IBT Staff Reporter

Japan's exports rose in March from a year earlier for the first time in six months, mainly on the strength of U.S. sales, but high fuel imports pushed the trade balance back into deficit and manufacturers remain cautious about business in months ahead.

Hong Kong's financial market watchdog will launch a public consultation in the next couple of weeks that seeks to toughen rules for banks sponsoring initial public offerings, including holding them liable for faulty deal documents.

Asian shares and the euro traded in tight ranges on Thursday ahead of a Spanish bond sale seen as a key test of investors' risk appetite amid renewed concerns over the euro zone's debt crisis.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa stressed on Wednesday the central bank is fully committed to continuing powerful monetary easing, but warned that central banks can only buy time for governments to pursue structural reforms.

Hewlett Packard Co, the largest U.S. technology company by revenue, agreed to build a printer factory in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, China Daily reported.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Wednesday the central bank is fully committed to continuing powerful monetary easing through various measures, such as keeping interest rates practically at zero and purchasing financial assets until 1 percent inflation is in sight.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Wednesday the central bank is fully committed to continuing powerful monetary easing through various measures, such as keeping interest rates practically at zero and purchasing financial assets until 1 percent inflation is in sight.

Activist shareholder William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management plans to raise $4 billion by listing a new fund in January 2013, the Financial Times reported.

Former Research In Motion co-chief executive Jim Balsillie sought to reinvent the BlackBerry smartphone maker with a radical shift in strategy before he stepped down, two sources with knowledge of his plans said.

When Apple's shares fall, is Wall Street's entire performance at risk?

The United States on Wednesday threw its support behind a bid to boost the International Monetary Fund's financial resources, signaling greater satisfaction among Group of 20 nations with Europe's efforts to resolve its debt crisis.

Five prestigious U.S. universities will create free online courses for students worldwide through a new, interactive education platform dubbed Coursera, the founders announced Wednesday.

American Airlines plans to eliminate another 1,200 jobs as part of its plan to cut costs in bankruptcy, the company said in a letter to employees on Wednesday.

Nokia's Chief Executive Stephen Elop will be under pressure on Thursday to convince investors the Finnish mobile phone company is still capable of a turnaround, after last week warning markets it expects to post losses for the first six months of 2012.

Institutional investors are increasingly pressing boards to rein in outsized executive pay, and after Citigroup shareholders rejected a compensation plan on Tuesday, more directors may start listening.

U.S. stocks slipped on Wednesday, a day after Wall Street's best gains in a month, as uninspiring earnings from tech bellwethers IBM and Intel gave investors a reason to take profits.

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp dropped more than 5 percent on Wednesday and one investor called for the company to clean up its leadership after a Reuters report that Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon borrowed as much as $1.1 billion against his stake in thousands of company wells.

More than half of local and state employees continue to work under pay freezes, while others are accelerating their retirements or facing the prospects of layoffs as the effects of the recession linger on the public sector, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

BlackRock Inc , the world's largest asset manager, said first-quarter profits were steady, bolstered by strong inflows into its popular iShares exchange-traded fund business.

Oil major ExxonMobil and Russia's Rosneft unveiled an offshore exploration partnership on Wednesday that could invest upward of $500 billion in developing Russia's vast energy reserves in the Arctic and Black Sea.

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim plans to enter the online gaming market in his home country, offering more than 600 free titles to some 8 million users of his high-speed broadband for a month, with the aim of charging for the service afterward.

Starbucks Corp wants to make its mainland China expansion a family affair.

France plans new measures to clamp down on media and social networks that publish exit polls and partial results of Sunday's presidential election ahead of their official release, and will not hesitate to sue lawbreakers, the country's poll watchdog said.

When Stephen Elop bet Nokia's future on a deal with Microsoft, he was hit with a barrage of criticism. After a year of respite, the chief executive is again being haunted by a decision that is costing the shrinking mobile phone company sales and favor.

Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Wednesday it would not extend a $6.8 billion hostile offer for genetic specialist Illumina as the U.S. group's shareholders blocked its move to appoint new directors.

It's either an amusing way to follow the 2012 presidential campaign, or the death rattle for meaningful political discourse in America.

Shares in Chesapeake Energy Corp fell nearly 10 percent on Wednesday after a Reuters report that Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon had borrowed as much as $1.1 billion over the last three years against his stake in thousands of company wells.

The launch in India of a new BlackBerry by Research In Motion Ltd is not just a nod to its lower-end users who love it less for its security, push email and seamless roaming than for its simplicity and its Messaging. It's a strategy the Canadian company hopes will help fill both a hole in its balance sheet and a half-year wait for its next big thing — the BlackBerry 10 platform.

China and the Philippines took one step further on Wednesday in their ongoing military face-off over the Scarborough Reef, known by the Chinese as Huangyan Island and by the Filipino as Panatag Shoal.