IBT Staff Reporter

Oil fell below $72 a barrel on Wednesday, pressured by doubts over U.S. demand after industry data showed a surprise build in crude oil stockpiles.

A former analyst with Moody's Corp has accused the credit ratings agency of issuing inflated ratings, and has taken his concerns to U.S. congressional investigators, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Stock futures pointed to a flat to higher start for Wall Street on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, with Dow Jones futures up 0.2 percent, S&P 500 futures up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq futures flat at 4:15 a.m. EDT.

Oil steadied at below $72 a barrel on Wednesday, after rising more than 2 percent in the previous session, as a bearish industry report showing a surprise build in U.S. crude oil stockpiles was offset by further weakness in the dollar.

A leading indicator of U.S. nonresidential construction spending dropped to its lowest level in three months in August as developers continued to find it tough to finance new projects.

The dollar slid to a one-year low against a basket of currencies as market players seized on surprisingly strong New Zealand economic growth data as a reason to push the kiwi dollar higher and dump the U.S. currency.

The dollar slid to a 13-month low against a basket of currencies as market players seized on surprisingly strong New Zealand economic growth data as a reason to push the kiwi dollar higher and dump the U.S. currency.

The government said on Tuesday it was increasing security to thwart possible militant strikes in the country days after Israel and Australia issued warnings to its citizens to avoid travelling to Indian cities.

Leaders from some of the largest Western powers rallied support Tuesday behind a U.S. plan to build a more balanced global economy and warned against returning to business as usual once recovery takes hold.

South Korea's chemicals and electronic materials maker, LG Chem, will invest 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) by 2018 in an LCD glass production facility, its parent group said on Wednesday.

The first batch of people to receive vaccinations against the new swine flu -- a group of students in China -- has reported no serious side effects, Chinese officials said on Tuesday.

Privately-held Finnish mobile software firm Flander said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy China's Symbio expanding its offering and creating one of the largest outsourced product development firms in the world.

Honduran soldiers and riot police surrounded the Brazilian embassy, where ousted President Manuel Zelaya was sheltering on Wednesday, in what could turn into a long standoff and deepen the country's crisis

Mexico's Cemex, the world's No. 3 cement maker, sealed a $1.8 billion share offer on strong demand on Tuesday in a sign of investor optimism in the debt-laden company's recovery.

President Barack Obama is engaged in a week of diplomatic activities in New York and Pittsburgh to tackle many of the world's major challenges. How's he doing?

The Aussie dollar roared higher yesterday having rallied almost 2% from its lows below 86 cents on Monday. Despite no local economic data released demand for the relatively high yielding AUD resurfaced following some better than expected data from across the Tasman. The New Zealand economic data saw Asian investors scramble to purchase both NZD and AUD against the Greenback, a theme that continued into early European trade. This morning sees the AUD open trade around its highs at 0.8730 having o...

U.S. President Barack Obama makes his United Nations debut on Wednesday, hoping his international star power can throw new muscle behind a policy agenda that is already struggling to deliver.

Oil fell toward $71 a barrel on Wednesday, giving up some of its previous session gains of 2 percent, as an industry report showing a surprise build in U.S. crude oil stockpiles again stoked concerns over demand revival.

Microsoft Corp is developing a small tablet-style PC to rival a similar product that may be launched by Apple Inc, technology blog Gizmodo reported on Tuesday.

Bank of America Corp is reducing overdraft and other account fees for a broad swath of customer accounts in a two-stage process over the next year, the company announced late on Tuesday.

Clare BaldwinIntel Corp rolled out a software developers' platform on Tuesday and stressed it will step up efforts to boost revenue from consumer electronics and other markets beyond its core, maturing personal computer business.

US TREASURIES rebounded slightly on Tuesday after strong demand from the US 2 year note auction offered support to the government securities complex. Overall trading was quiet ahead of Wednesday's FOMC meeting announcement and $40 billion US 5 year note auction. Traders are expected to be watching auctions further out on the yield curve with greater scrutiny.

Vitamin K is being touted these days in beauty creams, but what is it exactly? Essential to healthy blood and clotting, as well as to bone health, vitamin K is our body's single greatest defense against

Did you know pineapple and vitamin C can help your body heal faster? To find out how the body heals itself and what we can do to help it along, the Wellness Advisor spoke to Sandra Marin, M.P.H. and R.D., about wound healing.

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Health insurers accused the U.S. Medicare agency on Tuesday of political interference in a battle over whether the industry can lobby its customers directly over healthcare legislation.

U.S. lawmaker Barney Frank is making key changes to the White House plan for an agency to protect consumers from risky financial products, according to a congressional document obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

Global Climate Push; Steady Policy Outlook for Fed; BofA Turns Over Docs

Google Inc's online news site experienced service disruptions for roughly two hours on Tuesday, in the second major outage to affect the company in a month.