IBT Staff Reporter

Mining group Xstrata put more pressure on takeover target Anglo American Plc to come to the negotiating table on Wednesday by releasing details of its proposal, including cost savings of $1 billion.

Goldfinger is back in the market and has a new focus -- Asia.

SouFun, China's top real estate website, is eyeing an initial public offering next year in Hong Kong or the United States if the global economy recovers, Chairman Vincent Mo said on Wednesday.

Intel Corp announced a technology partnership with Nokia that could potentially give the chip maker the breakthrough it has been looking for into the mobile market.

China's Sinopec Group agreed to buy Addax Petroleum Corp for about C$8.27 billion ($7.24 billion) in a bid to gain access to the Swiss oil and gas explorer's high potential oil blocks in West Africa and the Taq Taq field in Iraq.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co insurer T&D Holdings Inc are the remaining three contenders to buy Citigroup's Japanese asset management unit, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The Federal Reserve is expected to emphasize the U.S. economy's fragile state in a policy statement on Wednesday as it talks down expectations for a rate hike this year and holds fire on expanding asset purchases.

U.S. mortgage applications climbed last week from a seven-month low, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday, adding to emerging signs that the three-year housing market collapse may be abating.

General Motors Corp will do the

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Wednesday after data showed surprisingly strong May durable goods orders and ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the day.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday resumed a two-day meeting that was expected to end with a statement emphasizing the U.S. economy's fragile state, an effort to dissuade financial markets from expecting an increase in interest rates this year.

Budget hotel chain Red Roof Inn Inc. has defaulted on $361.4 million of mortgage debt, credit rating agency, Realpoint LLC, said on Tuesday.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Wednesday that a disputed election result would stand, despite street protests that Iranian officials say Britain and the United States have incited.

The Australian Dollar opens higher on Wednesday at 0.7935 after a renewed bout of greenback weakness overnight as concerns swept offshore markets that the US Federal Reserve may hose down expectations of an interest rate increase this year in an attempt to lower borrowing costs.

Commodity index traders had snapped up more than 200,000 wheat contracts by mid-2008 that helped fuel last year's record jump in prices, which ended up raising costs for both industry and consumers, according to a year-long bipartisan Senate probe.

Citigroup Inc intends to raise employees' base salaries by as much as 50 percent this year to offset smaller annual bonuses, the New York Times said, citing people with direct knowledge of the plan.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday with the Federal Reserve expected to soothe recent concerns that it could hike interest rates later this year as the economy shows signs of stabilizing.

Bangladesh's High Court has ordered the closure of all tanneries and factories across the country if they fail to install effluent treatment plants by 2010 to halt massive pollution of the environment.

Oil dropped to under $69 a barrel on Wednesday, falling back after U.S. industry data showed gasoline reservoirs swelled unexpectedly.

As an engineering student in the 1960s, Takeo Fukui picked the analysis of nitrogen dioxide emissions as his senior thesis with one goal in mind: joining Honda Motor to get a foothold in the world of motor racing.

Virent Energy Systems, which hopes to make gasoline-like fuel from plant sugars, expects to raise $25 million to $40 million by the end of the year in its third round of financing, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.

General Motors Corp will do the heavy lifting to help meet the ambitious goal set by President Barack Obama of having one million plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, a GM executive said on Tuesday.

Stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday with the Federal Reserve expected to say it will not raise interest rates for some time.

Apple Inc chief executive Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant at a Tennessee hospital and has an excellent prognosis, the hospital that performed the operation confirmed on Tuesday.

American International Group Inc's plans to sell its broker-dealer business, AIG Advisor Group, are facing hurdles, the New York Post said.

Russia's Gazprom expected gas demand to pick up in Europe from April, its export chief said on Wednesday, rebuffing accusations that rigid pricing was to blame for an expected 40 percent plunge in export sales in 2009.

Citigroup Inc intends to raise employees' base salaries by as much as 50 percent this year to offset smaller annual bonuses, the New York Times said, citing people with direct knowledge of the plan.

IBM named one of its executives, a former Morgan Stanley banker, to be its new head of mergers and acquisitions on Tuesday after losing its chief dealmaker to rival Dell Inc, which is beefing up its acquisition efforts.

China on Wednesday rejected U.S. and European charges that its restrictions on raw materials exports violate international trade rules, saying that its policies were in keeping with WTO regulations.