IBT Staff Reporter

United Airlines on Thursday said it has asked the two largest planemakers to bid on an order that could replace its widebody fleet, a move experts say could jump-start demand for new planes from embattled U.S. carriers as they wade through an economic recession.

Most retailers posted disappointing May sales as recession-weary shoppers cut spending at stores ranging from high-end chains to discounters like Target Corp , pushing down retail shares.

Extreme weakness in the U.S. economy is moderating but recovery will be slow and marked by lingering high unemployment, a top Federal Reserve policy-maker said on Thursday.

The local market was left in awe of what many have called the miracle economy and the 0.4% increase in economic growth during the first quarter of the year in Australia.

Rio Tinto is looking at new ways to deal with its huge debt burden, the mining group said on Thursday in response to reports its planned $19.5 billion stake sale to China's Chinalco has collapsed.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's policysetting Federal Open Market Committee is reverting to some one-day meetings in 2010 from all two-day sessions this year, the U.S. central bank said on Thursday.

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Standish Mellon Asset Management LLC, a bond manager overseeing $55 billion, on Thursday said it would launch investments in a federal program to boost consumer and commercial mortgage debt markets.

In spite of being number three in terms of console sales, Sony CEO said they have no plans to drop the price of its expensive PS.

Russia's state anti-monopoly service launched a probe of Microsoft Corp over cutbacks in supplies of the Windows XP operating system in Russia, it said on Thursday.

Discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc says it will add more than 22,000 jobs in its U.S. namesake stores in 2009.

Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages surged 0.38 percentage point in the latest week, reaching its highest level since the week ending Dec. 11, 2008, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac (FRE.N).

Nine people have been indicted on charges of conspiring to defraud Washington Mutual Bank and DLJ Mortgage Capital Inc, a unit of Credit Suisse Group AG, in a $92 million mortgage fraud scheme, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Angelina Jolie has toppled Oprah Winfrey and become the world’s most powerful celebrity, based on a combination of earning power and media exposure, according to Forbes magazine.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as financial shares gained and encouraging data on jobless claims and business productivity offset disappointing May retail sales.

- Aiming to become a top-tier broker in the listed futures and options industry, Morgan Stanley hired Clark Hutchison and Bill Templer, co-heads of exchange-traded derivatives at UBS , according to an internal memo.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell for a third straight week last week, government data showed on Thursday, indicating some loss of force in the pace of the labor market's deterioration.

The steep decline in the U.S. economy has started to moderate, but a pending recovery is likely to be slow and marked by continued high unemployment, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto said on Thursday.

A policeman and three Hamas gunmen were killed Thursday when Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas raided a West Bank house to arrest militants, the second such operation in the past week.

Voting began in Britain and the Netherlands Thursday in a European Parliament election which is expected to punish governments that have struggled to cope with the global economic crisis.

Johnson & Johnson detailed new medicines in immunology, neuroscience, cancer and other areas to analysts on Thursday as Wall Street counts on the company's pharmaceuticals business to help restore solid profit growth by next year.

Chinese state-owned metals firm Chinalco may revise its planned $19.5 billion investment in miner Rio Tinto before a June 14 deadline to avoid further delays in Australian government approval, two sources close to the deal said on Thursday.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said an investigation for possible abuse of office over a scandal involving the use of state aircraft means nothing and would be shelved.

Cradling candles, laying wreaths and clad in black or white, Hong Kong residents transformed a downtown park into a speckled sea of flickering lights, in remembrance of the hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators and students crushed by tanks and troops near the square two decades ago.

North Korea will put on trial on Thursday two U.S. journalists it says illegally entered the country with hostile intent in a contentious case that comes as Pyongyang faces international anger for last week's nuclear test.

European Union states agreed on Thursday to share information on former detainees they plan to accept from Guantanamo Bay, a move that should help Washington close the center.

China smothered Tiananmen Square with police on Thursday to prevent commemoration of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 20 years ago, as Washington demanded Beijing account for those killed.

When men speak of the future, the gods laugh, runs an old Chinese proverb.

The Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday was flying too slowly ahead of the disaster, Le Monde newspaper said on Thursday, citing sources close to the inquiry.