IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday, with sentiment improving on signs of progress in dealing with Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis.

United Parcel Service said on Tuesday it expects profit to rise 9 percent to 15 percent this year, as solid U.S. demand and growing e-commerce activity offsets an uneven global economy.

Apple Inc is hiring Dixons chief executive John Browett, who drove a recent turnaround at the UK electricals retailer, to lead the iPad maker's retail expansion.

CIT Group Inc., the business lender led by former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain, said its quarterly profit fell 59 percent on lower interest income.

CIT Group Inc , the business lender led by former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain, said its quarterly profit fell 59 percent on lower interest income.

European Union regulators are investigating whether Samsung Electronics breached antitrust rules in its legal battles against rivals, among them Apple, which use its mobile technology patents.

Stock index futures rose on Tuesday, with sentiment improving on signs of progress in dealing with Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the world's second-largest maker of mobile phone network equipment, is talking to labor unions in its home countries Germany and Finland about cutting more than 4,000 jobs, part of a company-wide shakeup.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the world's second-largest maker of mobile phone network equipment, said it will cut about 2,900 of a total 9,100 jobs in Germany, with most to go by the end of this year.

Pfizer Inc reported sharply lower quarterly earnings, hurt by generic forms of its Lipitor cholesterol drug, and the company trimmed its 2012 forecasts because of negative effects of the stronger dollar.

BSkyB, Britain's dominant pay-TV group, is to launch an online offering to enable it to better take on the likes of Lovefilm and Netflix, following some signs of slowing growth at its main satellite business.

The European Commission opened an investigation into whether Samsung Electronics has distorted competition in the European mobile device market, breaking EU antitrust rules, the EU executive arm said in a statement on Tuesday.

United Parcel Service reported higher quarterly profit after adjusting for a new pension accounting method, and forecast higher 2012 earnings.

Stock index futures rose on Tuesday, with sentiment improving on signs of progress in dealing with Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis.

The First Lady reportedly visited a luxury lingerie boutique in New York and also made a handsome purchase.

Honda Motor Co slashed its annual profit guidance to the lowest level in three years as it counted the cost of natural disasters in Japan and Thailand and a strong yen. But it forecast a healthy rebound next year.

Chinese prosecutors cited a poem and messages sent on Skype against a dissident who stood trial on Tuesday, his son and his lawyer said, in the latest case highlighting the Communist Party's drive to silence political challengers.

Toshiba Corp, Japan's biggest chip maker, booked a 72 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday and slashed its annual profit forecast as a strong yen and the euro-zone debt crisis hit profits.

Logitech's video conferencing unit LifeSize expects new products and a bigger sales team to boost revenue growth starting this quarter, after it reported only a 6 percent rise for October-to-December.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 indexes up 0.5-0.6 percent.

Samsung Electronics lost a bid to overturn a ruling barring its local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Germany, handing a symbolic legal victory to Apple Inc in efforts to keep its lead spot in the tablet computer market.

Logitech, the world's largest computer mouse maker, cut its full-year outlook for the third time after third quarter sales and profit were hit by euro weakness and as computer systems become less dependent on peripheral components.

Europe's second-biggest electrical goods retailer Dixons Retail said on Tuesday that its chief executive was leaving the company to join the world's most valuable technology corporation, Apple, as senior vice president of retail.

888 Holdings Plc said a unit of private equity-owned Caesars Entertainment Corp extended its UK software licensing agreement with the British online gaming company to the United States.

JPMorgan on Tuesday said its global co-head of emerging markets and head of fixed income for Asia would be leaving the company.

Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo said the company's recently announced online content policy was meant to be a transparent way to handle government requests for the removal of certain content and did not mean it is actively monitoring Tweets, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The euro rose and world shares recovered on Tuesday on hopes of a deal this week to free up the next tranche of aid for Greece, though concerns about Portugal following a similar path capped gains and fresh data on the region's economic outlook weighed on sentiment.

German retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, suggesting Europe's debt crisis unsettled consumers during key Christmas trade, although economists said they expected the preliminary data to be revised upwards.

Jennifer Lopez now has a job presenting at the Oscars to go with her People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People honor.