IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.5 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.5 percent at 0906 GMT.

Sony Corp, set to report a $1 billion loss this year, is banking on a big slate of new software to drive sales of its new PlayStation Vita handheld games device, even as Fitch downgraded the Japanese electronics giant to a notch above junk.

Apple will open a research and development centre in Israel that will focus on semiconductors, the Globes business daily reported on Thursday.

Swedish fashion group Hennez & Mauritz (H&M) posted a third straight monthly fall in sales at established stores in November as economic woes and unusually warm autumn weather across its main markets kept customers away from the shops.

German manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in December and looked unlikely to provide a lift to Europe's largest economy soon as new orders continued to dry up, a survey showed on Thursday.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.5 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.5 percent at 0906 GMT.

Two of Hong Kong's biggest recent initial public offerings slumped in their trading debuts on Thursday, falling victim to weak investor demand that has pressured new listings in the once booming global IPO powerhouse.

Swedish fashion group Hennez & Mauritz (H&M) posted a third straight monthly fall in sales at established stores in November as economic woes and unusually warm autumn weather across its main markets kept customers away from the shops.

Into just his fourth month as head of Sony's videogames unit, Welshman Andrew House has to plot a much-needed success story for the new PlayStation Vita handheld games device, negotiating a minefield of consumer gloom and competition from smartphones and tablet PCs such as Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad.

Apple will open a research and development center in Israel that will focus on semiconductors, the Globes business daily reported on Thursday.

China's economic growth could be slowing further as data on Thursday showed the first year-on-year drop in foreign direct investment in 28 months and a fresh fall in new orders signaled a further contraction in factory activity.

The euro steadied just off new 11-month lows on Thursday, with eyes fixed on a Swiss National Bank meeting to consider its campaign of currency intervention while a Spanish bond auction will offer more signs on the depth of Europe's debt crisis.

Enforcement staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission may request the commissioners leading the agency that they appeal last month's rejection by a U.S. district judge of a proposed $285 million settlement with Citigroup, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sony Corp said it was keeping to its target to sell 15 million PlayStation 3 game machines in the year to end-March, even as a long-running debt crisis grips Europe, one of the Japanese electronics group's most important markets.

An influential retail trade group raised its forecast for U.S. holiday retail sales on Thursday, citing strong results in November and expectations that consumers still have more shopping to do.

One of actress Elizabeth Taylor's Dior evening gowns sold for $362,500, boosting the total for the auction of her haute couture to $2.6 million at Christie's.

There are directors who like to keep their actors in the dark. And then there are directors who literally commit to trapping their company of players in...the...dark.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp said Thursday it would consider reinstating its sacked CEO, Michael Woodford, but the gesture failed to erase doubts that it would ever rehire the foreigner who blew the whistle on its crooked accounts.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp said Thursday it would consider reinstating its sacked CEO, Michael Woodford, but the gesture failed to erase doubts that it would ever rehire the foreigner who blew the whistle on its crooked accounts.

Foreign direct investment growth in China fell year-on-year for the first time in 28 months, with November's $8.8 billion of commitments down 9.8 percent and hurt by a sharp drop in inflows from the United States, Commerce Ministry data showed Thursday.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp said on Thursday it would consider reinstating Michael Woodford, the British chief executive it sacked two months ago and who blew the whistle on a fraud that has left it weakened and in need of fresh capital.

Asian shares fell into bear market territory for the year and commodities and the euro nursed stinging losses Thursday, as fears that Europe's debt crisis is still worsening prompted investors to dump riskier assets and seek shelter in the dollar.

Business sentiment among Asia's top companies slid in the fourth quarter to its lowest in two years, with executives rattled by rising costs and fears over where the global economy is heading.

JetBlue Airways has signed an order for 86 Pratt & Whitney engines to power Airbus A320neo jetliners, the enginemaker said on Wednesday.

Lam Research Corp , a supplier of wafer fabrication equipment, agreed to buy smaller rival Novellus Systems Inc for $3.3 billion in stock as it looks to gain cutting-edge technology and become more efficient.

The Tennessee National Guard has launched a pilot program that will allow potentially suicidal troops to use a new smart phone application to immediately connect them to help.

Shares in Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp slumped almost 20 percent on Thursday after it corrected its accounts to reveal a dramatically weakened balance sheet, stoking talk that it might need to merge, sell assets or raise fresh capital.

China's exporters will face very severe conditions in the first quarter of 2012, the Commerce Ministry said on Thursday, with Europe's debt crisis dragging on and dampening demand.

Shares in Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp slumped almost 20 percent on Thursday after it corrected its accounts to reveal a dramatically weakened balance sheet, stoking talk that it might need to merge, sell assets or raise fresh capital.