IBT Staff Reporter

Toyota Motor Corp, faltering from recalls, has fallen into a statistical tie with Ford Motor Co for tops in U.S. consumer brand perception, influential magazine Consumer Reports said on Wednesday.

Starbucks Corp , the world's biggest coffee chain, dropped both its name and the word coffee from its 40-year old logo, prompting cries of outrage from people who said they were loyal customers.

CHICAGO, Jan 5 - As the domestic session opened, 10-year notes were up 13+/32nds on weaker stocks overnight; however, the ADP Employment report stunned the market with 297k jobs created versus an expectation of +100k.

Bernard Madoff's sister-in-law, whose husband was a top executive at his firm, has put up her luxury home in Palm Beach, Florida, for sale with an asking price of $6.5 million.

Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s press secretary is leaving the White House. He will depart some time after the President’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25, the administration said today.

AT&T Inc plans to sell 20 phones with high-speed Web surfing this year including 12 phones running Google Inc software in its biggest push yet to lessen its dependence on Apple Inc's iPhone.

Microsoft Corp will introduce a version of its Windows operating system compatible with chips designed by Britain's ARM Holdings, as the software company tries to grab a slice of an exploding market for tablet computers.

A group of Verizon technicians is appealing a court decision that upheld the company's right to use global positioning system devices to track employees' whereabouts.

The creation of three times as many private-sector jobs as expected turned Wall Street's early losses into gains on Wednesday, extending a rally investors worried had come too far too fast.

Panasonic Corp will open up for free its technology for Internet-enabled televisions as it looks to create a rival group to the Sony Corp and Google Inc alliance, the Nikkei reported.

After almost eight years, Oppenheimer & Co has lost its battle to force Citigroup Inc to pay over $18 million for luring away nine of its top financial advisers.

AT&T Inc plans to launch 20 phones with high-speed Web surfing this year including a phone from Motorola Inc.

The South Korean electronics giant introduces a slew of new products at the CES.

Comcast Corp plans to soon roll out a feature allowing its customers to watch real-time television shows, whether a crime drama or newscast, on tablet computers such as Apple Inc's iPad.

Qualcomm Inc plans to dominate the supply of wireless chips for tablet devices such as Apple's iPad with its $3.2 billion planned purchase of Atheros Communications Inc .

The two houses of the 112th Congress commence business today at noon and both veteran lawmakers and newcomers are going to find many important national issues on their collective plates – jobs and the economy, healthcare, last fiscal year’s unattended budget, this fiscal year’s developing budget, immigration, Afghanistan, Pakistan and energy, to name some of the bigger ones.

New York subway passengers, who were stranded for seven hours on the A train when the city was hit by a snowstorm on Dec. 26, are planning to sue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The number of U.S. private-sector jobs surged in December at a rate three times stronger than forecast, a hiring report showed, the most bullish signal in months that a recovery in the world's biggest economy is shifting up a gear.

Google has not given up on China and is looking for ways to re-enter the market, according to CFO Patrick Pichette.

US market regulator Security and Exchange Commission began examining disclosure rules for privately held companies and whether they need to be rewritten following the recent deals that allowed investors to buy shares in Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter.

Israeli vulture caught and convicted for spying on Saudi Arabian territory, sounds amusing but seems Israel put the scavenging birds to better use than feeding on carcasses.

Intel Corp new Sandy Bridge microchips will yield about a third of its revenue in 2011 and help trigger more than $125 billion in sales for the struggling personal computer industry, Chief Executive Paul Otellini said on Wednesday.

Whether you're watching 2001, Lord of the Rings, Kill Bill, Toy Story 3, or countless other movies, you can watch them in their original aspect ratio and without black bars, the Irvine, California-based Vizio said. The 50 inch and 58 inch class sizes will be available later this year, and the company plans to showcase a 71-inch version too.

The number of U.S. consumers who filed petitions for personal bankruptcy protection grew 9 percent to 1.53 million in 2010 and this could rise as consumers struggle with excess debt in an uncertain economy, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), an association of attorneys and other bankruptcy professionals, and the National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC).

Stocks advanced on Wednesday as a much stronger-than-expected rise in private sector employment boosted optimism about the outlook for the economy and stocks.

Credit Suisse upgraded Barnes & Noble Inc shares, citing benefits the top U.S. bookstore chain could reap from the woes faced by smaller rival Borders Group Inc , which is meeting with publishers this week to negotiate new payment terms.

With the U.S. market promising little growth in 2011, law firms are looking at emerging markets in Asia and South America for spurring their expansion.

Amazon announced that its Kindle apps will now be available for Android and Windows based tablets as part of its Buy Once, Read Everywhere strategy.