IBT Staff Reporter

Japan's financial regulator has stripped AIJ Investment Advisors of its registration as an asset manager after the company was unable to account for the bulk of $2.4 billion in pension funds, Financial Services Minister Shozaburo Jimi said.

Teen retailer Hot Topic Inc said it has sold out some of its merchandise for The Hunger Games even before the highly anticipated, post-apocalyptic film opens in theaters on Friday.

An Oracle Corp. investor sued the company and members of its board of directors on Thursday for allegedly trying to stonewall a whistleblower lawsuit that ultimately resulted in a $200 million settlement.

An Oracle Corp. investor sued the company and members of its board of directors on Thursday for allegedly trying to stonewall a whistleblower lawsuit that ultimately resulted in a $200 million settlement.

The United Auto Workers union is soliciting signatures of support from workers at Volkswagen AG's U.S. factory, an escalation of its effort to establish a foothold outside the Detroit automakers.

Brazil's oil regulator said Chevron was not negligent in the drilling of a well that caused an offshore oil spill in November, a finding that may help the company to fight criminal charges and an $11 billion lawsuit.

A lawsuit from New York's attorney general accusing accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP of helping to hide financial problems at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has been sent from federal court to the New York state court where it was originally filed.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion wants to hire a software developer with deep experience building applications for Apple's iPhone and iPad, according to a job posting on its LinkedIn page.

Micron Technology posted mixed quarterly results, and investors pushed its shares lower after the company said persistently low prices for its memory chips had yet to recover.

American International Group said on Thursday it has repaid the Treasury its remaining $1.5 billion preferred equity investment, but the insurer still owes taxpayers an estimated $45 billion for the bailout it received during the financial crisis.

The gap between the Federal Reserve's dovish core and its hawkish wing was on display on Thursday as a top Fed official said the economy is in better shape even as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke focused on a source of weakness.

American International Group said on Thursday it has repaid the U.S. Treasury its remaining $1.5 billion preferred equity investment, but the insurer still owes taxpayers an estimated $45 billion for the bailout it received during the financial crisis.

T-Mobile USA is cutting 1,900 jobs, or about 5 percent of its workforce, as it closes seven call centers, and the company said it may cut more jobs in coming months.

EBay Inc agreed to sell its Rent.com unit to PRIMEDIA as the company shifts away from classified and listings businesses to focus on other e-commerce and payments efforts.

General Motors' Opel managers will present a business plan next Wednesday to the unit's board that likely will involve closing two plants in Europe to reduce manufacturing capacity by some 30 percent, people familiar with the company's thinking said on Thursday.

Micron Technology posted mixed quarterly results hurt by low prices for its memory chips but said market conditions appeared to be improving.

Twelve directors of Morgan Stanley have won dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit accusing them of letting the Wall Street bank overpay its employees even while accepting taxpayer-funded federal bailouts.

American International Group said on Thursday it has repaid the Treasury its remaining $1.5 billion preferred equity investment, but the insurer still owes the government and Federal Reserve $45 billion for the bailout it received during the financial crisis.

Micron Technology posted quarterly revenue above expectations, but pressure on its sales of NOR flash memory hurt gross margins and contributed to a bigger-than-expected loss.

The number of Americans claiming new unemployment benefits dropped to a four-year low last week, bolstering hopes a recent pick-up in job growth will prove lasting.

Cyclical sectors led stocks lower on Thursday, setting the S&P 500 up for its first negative week in six, after factory data showed a slowdown in both the euro zone and China.

Euro zone growth is stabilizing at low levels, ECB policymaker Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said on Thursday, adding that the situation in the 17-country currency bloc nonetheless remains fragile.

Micron Technology posted quarterly revenue above expectations as lower prices for DRAM and NAND chips were offset by higher sales volumes.

FedEx Corp will pay back wages and interest to more than 21,000 people rejected for jobs in a $3 million settlement of a bias case brought against two of the company's units by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Facebook has acquired hundreds of patents from International Business Machines Corp as the social networking company attempts to bolster its intellectual property portfolio in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Yahoo.

GameStop Corp gave a fiscal-year outlook on the high end of analysts' estimates, saying it expects to boost sales of used videogames and to benefit from new hardware from Nintendo Co Ltd.

The chief lobbyist for the largest U.S. financial institutions will step down at the end of 2012, after more than a decade of waging regulatory battles, a trade group said on Thursday.

The government charged AT&T Inc with cheating it out of millions of dollars by knowingly failing to prevent swindlers from using a subsidized telephone service meant for deaf people.

The economy is in much better shape and does not need further help from the central bank, a top Federal Reserve official known for his hawkish policy views said on Thursday.