The Wall Street Journal takes a close look at major cities' housing markets. The decent news for Nashville: Only in Seattle are fewer people behind on their mortgages and only Dallas and Raleigh have seen smaller price drops. Not so hot: The region's job outlook is bleak along with half of the nation's top MSAs.

Alabama-based ProAssurance Corp. is buying local specialty insurer PICA Group for $120 million.

Pinnacle's Knoxville operations have raided Regions' Morgan Keegan unit for three wealth management veterans.

Tennessee Commerce (Ticker: TNCC) earned a record $1.9 million during the third quarter on the back of 6 percent loan growth during the period.

Third-quarter profits at America Service Group fell by more than half from a year ago. But the company (Ticker: ASGR) did guide higher for the fourth quarter, which lifted shares 12 percent after hours.

Higher development and marketing costs cut into third-quarter profits at HealthStream (Ticker: HSTM). Net income was down 17 percent to $609,000, although sales jumped 16 percent.

Loeb & Loeb, the national law firm that has one of its four offices near Belmont, plans to open a Beijing outpost next year.

Former Senator and ambassador Howard Baker has launched a consulting venture to help Japanese companies invest in the U.S. 

Community Health Systems (Ticker: CYH) gets an honorable mention of sorts in a BusinessWeek piece on the strange state of the leveraged loan market.

Tennessean parent Gannett will lay off 10 percent of its work force in five weeks.