IBT Staff Reporter

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner urged Congress to act quickly on the Obama administration's regulatory reform proposals, saying past efforts had started too late after the will to act had faded.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's central European assets are not top of its for-sale list, not on the must-buy charts of rivals, and will need some sweetening to secure a deal with a private equity suitor.

Fiat called on Italy's government and unions to back its efforts to maintain jobs while cutting output in the country and secured a commitment from Rome on Thursday for investment near two plants that could face cuts.

Heavy machinery maker Caterpillar Inc said on Thursday that its retail sales of machines had declined at a faster pace in May, sending its shares lower.

Intel Corp said it bought an additional 25 million shares in Imagination Technologies Group Plc for strategic reasons, and now owns 13.99 percent of the British chip designer's total issued voting rights.

Chipmaker Broadcom Corp said on Thursday that it had extended the deadline of its tender offer for storage technology company Emulex Corp by about two weeks, amid little sign that shareholders are warming to the hostile bid.

China's Internet watchdog condemned the Chinese-language version of Google on Thursday for disseminating pornographic and vulgar information.

Ford Motor Co, the only U.S. automaker not to file for bankruptcy this year, has a sound balance sheet and is seeking to further reduce debt, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Wednesday.

HONG KONG/NEW YORK - U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in talks with the Shanghai city government to set up a wholly-owned China subsidiary as it prepares to launch a local currency private equity fund, sources said on Thursday.

President Barack Obama's administration sought to regain momentum on healthcare reform on Wednesday as lawmakers, stunned by the trillion dollar price tag, delayed the legislative timetable for the program.

Medical device maker Medtronic Inc paid almost $800,000 in consulting fees to a former U.S. Army surgeon accused of fabricating a key study, according to published reports.

Abu Dhabi state investment agency Mubadala Development said on Wednesday it was interested in partnerships with leading aerospace groups but denied a report it planned to take stakes in major European aerospace companies.

Women's apparel retailer and manufacturer Liz Claiborne Inc indicated it expects a wider second-quarter loss than analysts forecast and its shares fell 10 percent.

For a growing number of oil traders, there's a new math at work in the traditional career calculus: why take the stress, long hours and uncertainty of a Wall Street job when the easy money is in physical trading?

Stock index futures turned higher following a government report showing that the number of people staying on jobless benefits after drawing an initial week of aid posted its largest one-week drop since November 2001.

With many beginning to question the sustainability of the recent increase in sentiment surrounding a global economic recovery and commodity prices the Aussie dollar appears to have found some relatively solid topside resistance.

Microsoft Corp's Bing search engine won more market share from rivals last week, according to new industry data released on Wednesday, but still trails Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

The Internet is by far the most popular source of information and the preferred choice for news ahead of television, newspapers and radio, according to a new poll in the United States.

While search teams scour the Atlantic ocean for the black boxes of Air France flight AF447 before their signals die out, aviation experts are considering satellite data streaming to collect vital flight data in future.

Stock index futures were little changed on Thursday ahead of figures for weekly jobless claims and other indicators that investors hoped would show the recovery was gaining traction.

Home furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc posted a first-quarter profit versus a prior year loss, due to a gain on the repurchase of debt.

Like all presidents, Barack Obama is finding it hard to deliver on some of the campaign promises he made last year, in some cases disappointing many ardent supporters who were critical to his election.

Bailed out U.S. insurer American International Group has chosen Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley as joint global coordinators for the more than $4 billion IPO of its Asian life insurance unit, banking sources said on Thursday.

Shire and Johnson & Johnson won the backing of Europe's highest court on Thursday in their battle for data exclusivity against a generic rival for Alzheimer's drug Reminyl, the court said.

The tortuous question of when ailing steel demand might recover from the global economic downturn is likely to dominate talks at an industry gathering in New York next week.

Continental Airlines said a blend of biologically derived fuel and jet fuel performed slightly better than jet fuel alone during a test flight by the world's fifth-largest airline.

The chief financial officer of Q-Cells, Hartmut Schuening, will resign from his post following Thursday's annual general meeting at his own request, the company said on Wednesday.

The U.S. climate bill would not do enough to protect consumers from future energy costs and gives away too many permits to power and natural gas distribution companies to pollute with carbon dioxide, environmental groups said.

French emissions exchange BlueNext has taken its first step toward a carbon trading platform in China with a deal to offer its clients a database of Chinese carbon-cutting projects, its chairman said on Thursday.