IBT Staff Reporter

Defense contractors Lockheed Martin Corp and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc beat Wall Street profit estimates on better revenue and margins but offered differing full-year outlooks.

(Corrects JFE production in 9th paragraph: 25.8 mln metric tons, instead of 58.2 mln metric tons)

The court-appointed examiner investigating Tribune Co's bankruptcy said he found some evidence of dishonesty in the 2007 leveraged buyout of the media company by real estate developer Sam Zell.

Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has become the first writer to sell more than one million Kindle e-books thanks to his popular mystery Millennium Trilogy novels, online retailer Amazon.com said on Tuesday.

The S&P snapped a three-day winning streak on Tuesday after mixed earnings reports and a fall in consumer confidence, but analysts said U.S. stocks were taking a breather and the rally could pick back up.

Israeli scientists have developed a device that allows severely disabled people to communicate by using their nose.

More than 80 percent of the 532 French winemakers surveyed by online marketing company mysocialwinery.com said they did not blog or use Facebook, Twitter or other websites that allow consumers to comment, recommend, track or question wine producers.

The rate of vacancies for homes slipped slightly in the second quarter, a government report showed on Tuesday, but it was not enough to promise improvement in the hard-hit housing market.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 eked out slim gains, while the Nasdaq dipped on Tuesday as a sharp drop in July consumer confidence curbed the enthusiasm stirred by more robust earnings.

(Corrects company's name to Cummins in 2nd bullet point and paragraph 11 in midday stocks report)

Lexmark International Inc posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday on strong sales of printers and supplies, and as improved demand for services helped beef up margins.

IT services provider Unisys Corp's second-quarter profit more than tripled, helped by a gain from the sale of its health information management business, sending its shares up as much as 15 percent.

BP Plc's newly named chief executive on Tuesday called the Gulf oil spill a wake-up call for the entire industry as the company tallied up its losses and disclosed two U.S. investigations.

(Corrects spelling of company's name to Cummins in 2nd bullet point and paragraph 10 in late morning report)

BP Plc's ousted chief executive, Tony Hayward, will not testify to a Senate committee examining whether the oil giant influenced the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Senator Robert Menendez said on Tuesday.

Toyota Motor Corp has pushed back plans to build its Prius in the United States by as much as six years, with a top executive saying U.S. production is likely to start only when the best-selling hybrid is remodeled.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd is recalling 51,100 Cube compacts in North America after U.S. safety regulators said a fuel leak could cause fire after a crash

Local government revenue has dwindled so severely that U.S. cities and counties will have to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming months, leaving communities without basic services and pressuring jobless rates.

Americans by a large majority believe President Barack Obama has not focused enough on job creation, as economic fears threaten Democrats ahead of November 2 elections

U.S. stocks barely budged on Tuesday as consumer confidence sank in July, offsetting enthusiasm stirred by more robust earnings.

Goldman Sachs on Tuesday said it is launching a service to facilitate central clearing for clients in all listed and privately traded derivatives asset classes.

Japan's Nissan Motor Co said on Tuesday it will spend $600 million to upgrade its plants in Mexico and start making three new low-cost cars there, positioning Mexico as its supply hub for the Americas markets.

Daimler expects rising demand for its most expensive Mercedes-Benz models to drive operating profit to 6 billion euros ($7.8 billion) in 2010, its best result since the auto industry boom that peaked three years ago.

Stocks were little changed as data showing worsening consumer confidence offset optimism fueled by more upbeat earnings reports.

Apple Inc updated its line of desktop computers on Tuesday with the latest-generation chips, as the company continues to gain share in the PC market.

Job worries drove July U.S. consumer confidence to its lowest since February, with one in six people expecting lower income in the next six months, underscoring the precarious state of economic recovery.

BP Plc's newly named chief executive on Tuesday called the Gulf oil spill a wake-up call for the entire industry as the company tallied up its losses and disclosed two U.S. investigations.

Goldman Sachs on Tuesday said it is launching a service to facilitate central clearing for clients in all listed and privately traded derivatives asset classes.

DuPont forecast 2010 earnings well above expectations on Tuesday, sending its shares up 4.1 percent, as the rebounding global economy continued to fuel the company's recovery.