IBT Staff Reporter

Canada's top finance officials will try at a meeting next week to come to grips with the thorny problem of how to limit the rising costs of the country's universal public health-care system in the face of an aging population.

Stocks declined Wednesday as a fall in commodity prices sparked a selloff in the energy and materials sectors and as a falling euro and high Italian bond yields kept Europe's debt crisis in focus.

Canadian factory sales slumped in October after three months of gains, confirming suspicions the final stretch to the end of the year will see a slowdown from the brisk economic growth of earlier months.

The Japanese government has delayed a formal announcement on its choice of a next-generation fighter jet until December 20, according to two sources familiar with the process, but Lockheed Martin Corp's radar-evading F-35 is still expected to get the order.

Christine O'Donnell may think a lawn gnome can beat Barack Obama next year, but a new Reuters/Ipsos poll says otherwise. If the general election were held today, the poll found, Obama would beat Newt Gingrich by 13 percentage points and Mitt Romney by 8 points.

Goldman Sachs resumed coverage on the U.S. Internet sector, saying it presented an attractive investment idea as revenue growth at some Web-based companies would likely outpace consensus expectations.

China will impose anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties on imported cars made in the United States, China's Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of trade disputes between the world's two largest economies.

Buried deep in American Airlines' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is a striking asset -- a town house in one of London's most expensive residential streets that property experts say could be worth up to $30 million.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday with traders focused on a sliding euro and rising Italian bond yields as market anxiety over Europe persisted.

Olympus Corp's ousted CEO Michael Woodford said on Wednesday he would recapitalize the camera and medical equipment maker within a few months if he returned and would favor investment by private equity or a rights issue to raise cash.

Ron Paul told supporters at a campaign event on Tuesday that Medicare and Medicaid programs, through which the federal government provides health care to retired and poor Americans, are unconstitutional.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp ironed out its crooked accounts on Wednesday after a 13-year fraud, with a $1.1 billion dent in its balance sheet triggering speculation it will need to merge, sell assets or raise capital to repair its finances.

Online gaming firm Nexon Co slipped on its trading debut on Wednesday following a $1.2 billion IPO, Japan's biggest this year, and may signal a bumpy ride for U.S.-based rival Zynga, which debuts on Nasdaq later this week.

Germany's chancellor and central banker urged Europe to stick to stricter budget discipline and forget about one-shot solutions after financial markets judged that another EU summit had failed to resolve the euro zone's debt crisis.

The sovereign debt crisis crippling the euro zone still threatens other developed economies, leaving Britain and Japan teetering on the edge of recession but with the United States seen several paces away from a slump, a Reuters poll found.

Pressure mounted on Wednesday for the European Central Bank to intervene more decisively after financial markets judged that yet another EU summit had failed to resolve the euro zone's debt crisis.

Mitt Romney has picked up an unexpected endorsement: that of Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell, who upset establishment Republican Mike Castle in a 2010 congressional primary in Delaware.

China's plan for a new $300 billion sovereign wealth fund is as much a warning to Washington as it is a body blow to Brussels.

Wall Street was set to open slightly lower on Wednesday with traders focused on a sliding euro and rising Italian bond yields as market anxiety over Europe persisted.

Applications for refinancing on home mortgages jumped last week, even as demand for new home purchases dried up, an industry group said on Wednesday.

EU antitrust regulators accepted concessions offered by International Business Machines Corp to end an antitrust investigation and avert a possible fine, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

The Internet must be subject to reasonable regulation, the head of Russia's Security Council said in remarks published on Wednesday, a fresh sign of Kremlin concern about the use of social networks to promote anti-government protests.

Europe's no pain no gain attitude to solving its sovereign crisis risks exacerbating the bloc's problems, choking off the very growth needed to raise the money to pay down the debt.

Stock index futures fell in light Wednesday trading, pressured by a decline in the euro and by rising Italian bond yields as market anxiety over Europe persisted.

Stock index futures fell in light Wednesday trading, pressured by a decline in the euro and by rising Italian bond yields.

Stock markets and the euro fell on Wednesday, worried by record high borrowing costs for Italy and the Federal Reserve's decision to do nothing new to prop up growth despite warning Europe's debt crisis could hurt the U.S. economy.

Italian government bond yields eased on Wednesday after the country sold 3 billion euros of five-year debt in the first longer-term auction since the European Union took steps towards greater fiscal integration last week.

Italy paid a euro era record yield of 6.47 percent to sell five-year paper at its first auction of longer-term debt after the EU moved towards greater fiscal integration at last week's summit, but failed to convince markets it can solve the debt crisis.

China pledged to guarantee growth in the face of an extremely grim outlook for the global economy in 2012, rounding off its annual policy-setting conference on Wednesday with a series of commitments to deliver economic stability.