IBT Staff Reporter

The United States lost fewer private sector jobs in August than in the prior month while companies also planned fewer layoffs, suggesting modest improvement in the beleaguered U.S. labor market.

Oil fell below $68 a barrel on Wednesday, extending the previous session's 3 percent drop, after weak U.S. jobs data raised doubts over the strength of economic recovery in the world's biggest fuel consumer.

People newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes often resist taking insulin because they fear gaining weight, developing low blood sugar, and seeing their quality of life decline. Doctors also may be reluctant to start insulin right off the bat.

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest carmaker, will ask Japan's new government to extend the deadline for subsidies on purchases of new environmentally friendly cars by two years from the original schedule of March 2010, a Toyota executive said on Wednesday.

General Motors Co GM.UL said on Wednesday its China vehicles sales in August jumped 112.7 percent from a year earlier, paving the way for a more than 40 percent rise in sales for the full year.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday after a private jobs report added to investor concerns over the direction of the economy and indicated more losses after a three-day slump.

Five states have asked U.S. Senate leaders to let them impose stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions than what would be permitted under the climate legislation working its way though Congress, saying both levels of regulation are necessary to fight global warming.

The Venice film festival opens on Wednesday with Italian movie

Job losses in the U.S. private sector fell to their lowest monthly level in nearly a year, a report by a private employment service showed on Wednesday, signaling stabilization in the labor sector.

Entergy Corp's 995-megawatt Unit 2 at the Arkansas Nuclear One power station in Arkansas was shut as of early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its daily reactor status report.

Stock index futures added to losses on Wednesday after a private employment report showed U.S. firms cut more jobs than expected in August.

Summer box office sales narrowly hit a new record in North America -- with a little help from an angry memo written by Transformers director Michael Bay.

Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch reinstated coverage of Gilead Sciences Inc with a buy rating, saying upside to consensus estimates over the next few years is likely, driven by strength in the drugmaker's HIV medicines amid few competitive threats.

Nokia on Wednesday bolstered its smartphone line-up to better compete with Apple and put a price on the new laptop leading its foray into the fiercely-competitive netbook market.

U.S. private employers cut 298,000 jobs in August, fewer than a revised 360,000 jobs lost in July, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

Epix, the newly-formed premium movie channel, said on Wednesday it has reached an exclusive deal to carry 22 movies from independently-owned Roadside Attractions.

Global computer server sales in the second quarter continued to plunge to levels not seen in years, research firm IDC said on Tuesday, but signs of stability are appearing in a segment that analysts call a bellwether for the IT industry.

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in August, suggesting less stress on the labor market and improvements in consumer spending and the broader economy in the coming months, a report released on Wednesday showed.

U.S. mortgage applications slid last week even as mortgage rates edged lower, with requests for loans to buy homes declining for the first time since early July, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association will call on Congress to transform U.S. government-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac into several smaller privately held companies that would issue mortgage securities with a government guarantee, the Wall Street Journal reported.

CME Group Inc , the world's largest derivatives exchange operator, warned against forcing futures and equities markets into the same regulatory mold on Tuesday, ahead of hearings in Washington.

The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday it will ask Congress to transform mortgage lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac into several smaller, privately held companies that would issue mortgage securities with a government guarantee.

Stock index futures were flat on Wednesday ahead of private labor market data seen as a precursor to a key government monthly jobs report later in the week, which investors will keenly await after a three-day slide in stocks.

The level of U.S. commercial real estate deals seen in the boom years of 2005 through 2007 may take a generation to return, according to a report by real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Japan's Nikkei stock average slid 2.5 percent on Wednesday, dragged down by exporters hit by a stronger yen amid renewed worry about the health of the U.S. financial system.

Rally's Over?; Betting Big on Banks; Madoff Family Targeted

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in August, suggesting less stress on the labor market and improvements in consumer spending and the broader economy in the coming months, a report released on Wednesday showed.

Oil rose above $68 a barrel on Wednesday, after a 3 percent drop in the previous session, as data showing a fall in U.S. crude stocks raised expectations of demand growth in the world's biggest energy consumer.

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in August, suggesting less stress on the labor market and improvements in consumer spending and the broader economy in the coming months, a report released on Wednesday showed.