IBT Staff Reporter

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is finally seeing sustained improvement at its U.S. discount chain, with sales at Walmart stores open at least a year rising for three months straight, Walmart U.S. Chief Executive Bill Simon said on Wednesday.

PepsiCo Inc posted a slightly better than expected quarterly profit and affirmed its full-year goal despite a smaller boost from foreign exchange, sending its shares up more than 3 percent in morning trading.

The chief executive of Solyndra, a failed solar panel maker with a $535 million federal government loan guarantee, has left the company, according to documents filed by the company in bankruptcy court.

As Occupy Boston entered its second week, 141 occupiers were arrested early Tuesday morning, with a video footage released with police seen attacking the peaceful protesters.

Investors will look to handset vendors' quarterly reports in coming days for signs of how much the global economic slowdown will hit cellphone sales in the crucial year-end shopping season.

Businessman Herman Cain is leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by the slimmest of margins in South Carolina, which will hold one of the first presidential primaries next year.

Learn about these eight travel scams before booking your next trip and you'll be traveling like a pro.

Stocks opened higher on Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its sixth winning day in the past seven on optimism that Slovakia would reach a deal to expand the euro zone rescue fund.

Parties in the outgoing Slovak government began talks with the opposition on Wednesday to reach an early agreement on ratifying a plan to strengthen the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund.

The CEO of failed solar panel maker Solyndra LLC has left the company, just weeks after he declined to answer questions posed by a congressional panel that was investigating a $535 million government loan to the company.

Russian researchers recently claimed that they have found the indisputable proof of the existence of yeti, dubbed abominable snowman, in Siberia, because they discovered a few strands of hair and some tracks in the snow.

Hurricane Jova made landfall along Mexico's western coast early Wednesday with sustained winds of 100 miles per hour, which decreased to 75 miles per hour as the storm moved inland.

Shares of Alcoa Inc dropped 3 percent on Wednesday after the biggest U.S. aluminum producer posted lower-than-expected quarterly earnings and warned of weak economic conditions, particularly in Europe.

Stocks opened higher on Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its sixth winning day in the past seven on optimism that Slovakia would reach a deal to expand the euro zone rescue fund.

Parties in the outgoing Slovak government have reached an agreement with opposition leader Robert Fico to ratify a plan to strengthen the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund, TA3 television reported on Wednesday. It gave no details.

Italy braced for a confidence vote in Silvio Berlusconi's government and Slovak leaders scrambled to secure approval for a stronger euro zone rescue fund on Wednesday, highlighting the political hurdles to resolving the bloc's debt crisis.

Stocks were set for a higher open on Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its sixth day of gains in the past seven on optimism Slovakia would reach a deal to expand the euro zone rescue fund.

France's cabinet on Wednesday approved a law paving the way for the government to guarantee over one third of Franco-Belgian lender Dexia SA's potential losses on toxic debt, as called for in a rescue deal inked early this week.

Zynga seeks to raise $1 billion in IPO and launch new gaming platform

Plagued by a second day of service outages spanning four continents, Research In Motion's (RIM) management is facing a precarious time in the days ahead. In early September, investor and merchant bank Jaguar Financial released a statement saying it was raising support amongst BlackBerry partners for the sale of a portion of the company or some other method of maximizing shareholder value.

Dawn spacecraft discovers huge mountain on asteroid.

In the UK, a team of scientists have set out on an Antarctic expedition to get to the bottom of climate change mysteries. Quite literally, the group is planning to drill through three kilometers of Antarctic ice in order get samples from its lake.

Electronics giant Sony Corp suffered a fresh blow on Wednesday after several of its Bravia LCD televisions sets emitted smoke or parts began to melt, a company official said on Wednesday.

EBay Inc is set to deepen its relationship with social network leader Facebook at a developer conference this week, a person familiar with the e-commerce company said on Tuesday.

France's cabinet on Wednesday approved a law paving the way for the government to guarantee over one third of Franco-Belgian lender Dexia SA's potential losses on toxic debt, as called for in a rescue deal inked early this week.

Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, putting the benchmark S&P 500 on track for its sixth day of gains in the past seven, as Slovakia moved to reach a deal on expanding the euro zone rescue fund.

Britain's economy is likely to get steadily weaker through the rest of this year, and the Bank of England's future decisions on asset purchases will be largely driven by overseas developments, BoE chief economist Spencer Dale told Reuters.

PepsiCo Inc reported slightly better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday and affirmed its full-year target, helped by international growth and the acquisition of a Russian beverage company.

Hong Kong's PCCW Ltd <0008.HK> got the green light from shareholders on Wednesday for its plan to spin off and list its multi-billion dollar telecoms unit, paving the way for owner Richard Li to create the media empire he has long yearned for.