IBT Staff Reporter

A disgruntled worker opened fire on Wednesday at a Northern California cement plant and quarry, killing two people and injuring six, police said.

U.S. bank profits have been rising steadily for more than a year, but the recovery may be losing momentum due to weak loan demand and low lending rates.

Stocks rallied for a second day on Wednesday, as investors bid up materials and energy shares on rising commodity prices and poured into beaten-down tech names after days of selling.

Sprint Nextel plans to offer customers who buy the Apple Inc iPhone its unlimited data service for a flat monthly fee, potentially putting pressure on bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's designation this week of two Canadian banks as primary dealers comes at a crucial time in which rates markets need all the liquidity they can get, analysts said on Wednesday.

Sex, interns, politics and backstabbing are the highly combustible elements that form the backdrop for The Ides of March, the new political drama co-written and directed by George Clooney which opens in theaters on Friday.

It's official. Justin Bieber is getting under the mistletoe with Mariah Carey.

Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., the former president and chairman of the A.C. Nielsen Company, passed away Monday in the Chicago area, after struggling with Parkinson's disease, USA Today reports. He was 92.

A recording of an apparently drugged Michael Jackson was played on Wednesday in the manslaughter trial of the singer's doctor, with the King of Pop saying he wanted to help kids because he didn't have a childhood.

Fox's hit sitcom New Girl performed on a par with last week's strong showing and led the network to an overall win for the night, while ABC's Body of Proof showed significant gains and NBC's The Biggest Loser shed some ratings, according to preliminary numbers.

The motion picture academy has confirmed an agreement with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to locate a new museum in a former department store owned by LACMA.

Shares of Research In Motion surged on Wednesday on takeover speculation a day after the BlackBerry maker's stock fell below $20 for the first time in almost six years.

The toll from listeria-tainted cantaloupes has risen to 18 dead and 100 sickened, the Centers for Disease Control reported on Wednesday.

In less than one hour on Tuesday, the U.S. stock market surged by 4 percent -- for no apparent reason.

The two heads of the UBS division that caused a $2.3 billion loss stepped down on Wednesday as an internal investigation into the trading scandal showed risk systems had detected unauthorized activity but failed to respond.

Wal-Mart is taking cues from shoppers who have asked for more time to buy for the holiday season, albeit on tight budgets, as it tries to reinvigorate sales of toys and other goods.

As European banks seek state help and U.S. lenders shore up shaky balance sheets, Canada's well-performing banks have stepped up their efforts to poach talent from rivals around the world.

Siemens Enterprise Communications Inc, a provider of communications equipment and software to corporations, is seeing demand stabilize after a severe collapse in orders earlier this year, according to the company's chief executive officer.

The Vancouver housing market is attracting unusually strong demand but Canada as a whole does not face a housing bubble that requires government action, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday.

Demi Lovato spent most of last year out of the limelight because of personal issues. While many celebrities were supportive of her leave and even more supportive upon her comeback, the star reveals that only two actually called her while in treatment--Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez.

A disturbing tape of an incoherent, slurring Michael Jackson speaking to his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was played in court during Murray's trial for involuntary manslaughter Wednesday.

A years-long investigation into whether Bank of New York Mellon Corp and other banks overcharged clients on foreign-exchange transactions has risen to a new level with a civil fraud action by federal prosecutors who police Wall Street.

The euro zone's services sector shrank for the first time in two years in September as new orders dried up, stoking fears that the region's economy could be heading back into recession.

Manitoba voters re-elected the New Democratic Party government on Tuesday, which won a record-matching fourth straight majority in the western Canadian farm and mining province.

A high stakes patent trial between Oracle and Google will likely be postponed beyond its currently scheduled October 31 start date, a U.S. judge said in a court filing.

Fred Shuttlesworth, a prominent civil rights leader who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, died in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday. He was 89.

Salesforce.com Inc and Oracle Corp engaged in a public spat over a keynote speech on Wednesday, highlighting the software companies' increasingly bitter rivalry.

Stocks added to gains in afternoon trading on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq Composite up more than 2 percent and the S&P 500 rising more than 1 percent.

Stocks advanced on Wednesday as better-than-expected U.S. economic data and signs that officials were moving forward to help struggling European banks reassured nervous investors.