IBT Staff Reporter

The Federal Reserve looks set to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy on Tuesday as lofty oil prices and swooning stock markets after Japan's ravaging earthquake raised doubts about the economy's path.

Neil Diamond, Tom Waits and Alice Cooper have become the latest music stars to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Actor Dennis Quaid has placed his Pacific Palisades, CA home on the market at $16.9 million.

Manufacturing in New York state rose in March to a nine-month high, while prices paid also accelerated in another sign inflation is starting to build.

Microsoft's answer to Apple's iPod, the Zune, met an early death just four years after it was launched, adding another casualty to its list of hardware flops.

Prices for memory chips are rising as the earthquake in Japan has raised supply chain concerns.

U.S. stocks tumbled more than 2 percent at the open on Tuesday, tracking global equities sharply lower as Japan's looming nuclear crisis looked set to thrust financial markets into a period of turmoil.

Wall Street was set to tumble more than 2 percent at the open on Tuesday, tracking global equities sharply lower as Japan's looming nuclear crisis looked set to thrust financial markets into a period of turmoil.

Wall Street tumbled more than 2 percent on Tuesday and the Nasdaq turned negative for the year as Japan's looming nuclear crisis looked set to thrust financial markets into a period of turmoil.

Japan's Nikkei share average plunged 10.6 percent on Tuesday, posting the worst two-day rout since 1987, as hedge funds bailed out after reports of rising radiation near Tokyo. Many mutual funds were left on the sidelines, leaving them poised to dump shares into any rebound.

Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn came under pressure after a dramatic climbdown and public apology following the collapse of an investigation into industrial espionage at the French carmaker.

What's your true level of risk today? No idea. But the least your fund manager, advisor or favorite financial columnist can do today is remember the lesson of 2007, and highlight the range of risks and possible fall-out which might lie ahead. Take inflation, for instance. Though small, the risk of currency devaluation and hyper-inflation in the developed West is still materially underpriced by gold bullion

Oil prices dropped sharply on Tuesday with Brent crude falling below $108 a barrel for the first time in nearly three weeks as a deepening nuclear crisis in Japan heightened risk aversion across financial markets.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc is closer to making a counter-bid for NYSE Euronext , a source familiar with the situation said, a move that would challenge the Big Board's blockbuster deal with Deutsche Boerse by merging two of Wall Street's fiercest rivals.

Targeting heavy users, the company plans on restricting data use for its DSL and U-Verse customer.

Report that a containment system at the bottom of Unit 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi has been breached saw uranium companies' shares to tank on the bourses.

The Internet had one overwhelming message for the world from Japan on Tuesday -- we're terrified of a nuclear meltdown and desperate to get out.

The Japan earthquake and tsunami could result in significant shortages of certain electronic components, potentially causing dramatic price increases, a market reaserch firm said.

Nearly half of all Americans are getting their news from mobile devices according to a recent survey.

U.S. stock index futures tumbled about 2 percent on Tuesday as Japan faced a looming nuclear crisis, sending global equities sharply lower in what could be a prolonged bout of turmoil for financial markets.

Apple has decided not to include support for contactless payment in the iPhone 5, but the technology will likely be included in the iPhone 6.

Shares in electronics conglomerate Toshiba were untraded amid a glut of sell orders on Tuesday, as a fresh explosion rocked a quake-hit nuclear plant in Fukushima, north of Tokyo.

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has drawn comparisons to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. According to some experts, while they are very different, the consequences could be as bad or worse if authorities in Japan fail to prevent a meltdown.

The 56-year-old comedian and actor was fired on Monday after he tweeted a series of jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

European Union finance ministers agreed on Tuesday on tougher rules against excessive borrowing and macroeconomic imbalances, aimed to shore up market confidence and help end the sovereign debt crisis.

Brent crude fell below $110 a barrel for the first time in nearly three weeks on Tuesday as a deepening nuclear crisis in Japan and rising radioactivity levels heightened risk aversion across financial markets.

Japan's Nikkei share average plunged 10.6 percent on Tuesday, posting the worst two-day rout since 1987, as hedge funds bailed out after reports of rising radiation near Tokyo. Many mutual funds were left on the sidelines, leaving them poised to dump shares into any rebound.

An evidently impressed Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, has shared an e-mail from a friend who works for Apple in Japan shedding light on the ways in which the tech giant stepped up and helped people caught off guard by Friday's earthquake.

Stock index futures dropped sharply on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 2.8 percent, Dow Jones futures down 2.5 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 2.6 percent at 0935 GMT (5:35 a.m. ET), on mounting fears over Japan's nuclear crisis.