IBT Staff Reporter

Stock futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 all fell 0.1 percent, pointing to a slightly weaker start for equities on Wall Street on Wednesday.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto is finalizing a $3.8 billion takeover bid for Africa-focused Riversdale , according to two sources, upping an earlier offer as it seeks to gain key coking coal supplies amid soaring demand from India and China.

German sporting goods company Adidas will grow faster than U.S. archrival Nike in 2015, Adidas Chief Executive Herbert Hainer told German daily Boersen-Zeitung.

Online retailer Dangdang Inc, considered as China's answer to Amazon.com, aims for sales of general merchandise to exceed that of books and other media as it diversifies in the highly competitive e-commerce sector.

Microsoft Corp is working on a version of its core Windows operating system for devices such as tablets, according to media reports on Tuesday, and the company said its Windows Phone 7 software is making headway in the booming smartphone market.

China will try to import more in 2011 while keeping exports steady, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Wednesday, in a sign that the world's second-largest economy is keen to pull more weight as a consumer.

Boeing Co said on Wednesday that it will soon announce the resumption of test flights for its 787 Dreamliner plane, which have been halted since last month due to technical problems.

The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Tuesday.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted Internet traffic rules on Tuesday that would ban Internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against traffic on their networks.

(Corrects name to Jon, not John, paragraph 4)

From Wall Street to the City of London to Hong Kong's Central District, bankers are bracing for bonuses to be down 7 percent on average from a year ago, and higher salaries will only partially cushion the hit, a Reuters/IFR global poll shows.

Red Hat announced financial results for its fiscal year 2011 third quarter, reporting a rise in operating income of 92 percent year over year.

Nike Inc posted future orders data that missed many analysts' expectations Tuesday, sending shares of the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing maker down almost 6 percent.

Sponsors and supporters of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act were in Washington, D.C. today to urge the U.S. Senate to get past partisanship and pass the measure that will bring permanent healthcare and compensation to the approximately 20,000 Americans who are suffering from illnesses contracted while working at Ground Zero in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the quickest video game ever to reach the $1 billion mark.

The nuclear-arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia cleared a key hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday as Senators voted by a significant margin to advance the bill for a final vote.

Explaining net neutrality and what the five FCC commissioners personally said about the new rules and regulations.

The U.S. futures regulator said on Tuesday it has promoted Andrei Kirilenko, an economist known for his role in the review of the May 6 flash crash, as chief economist for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The U.S. Latino population, which several decades ago was mostly concentrated in the Southwestern part of the country, is expected to show continued growth and geographic expansion in the 2010 Census report.

Chances that the federal government will remain open for the next several months improved today, as the Senate passed a Continuing Resolution to keep government programs funded, for the most part, at current levels until March 4, 2011.

More last-minute shoppers flocked to stores this year on the final Saturday before Christmas than last year, but spending is expected to be even higher late this week.

A divided Federal Communications Commission adopted Internet traffic rules on Tuesday, attracting warnings they would be rejected in the courts and threats from Republican lawmakers to overturn them.

Allied Irish Banks' junior bondholders will have to take a big hit in a future restructuring, the European Commission warned on Tuesday as it rubber-stamped billions of euros in state aid for Irish banks.

From Wall Street to the City of London to Hong Kong's Central District, bankers are bracing for bonuses to be down 7 percent on average from a year ago, and higher salaries will only partially cushion the hit, a Reuters/IFR global poll shows.

Google Inc's Internet search algorithm is the technology world's equivalent of the Coca-Cola formula: a top-secret corporate crown jewel.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young was sued by New York prosecutors over allegations it helped to hide Lehman Brothers' financial problems, in the first major government legal action stemming from the Wall Street company's 2008 downfall.

Deutsche Bank admitted criminal wrongdoing for taking part in fraudulent tax shelters that let clients hide billions of dollars, and agreed to pay $553.6 million to settle the case, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Intel Corp has won approval from the Federal Trade Commission for its proposed $7.68 billion acquisition of security specialist McAfee Inc, the chipmaker said.

By a vote of 3-2, the commission approves net neutrality regulations.