IBT Staff Reporter

Major diversified miners are due to post surging first half results after a strong rebound in prices with demand driven by China and India.

BP has said that outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward will not testify at a U.S. Senate hearing examining whether the British oil giant influenced the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the office of Senator Robert Menendez said on Tuesday.

Office Depot Inc reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on lower distribution costs and other expense controls, sending shares of the No. 2 U.S. office supplies retailer up 8 percent.

Japan's JFE Holdings , the world's fifth-largest steelmaker, returned to a profit on Tuesday and U.S. Steel posted a narrower loss, but both gave lackluster forecasts, with the Americans complaining of slower order rates.

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

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday she plans to beef up mental health service with a $277 million fund dedicated to preventing suicides among 12,500 suicidal and depressed people.

Consumer confidence fell in July to the lowest level since February, weighed mostly by worries about the job market, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday.

UBS flagged a return to client inflows this year as strong equities and forex trading gains helped it outdo Deutsche Bank and other rivals, which were hit hard by Europe's sovereign debt crisis.

Lockheed Martin Corp , the world's largest defense contractor, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday as revenue rose and margins improved.

Weaker-than-expected consumer confidence reversed early stock gains fueled by strong corporate earnings on Tuesday, leaving indexes slightly lower.

Single-family home prices rose more than expected in May, still reflecting robust spring sales spurred by homebuyer tax credits, Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home price indexes showed on Tuesday.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp won unconditional EU regulatory approval on Tuesday for its $3.17 billion buy of Continental Airlines Inc that will create the world's largest carrier.

DuPont forecast 2010 earnings well above expectations on Tuesday and said its second-quarter profit nearly tripled as the rebounding global economy continued to fuel the company's recovery, sending it shares up 4.6 percent.

Single-family home prices rose more than expected in May, still reflecting robust spring sales spurred by homebuyer tax credits, Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home price indexes showed on Tuesday.

UAL Corp and Continental Airlines Inc said on Tuesday that John Tague, president of UAL's United Airlines, and UAL Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells will leave the company following the close of the planned merger of the two companies.

(Corrects layoff restructuring charge in paragraph 5 to 19 million francs from 19 billion)

U.S. single-family home prices rose more than expected in May, still reflecting robust spring sales spurred by homebuyer tax credits, Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home price indexes showed on Tuesday.

UBS Wealth Management Americas lost assets and advisers during the second quarter and was UBS AG's only unprofitable division, though it offered some signs that it was on the mend.

Western Union Co reported a quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates, helped by a rise in revenue from its consumer-to-consumer segment.

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.

Defense contractor L-3 Communications Holdings Inc posted a higher quarterly profit on Tuesday on demand for products that gather and monitor intelligence, but cut its full-year forecast in wake of a contract loss.

LOS ANGELES - The James Bond 007: Blood Stone video game event in London this month had all the class and splash one would expect from the world's most elegant spy.

Two telecom operator-backed software groups are merging to counter increasing competition from new rivals Google and Apple for mobile phone applications.

Single-family home prices rose more than expected in May, reflecting robust spring sales spurred by homebuyer tax credits, Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller home price indexes showed on Tuesday.

CIT Group , the commercial lender that last year emerged from bankruptcy, on Tuesday reported a quarterly profit that dwarfed analysts' estimates.

Oil prices rose toward $80 a barrel to hit the highest level since early May as upbeat corporate results and rallying equities increased risk appetite for the commodity. U.S. stock index futures jumped on Tuesday, setting Wall Street for a fourth straight day of gains, while European shares touched a five-week high.

The euro hit an 11-week high against the dollar and a seven-week high against the yen on Tuesday as solid bank earnings lifted equities and encouraged investors to take on more risk. Strong earnings from Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) helped lift European shares .FTEU3, with banking stocks .SX7P leading the gains and supporting the market's relief over the results of last week's European bank stress tests.

Upbeat corporate results and a larger-than-forecast increase in home prices lifted U.S. stocks on Tuesday, as Wall Street pursued a fourth straight day of gains.

Occidental Petroleum Corp posted a 57 percent increase in quarterly profit on Tuesday, as higher energy prices gave a big boost to the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, but results still missed expectations.