UNITED STATES

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT.N) posted a loss on Thursday that was smaller than analysts had expected as the downturn in the North American and European economies pressured results.

The U.S. climate bill would give states that are heavily reliant on greenhouse-gas emitting fuels, like coal, more carbon credits on a per capita basis than those that use clean fuels, according to an analysis of the legislation released on Wednesday.

Public support for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform is waning, polls showed on Thursday as Congress wrangles over how to overhaul an industry that accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Wednesday an investment of up to $11.8 million for five projects to develop the integration of solar technologies into the U.S. electrical grid.

Leading investors have taken their holdings of stocks back up to levels last seen just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a series of Reuters polls showed on Thursday.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose slightly more than expected last week, but a gauge of underlying labor trends fell for a fifth straight week, government data showed on Thursday.

After attempting to retest the 83 cent handle in early Asian trade yesterday the Aussie dollar ran into some resistance, peeling back to settle around 0.8250 during the afternoon. Early European investors however sold the high yielder after concerns about the Japanese economy following the country's poor Retail Trade data, a much lower than expected German CPI reading and sharp declines in commodity prices.

Trust in business has rebounded from 10-year lows in the United States, but the majority of Americans still do not count on corporate America to do what is right, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Automakers in Europe and Japan unveiled weak results for the first half of the year on Thursday and are set to keep tight control over costs but most predict an improvement in conditions for rest of 2009.

Transatlantic exchange group NYSE Euronext on Thursday said it planned to cut 290 jobs in Europe and the U.S. as second-quarter earnings before one-off items dropped 34 percent to $132 million.

French carmaker Renault on Thursday posted a worse-than-expected loss on for the first half in line with results at its European rivals as auto sales fell sharply but it said the outlook is stabilizing.

(In July 29 story, corrects paragraphs 1, 5 to ... inter-alliance ... not,... intra-alliance)

Sony Corp posted a quarterly operating loss as a stronger yen and weakness in its TV business countered the impact of cost cuts and the company retained its outlook for an annual loss.

Asian share markets were largely steady on Thursday, struggling to regain multi-month highs, while Shanghai shares see-sawed after a 5 percent sell-off the previous day that sent other markets reeling.

Oil eased toward $63 a barrel on Thursday, after sliding almost 6 percent the day before on data showing a jump in U.S. crude stocks, while the market kept an eye on measures by China to manage credit growth.

One week after the apparent suicide of a Chinese factory worker accused of stealing a carefully guarded Apple iPhone prototype, one question remains unanswered: what happened to the missing phone?

Oil eased toward $63 a barrel on Thursday, after sliding almost 6 percent the day before on data showing a jump in U.S. crude stocks, while the market kept an eye on measures by China to manage credit growth.

Visa Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, as the world's largest credit card network cut expenses and credit-strapped consumers used their debit cards more.

A phone call to the New York Stock Exchange from an investor worried that he'd just been duped helped spark a chain of events early last week that led U.S. authorities to file fraud charges against a Kuwaiti financier, who was later found dead in his home.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Wednesday pressed China's responsibility to lead the global fight against climate change, which, Ban said, was the major focus of his trip in Asia.

Welcome to the Florida Keys, a string of islands, which when connected by route US 1, provide passage to the southernmost point in the United States.