Financials Charles Schwab

*Transocean shares up after results, Time Warner off on video demand. *Apple's stock gains 1.4 pct and bolsters the Nasdaq. The Nasdaq was the strongest of the three major U.S. stock indexes, helped by a rally in Apple Inc, the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company.

LONDON, Nov 2- Gold prices fell to their lowest level since late August on Friday, sliding more than 1 percent as the dollar jumped after better-than-expected U.S. jobs data in the last major signal on the state of the economy before elections next Tuesday. Spot gold was down 1.8 percent at $1,684.36 at 1509 GMT, having earlier hit an eight-week low of $1,682.89.

*Wall Street, crude oil retreat after strong payrolls report. Wall Street opened higher but faltered near break-even and Brent crude retreated after the Commerce Department reported new orders for manufactured goods climbed 4.8 percent, a sharp gain driven by volatile aircraft orders.

LONDON, Nov 2- Gold slid to an eight-week low on Friday as the dollar jumped after data showing higher-than-expected U.S. job creation, the last major signal on the state of the world's largest economy before elections next Tuesday. Spot gold was at $1,695.65 at 1325 GMT, down 1.42 percent, having touched an eight-week low of $1,692.19 after the data.

WASHINGTON, Nov 2- U.S. employers stepped up hiring in October and the jobless rate ticked higher as more workers restarted job hunts, a hopeful sign for a lackluster economy that has been a drag on President Barack Obama's reelection chances. Employers added 171,000 people to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday.

BOSTON-- BlackRock Inc.' s iShares unit is reducing the investment fees charged at six of its largest exchange-traded funds as the biggest ETF provider expands a fee-cutting war that's benefiting cost-conscious investors.

SAN FRANCISCO-- The Charles Schwab Corp. has agreed to acquire dividend income specialist ThomasPartners Inc. for an upfront payment of $85 million, plus additional payments if the smaller company can attract more investors. It had $2.3 billion under management as of Sept. 30, mostly in growth-oriented stocks that pay dividends.

Pittsburgh- based Legend Financial Advisors has an average of a dozen interns at any given time, and half of its 23- person full-time staff are alums of the internship program. "It takes about four interns to equal the pay of a regular employee," said Stanasolovich, who pays interns between $8.50 and $12.50 an hour, plus performance and other bonuses.

CHICAGO, Oct 8- Exchange-traded index funds are a bit like mobile phones-- models offer an increasing array of features over time, while prices on even the plain-vanilla models keep falling.

CHICAGO, Oct 8- Exchange-traded index funds are a bit like mobile phones-- models offer an increasing array of features over time, while prices on even the plain-vanilla models keep falling.