IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors braced for aluminum producer Alcoa's quarterly results that will kick-start a keenly awaited U.S. earnings season.

Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV has no plans to sell its direct banking operation ING-DiBa in Germany, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

World stocks steadied on Tuesday after hitting a two-month high in the previous session, while European stocks rose as investors awaited the start of U.S. corporate earnings season.

World stocks steadied on Tuesday after hitting a two-month high in the previous session, while European stocks rose as investors awaited the start of U.S. corporate earnings season.

Asian stocks slid on Tuesday, snapping a five-day rally as concerns about the health of U.S. banks resurfaced, while expectations that Australian rates would not fall much further kept the Australian dollar steady.

Germany's Commerzbank is preparing to issue an offer document to a handful of potential investors in General Motors' Opel unit, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the automaker.

Business software maker Salesforce.com on Tuesday launched a slimmed-down version of its customer-management services that existing customers will be able to access for free using high-end mobile phones.

In the growing netbook market, Microsoft is now leading the race seeing an 86% increase over the 12months, pushing the software making to a dominant position.

Oil was steady around $51 a barrel on Tuesday, awaiting direction from stock markets and U.S. oil inventories after a near 3-percent loss on Monday when Wall Street tumbled.

Microsoft officials confirm that the firm and its partners are going to allow Windows 7 users to downgrade not just to Windows Vista, but also to Windows XP.

Airlines like money and it turns out that the best way for airlines to make money is to ensure that there are as few empty seats on a plane as possible.

Asian stocks slipped on Tuesday, snuffing a five-day rally as uncertainty about U.S. banks pushed dealers to take profits on recent gains, while investors' reduced willingness to take risks lifted the U.S. dollar and yen.

Pending home sales have edged up, hinting at a possible pickup of sales activity in coming months, according to the National Association of Realtors.

LOS ANGELES - Discovery Communications chairman and founder John Hendricks waited 17 years for the moment when Amazon and Sony would battle for dominance in the world of portable electronic book readers.

The 10-year Treasury yield has been creeping up despite the efforts by the Federal Reserve to bring it down. TALF (Term Asset Lending Facility) is being utilized to buy government bonds,

Russia called on other leading powers on Monday to stay focused on nuclear talks with North Korea as Washington pushed for a strong response from a divided U.N. Security Council to Pyongyang's rocket launch.

The months' supply of existing housing inventory has fallen to less than 10 months in January and February after being in the double digits for most of 2008.

U.S. securities regulators will consider about 4 proposals to restrict short selling, a type of investing blamed for accelerating the severe downturn in financial services stocks.

Oil was steady at $51 a barrel on Tuesday, awaiting direction from stock markets and U.S. oil inventories after a near 3-percent loss on Monday when Wall Street tumbled.

U.S. securities regulators are crafting two types of 'circuit breakers' to restrict short selling, a type of investing often blamed by executives for declines in the stocks of their companies, a source familiar with the proposals told Reuters on Monday.

Apple Inc and major music labels are betting that the launch of three-tier pricing at the iTunes Music Store will boost music sales with a new mix of song-based packages and give consumers more options.

Australia's government will build a new A$43 billion ($30.7 billion) national high-speed fiber-optic broadband network, rejecting bids in a controversial tender involving some of the country's largest telecommunications firms.

Microsoft has allowed HP an extension to its existing rights to continue selling the aging Windows XP OS on the company's business desktops, workstations, and notebooks in place of Windows 7.

A group of investment bank underwriters and companies have agreed to a nearly $600 million settlement with investors to resolve litigation over alleged fraud in the pricing of initial public offerings in the late 1990s, according to a lawyer involved in the case.

Dell said Monday it has agreed to sell $500 million in notes due in 2014 with the largest bank in America serving as underwriters as shares gained 1 cent to close at $10.33 after analyst raise his share to a buy from neutral with price target of $11.40.

For the first time in 16 months, PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii and the Xbox 360 sales in March.

The United States and Switzerland will head back to the negotiating table to revise a 1996 bilateral tax treaty in an effort to cool a high-profile dispute between the two nations over banking secrecy laws, the U.S. Treasury said on Monday.

The U.S. budget deficit almost hit $1 trillion during the first six months of this fiscal year which began on October 1, according to estimates released on Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.

An Indonesia military plane crashed into an airport Monday and burst into flames, 24 people onboard were killed, an air force spokesman said.