IBT Staff Reporter

Hewlett-Packard Co unveiled its entrant in the tablet race, betting its TouchPad summer release will keep it in the running in a booming market dominated by Apple Inc's iPad and devices running Google Inc software.

Investors took profits after a recent rise in U.S. stocks on Wednesday but a late-hour rally in Bank of America shares helped the Dow squeeze out its eighth straight day of gains.

Whole Foods Market Inc shares rose 8.1 percent on Wednesday after accelerating sales eased worries that the gains that have driven a 90 percent one-year stock rise were ending.

Wall Street edged lower on Wednesday as investors booked profits after stocks hit new 2 1/2-year highs, but strong earnings made it likely the market would continue an upward trend.

A Sony employee accidentally re-tweeted a code that allows users to get around the security on a Playstation 3 -- at the same time the company is suing a hacker for publicizing code with a similar function.

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc's weaker quarterly margins seemed to confirm investors' fears that growing competition may be forcing the company to cut prices to protect market share.

Microsoft Corp named veteran insider and expert engineer Satya Nadella as the head of its $15 billion server and tools business, as it looks to revitalize its push into cloud computing.

Charlie Sheen notified the crew of the show Two and a Half Men that he would pay a portion of their salaries for the two weeks the show has been off-air as long as CBS and Warner Bros. agree to pay the remainder, TMZ reports.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday strongly pitched increased bipartisan cooperation among lawmakers as vital for building business and market confidence in the economy's growth.

In a recent article in Marie Claire magazine, Miley Cyrus admits it was a mistake to smoke salvia out of a bong.

For the first time since becoming chief executive of Coca-Cola Co in 2008, Muhtar Kent looked at the sales scorecard he carries around all the time and saw no red marks.

Deutsche Boerse is in advanced merger talks with NYSE Euronext , two people familiar with the matter said, the day's second big piece of bourse merger news.

Singer Ashlee Simpson-Wentz filed for divorce from her rock star husband Pete Wentz, Tuesday, People.com reports.

Investors took profits on recent gains in U.S. stocks on Wednesday, but a last-minute rise in Bank of America helped lift the Dow to its eighth straight day of gains.

Deutsche Boerse is in talks to tie up with peer NYSE Euronext , two people familiar with the matter said after trading in the two companies' shares was halted amid heavy speculation about a team-up.

Stripping away the Palm branding, HP also announced a pair of smartphones

The following are highlights from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony on the economy to the House Budget Committee on Wednesday.

A bid by the London Stock Exchange to take over TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, reopens the debate on whether Canada is really open for global business, or if regulatory and political hurdles are set to wreck another high-profile deal.

France's second-biggest mobile operator SFR on Wednesday said its parent Vivendi was in contact with Vodafone regarding the acquisition of the British operator's 44 percent stake in SFR.

Lindsay Lohan was formally charged with grand theft Wednesday for allegedly stealing a necklace worth $2,500.

Called the Samsung Galaxy Indulge, the phone will be available later this week.

Libya has handed out more than $2 billion in loans to dozens of governments across the globe, according to an internal document that shows the oil exporter's diplomatic ambitions and its struggles to recover its debts.

The brother and sister of the alleged suicide bomber who killed 36 people at Russia's busiest airport have been arrested for helping him, along with a third accomplice, Russian media said Wednesday.

Military talks between the rival Koreas have collapsed, a unification ministry official in Seoul said on Wednesday, dealing a setback to efforts to restart international aid-for-disarmament talks.

Italian prosecutors filed a request on Wednesday to bring Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to trial immediately over the prostitution scandal that has shaken his struggling centre-right government.

Company introduces two new smartphones on the new WebOS operating system.

A minister in the government of South Sudan was shot dead inside his ministry on Wednesday, days after referendum results confirmed the region will become Africa's newest independent state, officials said.

Egyptians counted the economic cost of more than two weeks of turmoil on Wednesday as protesters on Cairo's Tahrir Square looked ahead to their next big push to oust President Hosni Mubarak later in the week.

Namibian diamond production jumped 57 percent in 2010, while uranium production declined marginally, data showed on Wednesday.