IBT Staff Reporter

The U.S. Congress on Tuesday sent President Barack Obama a housing rescue bill that aims to save 400,000 homeowners from foreclosure and will spend $2.2 billion on programs to aid the homeless.

Americans could face higher unemployment for some time to come, President Barack Obama warned on Wednesday, underscoring the tough challenges the country faces even as the economy shows signs of stabilizing.

U.S. investigators searched the New York offices of FTC Capital Markets Inc for evidence in a suspected investment fraud possibly involving hundreds of millions of dollars, a source familiar with the probe said on Wednesday.

Israel is ready to open peace talks with Syria immediately and without preconditions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama.

The families who control Porsche are open to the idea of selling a stake to an outside investor, the company said Wednesday.

The U.S. Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would impose sweeping new limits on the credit card industry, with President Barack Obama expected to sign it into law within days.

The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it saw modest improvements in the U.S. economy last month, but considered increasing purchases of mortgage-related and government debt to spur recovery.

Although well off their all-time highs, American stocks are now marginally up for the current year.

Stocks rose on Wednesday as shares of McDonald's Corp and Procter & Gamble Co advanced on positive broker comments, but profit-taking in financials and the Federal Reserve's cautious comments on the economy kept gains in check.

The U.S. Federal Reserve saw modest improvements in the economic outlook at its April meeting, but mulled increasing purchases of mortgage agency and government securities to give the recovery an additional push, minutes of the meeting showed on Wednesday.

Sixteen people who worked for defunct securities firm Joseph Stevens & Co Inc have been indicted over a scheme that netted $6.2 million in unlawful stock commissions, the Manhattan district attorney said on Wednesday.

A bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday said she may rule by next month on efforts by Washington Mutual Inc to get back more than $4 billion in cash deposits to which it lost access when the bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co last year.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed on Wednesday to give shareholders greater power to nominate corporate board directors, a process now tightly controlled by company management.

A recovery in cellphone demand will not happen until well into 2010, researcher Gartner said on Wednesday, while Reuters data showed the industry could suffer its worst quarter ever in April-June.

Gartner corrects Q1 market fall to 8.6 percent from 9.4 percent in paragraph 2

A recovery in cell phone demand will not happen until well into 2010, researcher Gartner said on Wednesday, while Reuters data showed the industry could suffer its worst quarter ever in April-June.

Seven people accused of publicizing a New York City prostitution ring over Craigslist have been indicted, adding to pressure on the online classified site to vet its ads.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed on Wednesday to give shareholders greater power to nominate corporate board directors, a process now tightly controlled by company management.

Acer Inc, the world's third-largest PC brand, plans to introduce a phone model running on Google's Android software this year, the head of its phone unit said on Wednesday.

The pursuit of German carmaker Opel appears to have narrowed to a three-way race between Italy's Fiat , Canadian-Austrian car parts group Magna and investment firm RHJ International.

Oil rose 2 percent on Wednesday to touch a six-month high over $62 a barrel as government data showed a steep drop in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories ahead of the summer driving season.

Five-dimensional discs with a capacity 10,000 times greater than current DVDs could be on the market within 10 years, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Aung San Suu Kyi sat confidently in the prison courtroom, listening over the din of a clacking typewriter and noisy ceiling fans.

AT&T Inc is considering offering cheaper data service plans with limited Web surfing for advanced cellphones including Apple Inc's iPhone.

The Dow industrials briefly turned negative on Wednesday as bank stocks extended losses, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq trimmed gains.

U.S. stocks pared gains on Wednesday as a pullback in financial shares offset positive broker comments on bellwethers McDonald's and Procter & Gamble.

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, whose bank sold $13.47 billion of common stock this month, on Wednesday said the worst of the economic downturn has likely passed and that conditions will not worsen as much as feared.

Google announced its first partnership with eight utility companies in the United States, India and Canada, to introduce its Power Meter to monitor household electricity usage.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the Obama administration was making headway in calming financial markets and would have a program to cleanse toxic assets from banks' balance sheets up and running by July.