IBT Staff Reporter

Oil prices hit fresh peaks on Wednesday, rising to their highest since August 2008, buoyed by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and dollar weakness ahead of an expected European Central Bank interest rate rise.

Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette said in an analyst note yesterday that channel checks for Motorola's Xoom and Atrix 4G have come up with some disappointing results

According to DigiTimes, shipments of the iPad 2 have already outstripped the first month sales of its predecessor.

The U.S. economy remains too fragile for the Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates, the president of the Atlanta Fed, Dennis Lockhart, said on Wednesday.

Debt-stricken Portugal managed to sell a billion euros in short-term debt on Wednesday but the yields rose sharply, intensifying pressure from local lenders and ratings agencies to seek a bailout.

Rio Tinto is close to securing a majority of Riversdale Mining , after receiving acceptances ahead of its target level, just before a key deadline on its A$3.9 billion ($4 billion) bid.

The house where Elizabeth Taylor spent time with her first fiancé William Pawley, Jr. back in 1949 is available for rent for $50K a month.

Vulture is reporting that 30 Rock actor Alec Baldwin said that the hit NBC show will be ending next season.

The S&P 500 rose near a seven-week high on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities.

Oil prices hit fresh peaks on Wednesday, rising to highest since August 2008, buoyed by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and dollar weakness ahead of an expected European Central Bank interest rate increase.

A federal judge has ruled that Apple can go ahead with its suit against a maker of unlicensed accessories for iPhones and iPods.

Should the spreading economic aftermath of the earthquake in Japan cause us to unravel global supply chains that seem suddenly all too vulnerable to shortages and shutdowns? Adam Smith would say No. The philosophical founding father of globalization would urge us, not to undo our worldwide lines of supply for component parts and raw materials, but to improve them.

Satellite television company Dish Network Corp said it won an auction for video rental chain Blockbuster Inc offering about $320 million, trumping rival offers including that of billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

The price of Gold reached new record highs vs. the Dollar on Wednesday in London, breaching $1460 per ounce as world stock markets also kept rising together with commodities and higher-yielding currencies.

Oil prices held near a 2-1/2 year peak on Wednesday, supported by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa and dollar weakness ahead of an expected European Central Bank interest rate increase.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a long-awaited plan designed to protect the markets from volatile price swings following the May 6 flash crash.

When Chelsea host Manchester United on Wednesday, in the first leg of the quarter finals of the Champions League, memories will invariably go back to that night at Moscow in 2008.

With a government shutdown looming, congressional negotiators plan to meet again on Wednesday but remain billions of dollars apart in their search for a budget deal to keep federal agencies running beyond Friday.

When Chelsea host Manchester United on Wednesday, in the first leg of the quarter finals of the Champions League, memories will invariably go back to that night at Moscow in 2008.

Dish Network Corp won Blockbuster Inc in a bankruptcy auction for about $320 million, a move that could see the second-largest U.S. satellite TV provider tapping the movie rental chain's online content to strengthen its offerings.

Cash-rich technology companies are increasingly willing to go hostile in their bids for rivals, but potential targets are more worried about another threat -- shareholder activism, senior bankers said on Tuesday.

The F-word is here to haunt Google again since a survey published by Fortune stated that 56 percent of Android developers found that the Android fragmentation was a meaningful but huge problem.

U.S. stocks were set to rise at the open on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities higher.

Baidu Inc, China's top search engine, will launch a licensed music search service in May, in a move to legitimize its current music search that critics say enables music piracy.

Rumors are circulating the Internet Wednesday morning that Meredith Vieira will be leaving NBC and the “Today” show.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY on Wednesday said some progress was made in afternoon talks Tuesday meant to break an impasse on the 2011 fiscal year federal budget between House Republicans and Senate Democrats ahead of another possible meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Customers of Verizon Communications had their email addresses exposed in a massive online data breach last week, according to an email to customers obtained by Reuters.

Futures on the S&P 500 hit their highest level in more than a month on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities higher.

U.S. antitrust regulators may investigate Google Inc's dominance of the Web search industry, and will settle on the agency to launch a probe once scrutiny into the company's plan to buy ITA software is done, a source told Reuters on Tuesday.