IBT Staff Reporter

China's Geely Automobile Holdings, whose parent bought Ford's Volvo unit this month, warned of tougher competition and slower sales after its record first-half earnings beat forecasts on Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it wants to reach cumulative sales of 5 million hybrid vehicles in the early part of this decade.

Russia's car market is emerging fast from the crisis as cheap loans return and consumer confidence grows, leading auto makers said on Wednesday as they delivered upbeat forecast for sales growth this year.

New U.S. single-family home sales slumped to the slowest pace on record in July and orders for costly durable goods were weak, according to government reports on Wednesday that heightened fears the economy was at risk of a new downturn.

Prices of U.S. single-family homes fell for the first time in four months in June, and by an adjusted 1.7 percent from a year earlier, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Wednesday.

Mortgage applications rose last week as record low rates lifted demand for home refinancing loans to its highest level in over 15 months, a development that could provide a much-needed jolt to the economy.

Stunned and disappointed Obama administration officials said on Tuesday they would appeal a federal court ruling that temporarily barred federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

U.S. health regulators plan to give restaurant companies more time to comply with new rules that require clear calorie and nutritional information on menus.

The chances of surviving a gunshot or a car crash may vary across North America, researchers have found, suggesting room for improvement in some healthcare systems.

New York has more unwanted nocturnal guests than other urban areas and has been named the most bedbug infested city in the United States.

GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia was no riskier to the heart than a rival, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, a finding that contradicts earlier studies and adds new fodder to the roiling debate over the drug's safety.

India's love affair with the yellow metal is gaining strength every year with the 2010 first half showing a 94 per cent rise in demand for gold in India as compared to the 2009 first six months.

Natural gas prices have remained weak and will continue to do so in 2011 on abundant supplies and weak demand. Bank of America Merill Lynch (BofAML) has downgraded its average price forecast for fourth quarter of 2010 for natural gas prices from $5.60/MMBTU to $4.80/MMBTU. BofAML has sharply lowered its 2011 forecast to average of $5/MMBTu from $6/MMBTu.

Global oil prices recovered in Asian trade Wednesday but remained below $72 a barrel ahead of a crucial US oil inventories report due later today. Light sweet crude for October delivery was seen trading at $71.81 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $72.41 a barrel in London.

Gold prices mixed in early Asian trade Wednesday but likely to advance further as signs of an economic slowdown may prompt investors to boost their holdings of the metal to try to preserve their wealth Spot gold was seen trading at $1231.35 an ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while U.S. gold futures for December delivery fell $1 to $1,232.4 an ounce after rising as high as $1,237.50 on Tuesday.

World Gold Council on Wednesday said big traditional gold consumers like India and China help gold demand reach 1,050.3 metric tons in the second quarter. In a report, the WGC said this is 36 percent higher than the same quarter in 2009, mostly due to soaring investment demand.

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With political uncertainty hanging over the Aussie dollar recent attempts at a rally have been short lived as resistance around the 89 cent mark put a lid during yesterdays Asian afternoon session.

U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation of about 3 million older Jeep Grand Cherokees with fuel tanks that may present a fire risk in a crash

U.S. regulators on Monday were still investigating the massive salmonella outbreak that sparked a recall of more than a half billion eggs, while lawmakers launched their own probes and consumer advocates urged passage of a law to give food regulators more power.

Women who took medication to treat herpes infections during pregnancy weren't more likely to have a baby with birth defects than women who didn't take these drugs in a study of over 800,000 babies born in Denmark.

Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who still have symptoms despite taking medications might benefit from talk therapy, also known as cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, according to a study released Tuesday.

Some diabetics are at risk of developing chronic kidney disease if they have mutations of a certain gene, a long-term study in Hong Kong has found.

Large percentages of Mexican adults have risk factors for heart disease and stroke -- suggesting, researchers say, that without intervention, the nation's rate of cardiovascular disease will continue the climb it began several decades ago.

The White House is reviewing all options for responding to a court ruling stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Adding an experimental drug to chemotherapy helped wipe out brain cancer cells in mice, offering a promising new treatment approach for the deadly cancer, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Children whose mothers were exposed to certain types of pesticides while pregnant were more likely to have attention problems as they grew up, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Taking high doses of vitamins C and E during pregnancy may not change a woman's risk of preterm delivery, according to a new study.