IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stocks were poised for a sharply higher open on Monday as stronger economic data from China fueled optimism that the worst of the global recession was past, even as General Motors filed for bankruptcy.

The U.S. manufacturing sector contracted at a slower rate in May, while consumer spending fell modestly in April, according to reports on Monday that were further evidence the deep recession was easing.

Battery maker Boston Power is working to build a facility in Auburn, Massachusetts to build lithium-ion batteries for Plug-in Hybrid and electric battery vehicles, Notebook PCs and national security applications, the company said Monday.

Freddie Mac this week is offering to buy back from investors up to $30 billion principal amount of its debt to reduce its effective short-term debt, the second-largest U.S. home funding provider said on Monday.

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co KKR.UL posted a substantial loss in 2008 as the global economic downturn took its toll on the firm's investments.

Taiwanese display maker Prime View International will buy E Ink, a company whose pioneering electronic paper is used to make digital book readers from Amazon.com and Sony.

General Motors Corp has tens of billions of dollars in government backing, a grudging labor peace and the support of its big bondholders as it gets ready for what is intended to be a swift dash through one of the biggest bankruptcy cases in U.S. history.

Chinese chemicals maker Lumena Resources Corp began marketing a Hong Kong IPO on Monday to raise up to $190 million, according to sources familiar with the matter, testing investor sentiment for new listings in the city.

U.S. construction spending unexpectedly posted its biggest increase in eight months in April, advancing for a second straight month as the private sector put money into both residential and nonresidential projects, according to a government report on Monday.

The Federal Reserve is studying significant moves in the U.S. government bond market last week that could have big implications for the central bank's strategy to combat the country's recession.

French bank BNP Paribas raised its average U.S. crude oil price forecast for 2010 on Monday to $75 a barrel from $63.

Oil rose more than 2 percent to a seven-month high on Monday, extending its biggest monthly gain in a decade due to rallying stock markets and sustained expectations for a global economic recovery.

U.S. stock index futures rose more than 1 percent on Monday as stronger Chinese economic data lifted investor optimism that the worst of the global recession was past.

U.S. stock index futures rose more than 1 percent on Monday as stronger Chinese economic data lifted investor optimism that the worst of the global recession was past.

Goldman Sachs was on Monday selling up to about $1.9 billion worth of shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at a discount of 4 percent to 6 percent to the Chinese lender's Monday closing price, according to a term sheet.

Red Back Mining Inc said on Monday it has agreed to buy Moto Goldmines Ltd for shares valued at C$513 million ($471 million) to take control of a African mining project.

Prudential Financial Inc, the No. 2 U.S. life insurer, said it plans to sell $1.25 billion of common stock after turning down U.S. aid.

Twenty years after her teenage son was shot by troops near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Zhang Xianling is still trying to work out how many others died with him.

Israeli settlers are waging court battles to evict dozens of Palestinians from homes in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, a move threatening to widen Israel's rift with U.S. President Barack Obama over settlements.

SunTrust Banks Inc , a U.S. Southeast regional bank ordered by federal regulators to raise $2.2 billion of equity capital, on Monday speeded up a previously announced capital-raising plan, hoping to benefit from recent investor demand for banks' securities.

Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late Saturday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing killed 25 people in the country's southeast.

The Brazilian air force has started search operations for the Air France airliner that disappeared as it crossed the Atlantic on its way to Paris from Brazil Rio de Janeiro

Georgia's rebel region of South Ossetia voted on Sunday in its first election since Russian forces saved it from being retaken by Georgian troops, but internal tensions grew over its leader's policies.

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a second foray into European diplomacy this week facing pressure to demonstrate his consensus-building foreign policy can produce results where his predecessor George W. Bush's go-it-alone style failed.

Bank of America Corp's corporate and investment banking unit has hired Ethan Harris as head of North America economics and David Bianco as head of U.S. equity strategy, two of the highest-profile appointments since the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

A bomb killed four people and wounded 13 in a Baghdad vegetable market Monday, police and witnesses said, in the second attack there in just over two weeks.

More people have died in tribal violence in post-war southern Sudan in recent months than in the western Darfur region plagued by ethnic and politically driven fighting, the United Nations said.

Goldman Sachs was on Monday selling up to about $1.9 billion worth of shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at a discount of 4 percent to 6 percent to the Chinese lender's Monday closing price, according to a term sheet.

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi needs a resounding win in this weekend's European election to silence scandals about his love life and business dealings that threaten his credibility.