IBT Staff Reporter

The finance arm of Ford Motor Co. plans to sell $5.3 billion of car-loan bonds as investor demand increases for asset-backed securities, according Bloomberg.

BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, rose to a record on Friday after a report that Chinese interests would like to make a joint bid with another investor to buy 9 percent of the mining company.

CLS Holdings said on Thursday that it had made property sales of £47.4 million in the period from 1 January to 14 May this year. The company added that the leasing market remained stable and that it had lower vacancy rates in the period.

The death toll from Monday's earthquake has exceeded 19,509 in Sichuan Province, the provincial government said late Thursday.

As China statistics bureau said Thursday, China's fixed-asset investment jumped 25.7 percent in the first four months of this year, underscoring concerns that the economy may be overheating.

Luxury retailer Nordstrom Inc. said Thursday its profit fell 24 percent in the first quarter, hurt by lower sales in what the company called a challenging retail environment.

Berkshire Hathaway, billionaire Warren Buffett's investment company, sold its stake in Ameriprise Financial earlier this year, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., the carriers that broke off merger talks last month, have revived talks about a possible alliance to help the companies to set pricing and schedules, according to media reports.

Technology shares gained ground on Thursday after Carl Icahn proposed to change the board of Internet giant Yahoo, saying the firm had completely botched negotiations with Microsoft.

Dear Mr. Icahn: We are in receipt of your letter with regard to your intention to seek control of Yahoo!'s board of directors.

Natural gas spot prices increased in a majority of regions of the Lower 48 States this report week (Wednesday–Wednesday, May 7-14).The Henry Hub spot price increased $0.43 per million Btu (MMBtu) to $11.51, the highest

It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft. It is quite obvious that Microsoft's bid of $33 per share is a superior alternative to Yahoo's prospects on a standalone basis. I am perplexed by the board's actions.

Mentor Corp. a developer and manufacturer of medical products for the aesthetic market reported on Thursday its quarterly profit fell on rising costs.

Johnson & Johnson reported it was recalling certain Doxil, Procrit and Remicade drugs with specific lot numbers that matched products stolen earlier this month.

Copper rose on Thursday as a report showed inventories of the metal declined and investors speculate supplies will be insufficient to meet global demand.

U.S. stocks advanced for a second day, after analysts said chipmakers will benefit from rising global demand and energy shares are cheap relative to crude prices.

Kohl's Corp, the fourth largest U.S. retailer, said its first quarter profit fell 27 percent as the company faced a difficult economic environment.

Research in Motion Ltd, the maker of the popular Blackberry line of business smartphones, will introduce a touchscreen rival to the Apple iPhone in the third quarter, according to a report.

Gold futures closed with gains for the first time this week on speculation that higher energy costs and a weaker dollar will boost demand for the precious metal as a hedge against inflation.

J. C. Penny Co. reported that its first-quarter profit fell by 50 percent on lower consumer spending and it forecast a similar profit drop for its current quarter.

Blackstone Group, the private equity firm which went public last year, reported a first-quarter loss on Thursday.

APP Pharmaceuticals Inc., a major supplier of Heparin, will increase prices of the treatment due to rising costs in raw material, testing and additional personnel costs, the company announced today.

Comcast Corp. said that it reached an agreement to Plaxo Inc., which operates an online address book and a social network called Pulse and provided the basis for other popular social networking sites, including Facebook and Friendster.

AT&T Inc is testing its current wireless network to deliver faster speeds ahead of the launch of its next generation wireless standard.

CBS Corp. made a major push into the Internet world on Thursday, announcing that it was acquiring CNET Networks for about $1.8 billion, owner of numerous entertainment and information Web sites.

The FTSE 100 share index rose marginally on Wednesday. The index finished the day rising 4.1 points to 6,216.0 (up 0.1 per cent).

Supermarket giant Tesco said on Wednesday that it acquired 36 Homever stores in South Korea from the E-Land Group for £958 million, including existing debt.

J Sainsbury said on Wednesday that its total retail sales for the full year to 22 March 2008 had risen 5.8 per cent to £19,287 million. The supermarket chain said that like for like sales were up 3.9 per cent.

Comcast agreed to purchase Plaxo the first innovative system that developed social networks from address books. With the acquisition of Plaxo, Comcast plans to provide its consumers social network links across all its devices including wireless, TVs and digital video recorders.