IBT Staff Reporter

World stocks hit fresh 29-month highs on Wednesday, lifted by strong data pointing to sustained economic recovery and continuing positive company earnings.

Nomura Holdings, Japan's biggest brokerage, reported a 31 percent rise in third quarter net profit on Wednesday after gains in Tokyo stocks boosted fees.

Cable network advertising growth and threats from online video services Netflix and Hulu will dominate investor attention when News Corp and Time Warner begin the earnings season for big media on Wednesday.

Nomura Holdings, Japan's biggest brokerage, reported a 31 percent rise in third quarter net profit from a year earlier as a gain in Tokyo stocks boosted fees.

American car owners gave a confidence boost to auto manufacturers, as General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota posted double digit gains in January US auto sales.

A review conducted by two veterans in these industries in the UK finds that such focus could lead to improvements in STEM education and draw more people towards studying these subjects.

Japan's economy will emerge from a lull soon and is certain to pull out of deflation over time, a Bank of Japan policymaker said, offering a somewhat upbeat take on the outlook on budding signs of a recovery.

The British motor industry is on line to receive a 7-billion-pound boost from electric cars between 2011 and 2014, according to a survey by GfK Automotive.

Google Inc on Tuesday began a public search for an executive missing in Cairo, where the Internet company has offered tools to help Egyptians communicate amid chaotic protests.

Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Ian Read is slashing the massive research budget at the world's largest drugmaker to deliver on a 2012 profit forecast and allay Wall Street concerns the company has become too large.

Kathy Freston, the author who promotes a vegan diet, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show on Tuesday as the program highlighted a one week trial by the majority of the show's staff to try the diet.

Borders Group Inc, the second-largest U.S. book chain, may file for bankruptcy later this month, a source familiar with matter said.

Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc are making a last-ditch effort to blunt proposed cuts to debit card processing fees, after the Federal Reserve took a machete to the multi-billion-dollar industry late last year.

Speculation Britain's ARM Holdings Plc could become a takeover target is misguided and ignores the importance of the chip designer staying independent, ARM's president said.

General Motors Co and Chrysler posted U.S. sales gains of more than 20 percent for January as the two automakers that had faced collapse in 2009 shot past the industry's still-struggling leader, Toyota Motor Corp.

Canada's government will review a regulatory decision that effectively blocks small Internet providers from offering unlimited downloading to customers for a flat fee, a ruling that favors a handful of big carriers.

After Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday he would stay in power for months until stepping down by the next election, President Barack Obama called for a new government in Egypt and said an orderly transition must be meaningful, peaceful and begin now.

Gap Inc will name its top outlet executive Art Peck as the new head of Gap North America as it looks to speed up a flagging turnaround at the apparel brand, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Google Inc said on Tuesday that its Middle East and North Africa marketing head is missing in Egypt.

A group of lenders has withdrawn its plan for reorganizing newspaper owner Tribune Co, leaving two proposals for ending the company's two-year stay in bankruptcy, according to court documents.

WHAT: ADP Employer Services report for January

Company announces a quarterly cash dividend increase while saying its revenue will sink in the first quarter of 2011.

The Milwaukee blizzard set to hit Wisconsin on Tuesday night will bring high-speed winds reaching up to 55 miles per hour, nearly a foot of snow and bitterly cold temperatures.

Apple Inc has blocked rival Sony Corp's electronic book application from the iPhone because it would have circumvented Apple's system for buying content.

Cisco estimates mobile traffic is headed upward and will be measured in exabytes per month.

Microcosm Publishing, a not-for-profit book publisher and distributor, started a campaign earlier this month with an unusual premise: Swapping unwanted Amazon Kindle's for offerings from its inventory.

U.S. aviation security authorities on Tuesday unveiled a new pilot program aimed at quelling an uproar about full-body scanners used to screen air travelers -- the new software will no longer produce an image of the actual person.

Two political scientists at Hebrew University in Israel say they have come up with a method of predicting the likelihood that a country will suffer civil unrest.

As large blizzard sweeps the through the central U.S., residents should be prepared to follow emergency instructions from local authorities, a federal official said.