IBT Staff Reporter

Executives from two major oil companies told Congress on Thursday that the U.S. government should open more offshore areas to oil and natural gas drilling so America can rely less on foreign suppliers.

Canada's Destiny Resource Services Corp, which provides seismic front-end services to energy explorers, said it agreed to merge with Houston-based privately held Logan Oil Tools Inc, sending Destiny shares up more than 100 percent to a new year-high.

Chinese solar companies Suntech Power Holdings Co and Trina Solar Ltd posted higher-than-expected earnings on Thursday and said demand for the clean energy systems was rebounding after a dismal year.

An American International Group Inc's board meeting is expected next week against the backdrop of Chief Executive Robert Benmosche's frustration with the U.S. government's involvement in the insurer's affairs, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

U.S. carmaker General Motors will present a new viability plan for Opel in mid-December as it aims to reduce capacity across Europe by about 20 percent, a top executive said on Thursday.

Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, raised hopes the 90,000 workers in its high-wage western German plants could extend their job guarantees a further three years until 2014, a senior executive told Reuters.

U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as another batch of economic data pointed to the fragility of the recovery and a brokerage's dim view on the semiconductor sector hit technology shares.

Australian Dollar: Average weekly wages increased by 5.2% in August and 0.9% for the year to date, down from 6.1% the previous month and 1.2% for the year to July. The news was enough to tip the AUD/USD below intraday technical support at 0.9270 to a low of 0.9220 in Asia yesterday. The Aussie dollar followed the Euro lower in early trade to revisit the 0.9130 level before bouncing back in late U.S trade following some relatively upbeat North American economic data. This morning sees the AUD ope...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc , in the spotlight over its controversial plans to pay billions of dollars in year-end bonuses to executives, has invited 272 executives to join the ranks of managing directors, a source familiar with the matter said.

Technology stocks drove a broad-based U.S. sell-off on Thursday as a brokerage took a dim view of demand prospects for the semiconductor sector, while economic data underscored the fragility of the recovery.

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region hit a two-year high in November, indicating the economic recovery was gaining momentum, while the trend in claims for jobless aid continued downward.

Google revealed more details of its Google Chrome OS on Thursday - showing how lightweight and fast it is - but early reactions from blogs, Twitter and Facebook, show that potential users are already finding problems with it.

Dell Inc posted quarterly revenue that fell a steeper-than-expected 15 percent, sending shares of the No. 3 maker of personal computers down more than 7 percent after hours.

A taste of Susan Boyle's new album I Dreamed a Dream is available on the British newspaper The Sun, ahead of its official release on November 23.

An interview with Janet Jackson and ABC's Robin Roberts was Wednesday night aired with Janet talking about various topics from her brother's death to her former boyfriend.

Chip stocks fell on Thursday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the sector on a possible inventory correction, although two of Europe's top chipmakers were upbeat about recovery prospects.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials on Thursday said inflation is not an imminent threat and downplayed the consequences of the falling U.S. dollar.

Google Inc is opening its much-anticipated Chrome software to external developers, as the search giant prepares to expand its reach into operating systems.

U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as a brokerage's bearish view of the semiconductor industry hit technology shares and a key economic report raised concerns about the recovery, curbing the appetite for riskier assets.

Semiconductor stocks fell sharply after BofA Merrill Lynch turned bearish on the industry and downgraded several chipmakers, including Intel Corp , citing a modest rise in inventories.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai left Thursday for North Africa, where analysts said he would meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to maintain political pressure on President Robert Mugabe to honor their power-sharing accord.

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was on course on Thursday to become the European Union's president and Briton Catherine Ashton to become its foreign affairs chief, EU officials said

New York Governor David Paterson, facing a tough battle to keep his job, has fallen so low in public opinion that even his visual impairment that once earned him respect is being held against him.

Manufacturing activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region hit a two-year high in November, indicating the economic recovery was gaining momentum, while the trend in claims for jobless aid continued downward.

Fidelity Investments has launched a service to help retail brokers determine how profitable it would be for them to leave their brokerage house and hang out their own shingle.

Digg founder, Kevin Rose and CEO, Jay Adelson offered some of their tips and advice on how entrepreneurs can set up a successful company online. Talking at the web 2.0 expo in New York on Tuesday, the duo said that Digg has grown so much since it first started in 2004.

Any tax imposed on financial transactions would have to take effect internationally to prevent Wall Street jobs and related business moving overseas, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.

YouTube can now automatically assign captions to video using speech recognition. Video publishers can now upload a transcript for their videos, which further helps the site add accurate captioning. Users can translate these captions into multiple languages too when watching videos.

The U.S. dollar will remain the world's primary reserve currency for many years or decades, an International Monetary Fund official said on Thursday.