IBT Staff Reporter

AOL Inc said it would sell over 800 of its patents and related applications to Microsoft Corp , and would grant Microsoft a non-exclusive license to the patents it retains, for slightly over $1 billion in cash.

U.S. stock index futures traded lower on Monday after last week's much weaker-than-expected report on U.S. job creation for March.

Avon Products Inc said it named Johnson & Johnson executive Sherilyn McCoy as its chief executive officer, effective April 23.

It hasn't been long since Caterpillar Inc looked like the typical resident of the Rust Belt. Having misjudged how deep the U.S. economy would decline, the world's largest maker of construction machinery reduced its workforce by 33,000 people worldwide in 2009, closed plants and posted lower profits.

The activist hacker group Anonymous plans to launch further attacks on Chinese government websites in a bid to uncover corruption and lobby for human rights, a member of the group said on Monday.

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has increased its stake in Xstrata to just over 5 percent, potentially making it easier for commodities trader Glencore to buy the Anglo-Swiss miner.

China's annual inflation rate jumped more than expected in March to 3.6 percent as food prices remained volatile, but economists believe price pressures will moderate over the rest of year, giving Beijing the flexibility to ease monetary policy to support growth.

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has built a 5-percent stake in Xstrata ahead of the mining giant's planned $41 billion takeover by commodities trader Glencore .

China's annual inflation spiked unexpectedly in March to 3.6 percent driven by rising food prices, data showed on Monday, surprising investors who had bet on cooling price pressures to give Beijing room to ease monetary policy.

Some of the world's most prominent central bankers may have to hope the pen is as mighty as the sword.

Sometimes a little bit of inflation is not such a bad thing. In the United States, prices starting to creep upward shows the deep wounds from the credit crisis are slowly healing and the U.S. economy is well on the road to recovery.

More than 40,000 employees at AT&T Inc will keep working under the terms of an expired labor contract while their union continues negotiations with the telephone company, averting a potentially costly strike for now.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the country's sovereign wealth fund could reach $55 billion by March next year if oil prices kept high, in an apparent bid to defend his economic record in the face of increasing isolation.

Britain's advertising regulator is deciding whether to launch an inquiry into Apple Inc's marketing of its latest iPad following what some customers said were misleading claims about access to 4G, which is not available in the country.

China's love affair with American education is stronger than ever. Chinese families -- including those in the burgeoning middle class -- want to send their sons and daughters to be educated in another country, with most coming to U.S. institutions.

A Marine who posted on Facebook that he would not follow orders from President Barack Obama should be dismissed from the military with a less-than-honorable discharge, a Marine Corps review board ruled.

Myanmar plans to increase rice exports by almost a fifth to 1 million tons in the current fiscal year (2012-2013), owing partly to international help in reviving its agriculture sector, state media said on Saturday.

Employers hired far fewer workers in March than in previous months, keeping the door open for the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary support for a still sluggish economy.

The top U.S. nuclear official said on Friday his agency has not set any timetable for restarting the troubled San Onofre nuclear station in Southern California and that it would only do so if safety was assured.

The Obama administration wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which finance the bulk of U.S. mortgages, to start reducing loan balances for troubled borrowers, but with safeguards to prevent them from purposely defaulting to obtain relief.

A former Intel Corp employee who allegedly stole from the chipmaker documents worth hundreds of millions of dollars pleaded guilty on Friday to five counts of wire fraud.

The government's reporting on air quality is creating debate and suspicion in China, where people are increasingly doubting the pollution data released by the authorities.

U.S. regulators on Friday proposed a rule that would move television broadcasters' public files to the Internet, making it easier to access information about political spending on TV advertising.

Los Angeles Dodgers said on Friday it expects to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of April, after a group spearheaded by basketball great Earvin Magic Johnson last week agreed to buy the baseball franchise.

The chief executives of General Motors , AIG, and Ally Financial had their 2012 compensation packages frozen for a second year in a row by the Treasury Department after they got exceptional bailout help during the financial crisis.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday showed few signs that it was prepared to support a request by Apple Inc to block immediately the sale of some Samsung Electronics smartphones and tablets.

Yahoo Inc's head of products is leaving the company, ahead of a major reorganization aimed to return the struggling Web company to growth.

Faced with rising gas prices, Chinese citizens are becoming increasingly frustrated. In late March, the price at the pump in China for regular gasoline reached over 8 yuan per liter, or over $4.8 per gallon. Premium gasoline in China now sells for more than $5 per gallon.

Since October, estimates for first-quarter earnings growth have tumbled while the S&P 500 has surged. With the earnings season starting next week, the outlook is not as sunny as in previous quarters.