UNITED STATES

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday, the day after it posted its biggest daily percentage gain in three months, as investors awaited data on the housing market and industrial production.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it would install a system to ensure braking trumps acceleration for all new car models as it seeks to limit the damage from its vast recall woes.

The Pakistani military confirmed on Wednesday that the Afghan Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been captured.

Investors have not yet given up on the 11-month-old world markets recovery and there is little evidence so far this year of a retreat to safe-haven bunkers in the face of mini-shocks from Greek debts, China's monetary tightening and U.S. regulatory threats.

Morgan Stanley may hand over to creditors its $2.4 billion investment in a chain of Japanese hotels when the debt becomes due in April, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda said he believed North America chief Yoshimi Inaba was the logical choice to testify at the U.S. congressional hearings scheduled for later this month.

World stocks rose on Wednesday and the euro kept the previous day's sharp gains as strong earnings from both sides of the Atlantic shifted focus away from concerns about the euro zone debt crisis.

The pending $15 billion sale of a unit of American International Group to MetLife may be pushed back by a tax dispute that may require a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Asian shares leapt to a three-week high on Wednesday, powered by financial and resource shares after investors bought commodities on a weaker dollar, while Hong Kong shares shrugged off China's latest move to temper robust lending.

Toyota Motor Corp said it would scale back production in the crucial U.S. market further, as investors sought guidance from management on how long the sales fallout from an escalating recall crisis would last.

Americans kept their retirement savings rates steady in 2009 as the economy recovered slowly and a rallying stock market helped boost the overall value of their accounts, a study released on Wednesday shows.

Toyota Motor Corp shares lagged a strong rise in other Japanese auto stocks on Wednesday after the world's biggest automaker said it would shut down production at two of its U.S. factories to match slowing sales.

Simon Property Group Inc sought to pluck General Growth Properties out of bankruptcy on Tuesday, offering to pay $7 billion to creditors and nearly $3 billion to shareholders.

U.S. regulators on Tuesday opened an investigation into whether Toyota Motor Corp acted in a timely way to recall cars for acceleration problems, and the automaker moved to slow its U.S. production to avoid a costly ballooning of inventories.

The purpose of the Obama administration's upcoming summit on healthcare is to find solutions to issues like soaring insurance premiums, not score political points against the Republicans, the White House insisted on Tuesday.

The weather gods cursed the Vancouver Winter Olympics again on Tuesday, forcing delays to Alpine skiing, snowboarding and ski jumping, with rain near Vancouver and snow and fog shrouding the mountains.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission unveiled a plan on Tuesday that would require Internet providers to offer minimum home connection speeds by 2020, a proposal that some telecommunications companies panned as unrealistic.

The percentage of Americans falling behind on credit card bills stabilized in January, according to data from the six major lenders, signaling that U.S. consumer credit woes may be leveling off.

Hershey Co has started to share its consumer marketing data with U.S. retailers to help drive sales of chocolate, Chief Executive David West said on Tuesday.

There's only one Warren Buffett to go around, and non-U.S. investors will get less of him this year.