IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday on concerns about the state of corporate profits after Bank of New York Mellon cut its quarterly dividend and DuPont warned of weak demand ahead.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, Nasdaq and S&P 500 share indexes are up between 0.3 and 0.5 percent, pointing to a higher start on Wall Street.

Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, showed its resilience to the economic downturn, posting a 10 percent rise in underlying annual profit to 3.13 billion pounds ($4.6 billion), a record for a British retailer.

Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, showed its resilience to the economic downturn, posting a 10 percent rise in underlying annual profit to 3.13 billion pounds ($4.6 billion), a record for a British retailer.

LG Electronics Inc posted a 25 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday, hurt by the global recession, but results beat expectations on resilient handset margins and improvements in its flat screen TV business.

The U.S. Treasury's plan to purge toxic assets from banks' balance sheets is vulnerable to fraud and abuse and needs tough rules against conflict of interest, the government's bailout watchdog said on Tuesday.

The Obama administration will make about $500 million available to Chrysler LLC through the end of this month as it seeks to reach an alliance with Fiat, and up to $5 billion through May to help General Motors Corp restructure outside of bankruptcy, an independent oversight report on the Treasury Department's corporate rescue fund said on Tuesday.

Oil steadied above $45 a barrel on Tuesday, pausing after an almost 9-percent fall a day earlier as traders awaited further cues on demand from U.S. economic, corporate and oil inventory data.

Executives from Google Inc, AT&T Inc, Twitter and other high tech companies are visiting Iraq this week to explore how technology may help fight corruption and build a more accountable society, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he would consider the health of the financial system and the flow of credit in deciding whether banks can repay bailout funds from the government, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Chinese carmaker BYD is hopeful its exports can recover by the second half of 2009, after a decline of more than 70 percent in the first quarter due to the economic recession.

President Barak Obama plans to crack down on the credit card industry that has loaded consumers with huge debts and sky high interest rates.

Sharp and Japanese telecom company AU (KDDI) is expected to released the unnamed new solar and waterproof phone on June.

Toshiba's high-definition ON-AIR MAX play out server with IBM’s Media Hub Framework will be showcase in an ongoing National Association of Broadcasters’ annual convention in Las Vegas.

PepsiCo Inc said Monday it will buy the two largest bottlers Pepsi Bottling Group and Pepsi Americas for $6 billion, in a move to control its unit about 80 percent in North American.

Zions Bancorp on Monday posted a big quarterly loss because of a write-down and commercial real estate losses, prompting Moody's Investors Service to downgrade it deep into junk status and warn that the large western U.S. bank could become undercapitalized.

Four days of intensive hearings will begin tomorrow morning to discuss a draft of “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” which one participant calls the most important piece of energy legislation in the last 50 years.

British Mathematician and psychiatrist, Stephen Hawking, spent the night in hospital after becoming very ill at Cambridge University earlier today.

Texas Instruments posted a surprise quarterly profit on better-than-expected revenue as demand for its chips improved in Asia, and it gave a rosier-than-expected outlook for the current quarter.

Microsoft Corp. announced plans to invest about 10 billion rubles ($300 million) in Russia over the next three years, the company’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, said at a press conference on Monday.

Concerns continue to rise over the health of the nation’s largest banks leaving investors wary and reluctant to reach into their pockets despite the reported gains.

ExxonMobil and Chevron were ranked among the top 10 stocks that performed the best over the past 20 years, according to statistics from CNBC reported Monday.

FPL Group's chief executive officer said on Monday that the company's Florida utility's $200 million smart grid initiative will link homes and power plants and support expanding use of solar power and electric cars.

IBM's quarterly revenue fell by a bigger-than-expected 11 percent as the slowdown in corporate spending hurt even one of the healthiest U.S. technology companies.

The New York Times dominated the Pulitzer Prizes announced on Monday, winning five of the coveted awards for investigative, breaking news and international reporting, feature photography and criticism.

Google Inc. released two new tools on Monday that are designed to make it easier for users to find the information - or images - they're searching for.

Nvidia announced that the Quadro FX 4800, the company's most advanced professional graphics card, is now available to Mac Pro users, offering advanced graphics features and capabilities.

IBM said Monday its first quarter sales fell better than expected from Reuters Analysts' average forecast of $22.56 billion, however earning per share rose to 1.70 from $1.64.

President Barack Obama in a meeting with his cabinet on Monday asked his government to cut the US federal budget by $100 million dollars.