IBT Staff Reporter

Following a year of to-and-fro negotiations, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. finally agreed to partner up in the Internet-search sector in a joint effort to beef up competition against search-engine giant, Google.

Crude oil futures posted their largest one-day loss since April after a report that U.S. crude inventories surged by 5.1 million barrels last week. Oil declined nearly 6 percent trading near $63 per barrel today.

Stocks fell on Wednesday as investors worried that China's banks might be ready to hit the brakes on lending to stem market excesses, a move that could curb the global economic recovery.

Sprint Nextel Corp posted a wider quarterly loss and revenue fell 10 percent as the No. 3 U.S. mobile service continued to lose valuable post-paid monthly bill-paying customers, sending its shares down almost 12 percent.

Corrects final paragraph to show that Nasdaq's decliners outnumbered advancers

After Tony Romo dumped Jessica Simpson the night before her birthday July 10, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback has already moved on to another blonde girl.

The pace of the recession has slowed or stabilized in most areas of the United States, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in a report that pointed to protracted job market weakness even as the economy transitions to recovery.

Stocks fell on Wednesday as investors worried that China's banks might be ready to hit the brakes on lending to stem market excesses, a move that could curb the global economic recovery.

The trustee winding down imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff's former firm sued his wife on Wednesday, seeking at least $44.8 million for investors bilked in Wall Street's biggest investment fraud.

The U.S. economy has the potential to yield gross energy savings worth more than $1.2 trillion by 2020 if it implements energy efficiency at scale, according to a report from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Stocks fell on Wednesday as investors worried that China's banks might be poised to hit the brakes on lending to stem market excesses, a move that could curb the global economic recovery.

The wife of imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff was sued on Wednesday by the trustee recovering money for investors defrauded in Wall Street's biggest investment fraud, court documents showed.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Gary Gensler said he supports exemptions from investor limits for bona fide hedgers but said he was concerned the exemptions could defeat the efectiveness of position limits.

The U.S. President Barack Obama visited North Carolina on Wednesday to tout his controversial health care reform plan.

Intel Corp said on Wednesday it no longer expects netbooks to appeal to first-time computer buyers, but sees continued sales of the ultra-portable laptops as a secondary machine or a durable option for kids.

There must be better ways to be awakened than by construction workers at the crack of dawn, your kids bouncing up and down on your chest -- or a very, very loud buzz.

There must be better ways to be awakened than by construction workers at the crack of dawn, your kids bouncing up and down on your chest -- or a very, very loud buzz.

(Corrects 10th paragraph to reflect that Kindle Store books can be read on Apple devices)

Films, paintings and drawings by film director and artist Tim Burton, which have never been seen before by the public, will be shown in a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

One of the 44 people arrested last week in a sweeping federal probe of political corruption and money laundering in New Jersey that netted several city mayors and rabbis has been found dead in suspicious circumstances, authorities said.

A Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public made her first appearance in a court packed with supporters Wednesday, in what her lawyer described as a test case in Sudan's decency laws.

French police called off their search for a woman who threw herself in front of a speeding train when they found that she had dragged herself home and gone to bed, a court source told Reuters Wednesday.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives reached a deal on Wednesday with a group of fiscal conservatives in their own party on healthcare legislation in a significant step forward for the bill.

Oil dropped nearly 6 percent on Wednesday to near $63 a barrel in the biggest one-day slide since April after data showed a surge in U.S. crude inventories on higher imports and lower refinery activity.

Bill Gross, the influential manager who runs top bond fund PIMCO, on Wednesday lambasted his industry for charging investors hefty fees for subpar performance amidst the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Hong Kong has found a new variant of the H3N2 seasonal influenza virus, the spokesman for the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Wednesday, urging high-risk groups to get influenza vaccinations.

Sony Corporation on Wednesday said it has expanded its eBookstore with1 million plug-ins of free books in public domain through a partnership with Google, which already had 500,000 free books in public domain in March.

President Barack Obama launched a spirited defense of his economic policies on Wednesday, declaring that they had helped save the country from plunging into a depression.

The wife of imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff was sued on Wednesday by the trustee recovering money for investors defrauded in Wall Street's biggest investment fraud, court documents showed.