have flummoxed investors who are trying to divine the lenders’ capacity to absorb losses on Greek debt and other shaky holdings.* Owners of online-video site Hulu LLC ended efforts to sell the joint venture, after an auction process exposed rifts between them and potential buyers on the value of future rights to stream television shows over the Internet.* Raj Rajaratnam, the face of the biggest trading scandal in a generation, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest-ever term handed down for an insider case.* Google’s third-quarter earnings rose 26 percent as growth in demand for the Internet heavyweight’s search advertising accelerated sharply.* Slowing economic growth, spiraling unemployment and overspending by its powerful regional governments could make Spain the latest ailing euro-zone country to miss its budget target this year.* The U.S. is considering a program to draw private investment back into the mortgage market by having Fannie and Freddie sell slices of securities that wouldn’t carry a federal guarantee but would pay a higher interest rate than current mortgage-backed bonds.* Asian stock markets were lower after a downgrade of Spain’s long-term sovereign credit rating, with exporters and resources stocks leading declines. The Nikkei fell 0.7 percent.* J.P. Morgan Chase & Co stoked new fears about the health of the U.S. banking industry as it posted its first year-on-year drop in quarterly profits since the height of the financial crisis.* Gap Inc. plans to shut more than a fifth of its Gap stores in North America over the next two years, a comedown for the struggling retailer and a stark symbol of the way the tepid recovery and rise of online shopping have altered the landscape at shopping malls.* The four-day selloff that knocked Hong Kong’s stock market down 10 percent early this month would have scared off most companies planning an initial public offering. China’s biggest broker was undeterred.* The organization responsible for auditing circulation figures that newspapers report in the U.K. said it is weighing whether to investigate a deal that The Wall Street Journal Europe made to distribute bulk copies on the Continent.* Unilever PLC is nearing a deal to buy Russian skincare company OAO Concern Kalina for about $850 million, according to people familiar with the matter, in the Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant’s latest move to boost its exposure to faster-growing emerging markets.* Americans’ incomes have dropped since 2000 and they aren’t expected to make up the lost ground before 2021, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

* Analysts may have been looking for moreSAN FRANCISCO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Facebook executive and eBay Inc board member Katie Mitic unveiled a partnership between the two companies designed to create a new crop of e-commerce applications with social networking features.Mitic said on Wednesday that Facebook’s so-called Open Graph — the map of connections that Facebook users create with friends and online content — will be integrated “seamlessly” into applications developed with certain eBay services and technologies.EBay is trying to encourage outside developers to create applications for its e-commerce platforms and is making a particularly strong push in mobile commerce.The company launched X.commerce, its new division aimed at software developers, at a conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.Weaving Facebook features into e-commerce products has the potential to make online shopping a more personalized experience, by displaying people’s thoughts about products on the virtual store shelves.Speaking at the conference, Mitic said Facebook’s Open Graph would be integrated into applications developed with eBay services such as Magento, a service for building online storefronts, and GSI, which handles order fulfillment.Some analysts and e-commerce experts had expected a deeper partnership, possibly focusing on PayPal, eBay’s electronic payment system.Mitic’s announcement was met with little applause from the 3,000 strong crowd in the conference hall.”This is a positive step for merchants and developers, but the Street was likely looking for a higher-profile partnership with Facebook across eBay and PayPal,” Doug Anmuth, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, wrote in a note to investors. “That could still happen down the line, but we do not expect it in the near term.”Shares of eBay slipped 0.2 percent to $32.75 on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq Composite index climbed 0.84 percent.EBay and Facebook have an existing partnership the allows the purchase of Facebook self-serve ads and Facebook Credits using PayPal, eBay’s electronic payments system.At the end of September, Mitic, head of Platform and Mobile Marketing at Facebook, joined eBay’s board of directors, sparking speculation that the two companies were working on new partnerships.