IBT Staff Reporter

Alcoa Inc reported smaller losses for latest reporting period, as the company's CEO said today management moves made so far will let the firm withstand a historic downturn in the aluminum industry.

NetApp Inc.(NASDAQ: NTAP) and Data Domain Inc.(NASDAQ:DDUP) merger has ended in break-up after NetApp did not revise its proposal in the wake of EMC Corp.'s higher unsolicited offer.

A judge ordered the U.S. government to say whether it was prepared to shut Swiss bank UBS AG in the United States as part of a battle to learn the identity of 52,000 secret accounts suspected of being used by Americans to avoid taxes.

Microsoft on Wednesday said Steven Sinofsky has been promoted as President to the Windows Division, and will lead its business, from development and marketing functions for Windows, to Windows Live and the Internet Explorer.

Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar opens lower on Thursday at 0.7780 in what may be the beginning of the correction we had to have.

EMC Corp won the bidding war for data storage company Data Domain Inc as rival NetApp Inc pulled out, saying it would not match a $2.4 billion offer.

Alcoa Inc posted a third consecutive quarterly loss on Wednesday, but cost cuts helped the largest U.S. aluminum maker beat Wall Street estimates by a large margin, sending its stock higher.

Online retailer Amazon.com has cut the price of its standard Kindle electronic reader by 17 percent to $299, the company said on Wednesday, the latest salvo in the war for digital readers.

Senators Harry Reid, Robert Menendez and Orrin Hatch, accompanied by Texas oilman T Boone Pickens on Wednesday introduced newly proposed a Natural gas legislation. The G8 agreed on Wednesday to try to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. The head of the American Petroleum Institute Jack Gerard called for more drilling to bring additional domestic energy supplies to the marketplace

Online retailer Amazon.com has cut the price of its standard Kindle electronic reader by 17 percent to $299, the company said on Wednesday, the latest salvo in the war for digital readers.

A large bush fire burning near the Getty Center in Los Angeles prompted an evacuation of employees and visitors of the museum on Wednesday as firefighters tried to stop it.

The Obama administration on Wednesday said it strongly opposed legislation in the U.S. Congress that would restrict its ability to respond to future financial crises through the International Monetary Fund.

T-Mobile on Wednesday said its long awaited Smartphone myTouch 3G with Google Android device is now available for Pre-order starting today for its current T-Mobile customers.

The Dow and the Nasdaq eked out gains on Wednesday as a late-stage rally brought stocks off their lows on hopes that the quarterly earnings season would deliver good news.

Total U.S. consumer credit fell by an unexpectedly slight $3.23 billion in May, Federal Reserve data showed on Wednesday, although the previous month's drop was revised to a steeper decline than initially thought.

The Federal Reserve today released the consumer credit report for May indicating a slight decline of $3.23 billion indicating a decline for the fourth consecutive month. The May consumer credit outstanding fell at a 1.5 percent annual rate to $2.5196 trillion from $2.5229 trillion in Apri

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's top inspector and examiner, Lori Richards, plans to leave the agency August 7, the SEC said on Wednesday.

The U.S. recession is likely to end this year, but the Federal Reserve will not be in a rush to change its policy stance while unemployment is still rising, a top Fed policy-maker said on Wednesday.

More than two dozen Internet sites in South Korea and the United States, including the White House, were attacked in recent days by hackers that South Korea's spy agency said may be linked to North Korea.

Amazon lowered the price of the popular Kindle 2 by $60 to $299 on Wednesday, just two months after it first introduced the e-reader into the market.

In a shift from previous incidents of unrest, Chinese authorities have welcomed foreign media to cover last Sunday's ethnic riots in China's Xianjian region, but are still limiting communications.

Boralex Inc and Gaz Metro Ltd said on Wednesday they have received an environmental green light from the province of Quebec for two wind power projects they plan to develop.

The G8 agreed on Wednesday to try to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, but it failed to persuade China and India to join a bid to halve world emissions.

A one way flight on Southwest Airlines Co. will cost as little as $30 according to the new one sale prices the airline launched in a bid to boost ticket sales.

Senators Harry Reid, Robert Menendez and Orrin Hatch, accompanied by Texas oilman T Boone Pickens on Wednesday introduced newly proposed legislation called the New Alternative Transportation Act (NAT GAS) that will encourage the development and purchasing of natural gas vehicles.

Alcoa Inc posted its third consecutive quarterly loss on Wednesday as aluminum demand remained weak and the price of the metal was depressed, despite a recent rally.

Stocks rebounded in late trade on Wednesday after a day of wild price swings, with the Dow and Nasdaq eking out gains as investors hoped that corporate results would top estimates as the quarterly earnings season prepared to kick off.

While an official determination has not yet been made, preliminary results obtained by a medical examiner point to a murder suicide by Sahel Kazemi, the girlfriend of ex-NFL player Steve McNair.

Americans are getting heavier than ever, with more than 26 percent of the population now fully obese, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday.