IBT Staff Reporter

Halliburton Co , the world's second-largest oilfield services company, posted better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, lifted by a three-fold jump in profits at its key North American operations.

Synthes said on Monday it was in takeover talks with Johnson & Johnson , after reports the U.S. group is looking to buy the Swiss medical device maker for about $20 billion.

Assessment and cleanup continued in North Carolina on Monday as the state recovered from a tornado outbreak which swept across the state on Saturday in which nearly two dozen people died, dozens of institutions and numerous homes were destroyed or damaged.

Spot Gold jumped to a new all-time high of $1489 per ounce in Asian trade Monday, edging lower as the Dollar rose on the currency market and global equities began the Easter-shortened week with a 0.5% drop.

Halliburton Co , the world's second-largest oilfield services company, posted a first-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as oil companies increased spending on new projects to meet growing oil demand worldwide.

Gold stayed above $1480 per ounce in Asian and European trading, and then experienced a sudden spike $15 upwards to new record prices yet again at the beginning of the New York trading session. Prices take support from worries over euro zone debt and inflation in Asia after China opted to raise reserve requirements again.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. unveiled its plan for dealing with the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Philips is hiving off its once leading television business, the first step by new chief executive Frans van Houten to boost flagging profit at Europe's biggest consumer electronics maker.

U.S. stocks were poised for a lower open on Monday after China took another step to stem the growth of its economy and worries persisted Greece may need to restructure its debt.

Citigroup Inc's first-quarter profit fell 32 percent, slightly beating expectations, as the bank lost less money on bad loans but struggled to grow its business.

Oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel on Monday to under $122 a barrel after top exporter Saudi Arabia said it had cut output because it lacked buyers, and the dollar strengthened against the euro on eurozone debt fears.

Global auto makers and their Chinese partners are rolling out dedicated local brands and targeting buyers in smaller towns and cities as growth in the world's largest auto market slows from its breakneck pace.

A crucial new phase of Portugal's bailout negotiations began under a cloud on Monday after an anti-euro party in Finland that has vowed to derail the pending rescue scored strong gains in an election.

Nicholas Cage was arrested and charged with domestic abuse and disturbing the peace after an argument in the French Quarter in New Orleans with his wife Alice Kim, according to a report by People.com.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday before a raft of corporate earnings, including Citigroup, as investors weigh whether corporate results and outlooks will be hurt by rising commodity costs.

Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel on Monday to less than $123 after top exporter Saudi Arabia cut output because it lacked buyers.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday before a raft of corporate earnings, including Citigroup, while Greek debt concerns continued to cloud the global economic picture.

Citigroup Inc is expected to report a drop in quarterly profit and revenue on Monday, as an uncertain trading environment and weak consumer loan demand hinder its efforts to move past the financial crisis.

In what has come to be the deadliest U.S. storm since February 2008, the South has been left battered while the death toll has risen to 45. The YouTube video footage of the storms and deadly tornadoes are below.

A recent study from University of Nebraska-Lincoln says college students don't feel the same way about downloading music illegally on the web as they did about shoplifting.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.45 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.39 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.4 percent at 0817 GMT.

JPMorgan plans to nearly double the number of its employees in Brazil to keep pace with an expanding financial market in Latin America's largest economy, the Financial Times said on Sunday.

Google has plugged-off support for the erstwhile Youtube contender, Google Video, adding to list of other failed Google products like Wave, Google Tags and Google Notebooks and Mashup Editor.

The game obsessed customers still prefer PSP over the Nintendo 3DS. MediaCreate Reported that Sony’s PSP moved 35,478 units ahead of the 3DS pushing it down to the second best seller selling 32,910 units on April 10.

Google gas now improvised the printing options of Google Docs and Spreadsheets. A new feature called ‘Pagination’ allows getting preview to the user. For the spreadsheet printing options, new options like sheet names and page numbers have been added.

Coulomb technologies announced in a press release that the Charge Point America, a $37 million project, will be expanding into six more cities which are Baltimore, Md., Tampa, Fla., Boston, Santa Barbara, Calif., Ventura, Calif. and Santa Cruz and Calif.

In a dramatic match, Arsenal and Liverpool shared the spoils at the Emirates as Arsenal's title challenge suffered a serious blow.

Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips Electronics on Monday said it would divest its struggling television business as first-quarter net profit came in below expectations.

South Korea's LG Display, the world's No.2 LCD flat screen maker, posted its second consecutive quarterly loss on Monday, hit by tumbling panel prices and fragile demand from television and computer makers.