PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Oct 16

Oct 16 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* The U.S. Treasury's pay czar pushed departing Banc of America Corp's (BAC.N) chief Lewis into giving back $1 million received so far this year and forgoing the rest of his $1.5 million salary for 2009.

* Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) launched a brash price war against Amazon.com (AMZN.O), saying it would sell 10 hotly anticipated new books for just $10 apiece through its Web site.

* Google Inc (GOOG.O) shook off the recession and said its Internet advertising business picked up steam during the third quarter as marketers began spending again. Profit rose 27 percent.

* Ticketmaster TKTM.O and Live Nation (LYV.N) are facing stiff resistance to their proposed merger from the Justice Department, which will require major concessions to address antitrust concerns.

* The death of Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N) Chief Executive Bruce Wasserstein will trigger the vesting of stock currently valued at $188 million, confirming Mr. Wasserstein's status as one of history's most highly paid investment bankers.

* Roughly a year after accepting unprecedented financial aid to shore up its operations, Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) posted yet another impressive quarter that further distances itself from rivals, many of which are still struggling to overcome the credit crisis.

* The United States' construction industry, nearly paralyzed during the downturn, should see modest gains next year, as a rise in building of single-family houses, apartment buildings, and highways and bridges offsets drops in commercial and manufacturing property, according to a new report.

* Discount giant Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) kicked off the third-quarter earnings season for U.S. carriers with a small loss, but provided evidence that the worst days may be behind the recession-wracked industry.

* Miner Xstrata (XTA.L) dropped its pursuit of rival Anglo American (AAL.L), a sign that one of the mining sector's most successful deal-making machines could be reaching the limits of its merger-driven dash for growth.

* The U.S. House Financial Services Committee approved a measure that would bring derivatives under the government's regulatory umbrella for the first time, a major step in advancing a broad regulatory overhaul pushed by the Obama administration.

* The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission will ask China to help pay for the billions of dollars in damage to U.S. homes blamed on Chinese-made drywall.

* Underlying euro-zone inflation should edge down in coming months even if overall prices rise slightly, the European Central Bank said, signaling that it likely will hold interest rates at very low levels for some time.

* South Korea's LG Display (034220.KS) said third-quarter profit nearly doubled from a year earlier, thanks to a steady rise in prices of flat panels and strong demand for LCDs from China.

* IBM's (IBM.N) third-quarter profit jumped 14 percent as better margins more than offset lower revenue. The tech giant again raised its full-year profit target.

* Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said that it has been able to recover the personal customer data lost from many of T-Mobile USA's Sidekick devices.

* U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government must be careful not to repeat past mistakes and withdraw stimulus support too soon.