IBT Staff Reporter

Web commerce company eBay Inc beat Wall Street's quarterly profit estimates, helped by a record performance at its PayPal online payments unit and strong marketplace sales in Europe.

Drug company Genzyme will no longer provide drugs to prolong the lives of 14 patients suffering from the deadly and extremely rare Pompe disease when its $600,000 annual charity funding ceases later this year.

Connecticut's attorney general, who is leading a 37-state probe of Google Inc's collection of data from private Wi-Fi networks, asked the Internet search leader on Wednesday if it had tested the software before using it.

Starbucks Corp disappointed Wall Street with fiscal 2010 and 2011 profit forecasts on Wednesday that matched or lagged Wall Street's expectations, sending its shares down more than 2 percent.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's dour assessment of the U.S. recovery hit stocks on Wednesday, as the Fed chief's comment on unusually uncertain economic prospects discouraged investors.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the U.S. economy faces unusually uncertain prospects, and that the central bank was ready to take further steps to bolster growth if needed.

Starbucks Corp reported quarterly profit that matched Wall Street expectations, and shares slipped 2.7 percent after the low end of its fiscal 2010 profit forecast missed Wall Street's view.

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff's financial advisory firm has sued 43 new defendants affiliated with a hedge fund firm that fed money to the now-imprisoned swindler.

A U.S. judge on Wednesday released former media baron Conrad Black from prison on $2 million bond, while she decides whether to throw out his 2007 conviction for defrauding shareholders.

More than $14 billion in airplane orders from lessors and Asia-Pacific carriers dominated the third day of the Farnborough Airshow, as manufacturers stood ready to raise their forecasts for the year on the back of strong demand.

Wall Street analysts boosted their price targets on Apple Inc after it posted robust quarterly results, but the company's conservative margin forecast limited gains in the stock on Wednesday.

Three major manufacturers raised their profit targets for the rest of the year on Wednesday, saying they were confident a rebound in demand for industrial goods would hold.

President Barack Obama signed into law on Wednesday the most comprehensive financial regulatory overhaul since the Great Depression, vowing to stop risky behavior on Wall Street that imperiled the U.S. economy.

Has Morgan Stanley finally turned the corner? It's starting to look that way.

Three telecoms firms have subscribed to a new undersea cable linking Nigeria and West Africa to Europe, paving the way for a transformation in internet access in Africa's fastest-growing telecoms market.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as investors were discouraged after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. economy faces unusually uncertain prospects.

Kingaroy residents are demanding the shutdown of an experimental coal-seam gas plant in Queensland for allegedly contaminating underground water supplies.

(Corrects number of firm plane orders in bullet point, lead and 6th paragraph)

Amaya Gaming Group, a Montreal-based developer of technologies for online gambling, said on Wednesday it raised C$5 million ($4.81 million) in an initial public offering it made to finance growth.

U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday called for tough new measures to punish China for its failure to stop widespread piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods ranging from music CDs to manufactured products.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday delayed action to restore U.S. unemployment benefits for those who have been out of work the longest, prolonging a partisan standoff even though the measure is certain to pass.

U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday as caution before comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the economy and interest rates offset optimism over solid earnings news.

The United States will make China a significant focus of its beefed-up efforts to fight global piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods ranging from CDs to manufactured products, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp plans to reduce its domestic vehicle production by about 20 percent from October as it expects a drop in demand after the Japanese government ends subsidies on purchasing so-called eco cars

Overweight people may respond more to a piping hot pizza, but they don't necessarily eat more of it in a single sitting, according to a new study.

Melanoma is on the rise among certain groups of dark-skinned Floridians, new research shows.

Drugmakers Merck, Tibotec and Gilead are in advanced talks with UNITAID about a patent pool to make AIDS drugs more widely available to the poor, the health funding agency said on Wednesday.

If you haven't paid due attention to the movements of copper prices in the market, this is the right time to do so. Copper inventories fell further as measured by the London Metals Exchange, by 0.8 per cent to 423,850 tonnes, the lowest level since November 20. Copper supplies are down a staggering 16 per cent this year.

China's experiment with oil eating bacteria to help clean oil spill areas in its northeast coast near Dalian city was proved to be a success, said country's Maritime Safety Administration. It's the first time that China is making use of bio-technology and bio-oil-absorbing products to solve an environmental pollution issue.