CHINA

Analysts have estimated that China’s consumer price index (CPI) went past 5 percent in January on annual basis, Securities Daily reported on Thursday.

Gold eased below $1,360 an ounce in Europe on Thursday as the rising dollar pressured prices, and with Asian buying still light after the Lunar New Year holidays.

A new Thai airline is hiring transsexual ladyboys as flight attendants, aiming at a unique identity to set itself apart from competitors as it sets out for the skies. Known as katoeys or ladyboys, transgenders and transsexuals have greater visibility in Thailand than in many other nations, holding mainstream jobs in a variety of fields.

Hackers working in China broke into the computer systems of five multinational oil and gas companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information, the computer security firm McAfee Inc said in a report.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday on disappointing earnings from Cisco and Credit Suisse before weekly jobless claims data.

A new report from computer security firm McAfee has identified five multinational oil and gas companies, whose networks were broken into by Chinese hackers, most probably with an intention to steal bidding plans and other important proprietary information.

Wall Street was set for a lower start on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq futures were down 0.4 to 1 percent at 1010 GMT.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Wednesday are: Encana Corp, EnerSys, Lions Gate Entertainment, FXCM and Goodyear Tire & Rubber. The top after-market NYSE losers are: Terex, LIN TV, Allstate, China Green Agriculture and Cypress Sharpridge Investments.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent struck an upbeat tone for 2011, keeping an ambitious free cash flow target and reassuring investors on its profitability as it nears the end of its turnaround plan.

The Hong Kong stock exchange said on Thursday it will consider international alliances after Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext announced plans to form the world's biggest trading powerhouse.

Global miner Rio Tinto reported a record second-half profit on Thursday, more than double a year earlier, matching forecasts as its biggest customer, China, snapped up iron ore, coal and copper.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent struck an upbeat tone for 2011, keeping an ambitious free cash flow target and reassuring investors on its profitability as it nears the end of its turnaround plan.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent set an adjusted operating target of 5 percent of 2011 sales, the lower end of what it had previously told investors it would achieve.

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc's CEO John Chambers spooked investors for the third time in as many quarters, warning of dwindling public spending and weaker margins from tough competition.

France's Alcatel-Lucent will on Thursday lay out its targets for 2011, with investors keen to see whether CEO Ben Verwaayen delivers on a long-awaited turnaround of the struggling telecoms gear maker.

Federal Reserve chairman said the risk of inflation was “quite low” and that higher prices in emerging markets were unlikely to spill over into the U.S.

The following are highlights from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony on the economy to the House Budget Committee on Wednesday.

Military talks between the rival Koreas have collapsed, a unification ministry official in Seoul said on Wednesday, dealing a setback to efforts to restart international aid-for-disarmament talks.

China, Japan and South Korea are dominating growth in international patent filings in a dramatic demonstration of the shift of scientific and economic power to northeast Asia, figures released on Wednesday showed.

After spooking the market for two quarters with cautious forecasts, Cisco Systems Inc must do more than meet or modestly beat analysts' forecasts to win back investor confidence.

Stronger economic growth in the United States will eventually lead to rising inflation this year as increased consumer and business spending drive the recovery, according to a Reuters poll of economists released on Wednesday.