CHINA

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it sold 21 percent more cars in China in 2009 compared with a year earlier, lagging rival General Motors' 67 percent gain.

Dell Inc is bringing its first-ever smartphone to the United States with AT&T Inc as the carrier, making a push into mobile devices as its core personal computer business struggles.

Property agent Century 21 China Real Estate plans to raise about $150 million via its initial public offering of shares at the New York Stock Exchange this month, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters on Wednesday.

Tianjin Qingyuan Electric Vehicle Co, the first Chinese automaker to break into the United States, hopes to significantly boost sales of its self-developed electric models in the world's second-largest market this year, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

China's top search engine Baidu Inc said it plans to start a new online video channel that will provide copyrighted content to Chinese Internet users.

IMAX, which has positioned itself as a specialist in “immersive” movie technologies, reported that more than half of fourth quarter box office receipts showing its large format films came from blockbuster hit Avatar.

China's top search engine Baidu Inc said it plans to start a new independent company to provide licensed online video to Chinese Internet users.

Police in south China have detained three people for spreading rumours that a group of ethnic Uighurs had been beaten up in a case that has shades of an incident which set off rioting in Xinjiang last summer.

China, saddled with the world's second largest tuberculosis burden after India, is fighting an uphill battle against drug-resistant forms of the disease which will only drain the country's health budget.

Consumer confidence is strongest in emerging Asia, Brazil and Australia, but weakened slightly in the United States in the fourth quarter as Americans worried about job security, a survey showed on Wednesday.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.4 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.32 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.28 percent at 5.13 a.m. EST.

China Gold Association said the nation will surpass India as the biggest consumer as the precious metal's allure as a solid, tangible, intrinsically valuable store of wealth seems to be growing further in China. According to CGA, the estimated demand for gold in the country was 450 tons in 2009, up 13.8 percent from 395.6 tons in 2008.

Global cotton production in 2010/11 is forecast at 24.2 million tons up nearly 10%, according to International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC). The production in China is forecsted at 7.7 mn tonnes in 2010/11, one million tons higher than in the current season. Most of the gain is expected to come from increased area in response to higher domestic prices.

Ford Motor Co posted a 33 percent sales gain for December as U.S. auto sales ended 2009 on an upswing after a tumultuous year that saw GM and Chrysler collapse into bankruptcy and China overtake the United States as the biggest car market.

(Corrects to show gain in Honda sales was nearly 25 percent, not 20 percent, in paragraph 6)

Ford Motor Co posted a 33 percent sales gain for December as U.S. auto sales ended 2009 on an upswing after a tumultuous year that saw GM and Chrysler collapse into bankruptcy and China overtake the United States as the biggest car market.

India's Tata Motors (TAMO.BO) may consider launching its ultra-cheap Nano car in the United States in three years, its chairman said on Tuesday, following possible sales in Europe by the end of 2011.

U.S. copper futures tiptoed into positive territory Tuesday morning, after a steep drop in U.S. pending home sales dragged the dollar down and an increase in factory orders bolstered recovery hopes in the manufacturing sector.

Two Chinese companies are targeting up to a combined $1.5 billion from initial public share offerings in Hong Kong in the first quarter, reinforcing the fundraising wave that made it the world's No.1 IPO market in 2009.

International Mining Machinery Ltd. (IMM), a Chinese mining equipment company, aims to raise about $500 million from a Hong Kong initial public offering by February, sources close to the deal told Reuters on Tuesday.

Canada-listed coal miner SouthGobi Energy Resources (SGQ.TO) plans to raise about $400 million from a Hong Kong initial public offering this month, according to a term sheet obtained by Reuters.