IBT Staff Reporter

NEW YORK - Supermarket operator Kroger Co posted quarterly profit far below expectations and slashed its full-year forecast amid intense competition, and its shares fell 14 percent.

Women's clothing retailer Talbots Inc reported a surprise quarterly profit on cost cuts and eased concerns regarding its ability to pay down debt, sending its shares up 7 percent.

President Barack Obama proposed a variety of programs on Tuesday to boost U.S. employment, including cutting taxes for small businesses to boost hiring.

West Hollywood-based motion picture finance and production company Film Department Holdings Inc hopes to go public in an initial public offering that would raise $85 million to $100 million.

San Francisco-based gWallet, a provider of advertising platform for the virtual goods and social media space, is counting on that axiom to boost its prospects in the fast-growing field.

Vipul Tejani runs a small factory in Surat, the diamond capital of India which in the past 15 years has been hit by massive floods, rising sea levels, and even the plague.

The sudden fall of Lend America, a nationwide vendor of government-backed home loans, is leaving many borrowers with deep regrets.

True Corporation PCL TRUE.BK, Thailand's only integrated telecoms firm, said on Tuesday it expected its 2009 revenue to rise less than 5 percent from last year due to the weak economy

U.S. small business lender CIT Group Inc headed to court on Tuesday to ask a New York bankruptcy judge for approval of its prepackaged reorganization plan.

McDonald's Corp said sales at established U.S. restaurants fell for the second straight month as competitors like Burger King and Taco Bell pushed low prices to attract customers.

Stocks fell on Tuesday after a disappointing outlook from 3M Co and a second consecutive month of domestic sales declines at McDonald's Corp triggered worry about the pace of consumer spending.

Investor confidence in Dubai took a fresh knock on Tuesday as officials dithered over a rescue for debt-laden state conglomerate Dubai World and ratings agency Moody's slapped a downgrade on government-related debt.

China must do much more if it is to halve per capita greenhouse emissions by 2050 and thereby avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, but it cannot go it alone, a report released in Beijing said on Tuesday.

An unidentified woman was taken from golfer Tiger Woods' Florida home by ambulance to a nearby hospital early on Tuesday, authorities said.

Car bombs killed 112 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, leaving charred buses and scattered body parts in a blow to the government's efforts to show it can defend Iraqis before U.S. troops withdraw by the end of 2011.

Procter & Gamble Co said on Tuesday that Chairman A.G. Lafley would retire in early 2010 and Chief Executive Bob McDonald would become chairman of the world's top household products maker on January 1.

Iran will show no mercy towards opposition protesters seen as threatening national security, a judiciary official said on Tuesday, a day after thousands of students staged anti-government rallies.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates told Afghans on Tuesday Washington would not abandon them, describing a withdrawal that would begin in 2011 but be spread over several years to give Afghan troops time to train.

The opinion poll lead of the Conservatives over the Labour Party has narrowed to eight percentage points, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

Total Energy Services Inc said it agreed to buy the oilfield services, rental and transportation business of privately held DC Energy Services Inc for C$44.5 million ($42.4 million), to expand in western Canada.

The threat of bombs and violence will compete with the lure of some of the world's most promising oilfields when oil majors fly into Baghdad this week to bid in Iraq's second auction of oil contracts since the U.S. invasion.

Economic growth in the United States will resume in 2010, with manufacturing revenue forecast to rise 5.7 percent, the Institute for Supply Management said in its semiannual economic forecast released on Tuesday.

James Gorman, who takes over as Morgan Stanley's chief executive on January 1, has picked finance chief Colm Kelleher and banker Paul Taubman to run the company's institutional securities unit, the New York bank announced on Tuesday.

Investor confidence in Dubai took a fresh knock on Tuesday as officials dithered over a rescue for debt-laden state conglomerate Dubai World DBWLD.UL and ratings agency Moody's slapped a downgrade on government-related debt.

Bank of America Corp's Chief Risk Officer Greg Curl is under scrutiny by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo's office in connection with the probe of the bank's merger with Merrill Lynch, the New York Times reported.

A woman was transported by ambulance from Tiger Woods' home on Deacon Circle, Florida early Tuesday, Orlando's WFTV News reported today.

Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas said on Tuesday profits in the first half of fiscal year 2010 nearly halved as the global recession hit demand and crude oil prices tumbled from year-ago levels.

NEW YORK - Kroger Co , the largest U.S. grocery chain, reported a much lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its full-year forecast as it feels pressure from falling food prices and stepped up competition, pushing its shares down nearly 10 percent in premarket trade.

Stocks fell on Tuesday on a disappointing outlook from 3M Co, while McDonald's Corp reported a second straight month of declines in domestic sales.