IBT Staff Reporter

Office Depot Inc reported a quarterly loss on Tuesday as consumers and small business customers reduced their spending on large ticket items like furniture and computers.

Pfizer Inc reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Tuesday, as cost-cutting helped offset sharply lower sales of its Lipitor cholesterol fighter and its Chantix smoking-cessation drug.

Prices of U.S. single-family homes fell 18.6 percent in February from a year earlier but the rapid pace of decline slowed, perhaps indicating the housing market may be nudging closer to a bottom, according to Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released on Tuesday.

Prices of U.S. single-family homes fell 18.6 percent in February from a year earlier but the rapid pace of decline slowed, perhaps indicating the housing market may be nudging closer to a bottom, according to Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released on Tuesday.

Global airlines were warned on Tuesday of significant falls in traffic due to the outbreak of swine flu, and their shares took another hit on fears that the fallout could be at least as bad as that of the 2003 SARS crisis.

Japanese power companies will this week report for the first time the cost of buying carbon emissions offsets, a sum likely to rise in coming years as a recession does little to help them achieve self-imposed targets.

ScottishPower, a unit of Spain's Iberdrola, said on Monday its Whitelee wind farm near Glasgow is to be completed ahead of schedule in the next few weeks.

Idemitsu Kosan Co (5019.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it plans to invest as much as 600 billion yen ($6.2 billion) over the next three years, mostly on exploration and refining overseas.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday it would reconsider three rules issued under the Bush administration that affect how coal-fired power plants account for their air emissions.

World Energy Solutions Inc, an operator of online exchanges for energy and environmental commodities, hopes to conduct auctions should a U.S. cap and trade market in greenhouse gases develop, its chief executive said in an interview.

A proposed federal mandate to force power companies to provide up to 25 percent renewable energy by 2025 is likely to have little impact on electric prices though 2020 and negligible impact after 2030, the Energy Information Administration said in a study Monday.

Oil prices fell toward $49 on Tuesday, extending Monday's losses as declines on global stock markets heightened expectations of a further drop in demand for oil products.

U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc they may need to raise more capital following stress testing of the two banks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Fears about a possible global flu crisis and renewed worries over the capital health of some U.S. banks combined on Tuesday to rattle economists' hopes the financial system was stabilizing.

Removes references in paragraph 2 to Citigroup needing billions of dollars in new capital

British oil major BP Plc said it was learning to live with oil at $50 per barrel by slashing costs, after the crude price collapse sent first-quarter profit plummeting and debt levels higher.

Nokia Oyj , the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it would reduce investment in creating new services, helping it to cut further 450 jobs.

Pfizer Inc reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Tuesday, as cost-cutting helped offset sharply lower sales of its Lipitor cholesterol fighter and its Chantix smoking-cessation drug.

The U.S. Treasury Department will on Tuesday tap a $50 billion housing rescue fund to pay off mortgage investors and reduce monthly payments for millions of borrowers, said a senior administration official.

Stock futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday as a report that Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc may need more capital revived fears about the stability of the struggling financial sector.

Fears about a possible global flu crisis and renewed worries over the capital health of some U.S. banks combined on Tuesday to rattle economists' hopes the financial system was stabilizing.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes are down 1.3-1.7 percent, pointing to a sharply lower start on Wall Street.

Japan and China are looking at cooperating on next-generation cellphone services, which would help China develop its wireless technology and Japanese makers expand in China, a Japanese government official said.

General Motors Corp on Monday offered its final plan to reorganize outside bankruptcy by slashing bond debt, cutting over 21,000 more U.S. jobs and emerging as a nationalized automaker under majority control by the U.S. government.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes are down 1.3-1.7 percent, pointing to a sharply lower start on Wall Street.

U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc they may need to raise more capital following stress testing of the two banks, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Oil major BP Plc reported a 62 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday due to a collapse in oil and gas prices, but heavy cost cutting helped it beat all analysts' forecasts.

World stocks and oil fell for a second day on Tuesday and investors took refuge in the yen as a report that major U.S. banks may need more capital hit markets already dropping on fears of a swine flu pandemic.

Network equipment maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc is bolstering its partnership with IBM, in a sign it may be gaining market share from industry leader Cisco Systems Inc.