IBT Staff Reporter

The dollar rose slightly against the euro and yen on Tuesday in Tokyo ahead of Wednesday's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

General Motors Corp., citing rising gas prices and a slowing economy, said on Monday it will cut back its production of large trucks and sport-utility vehicles at several plants, resulting in about 3,500 hourly employee job cuts.

A top Iranian judiciary official has warned against the destructive cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.

Four countries have been given the go ahead from a newly issued UN resolution to chase and thwart off- would-be Somali pirates from their coasts and in their waters.

Regulatory filings released on Monday showed that a major shareholder in Circuit City Stores Inc has urged the retailer to proceed forward with the proposed buyout offer from Blockbuster Inc.

Shares of Max & Erma's closed 29.5 percent up on Monday as the company announced it agreed to be acquired by G&R Acquisition Inc in a $10.2 million deal.

Visa Inc, the world's largest credit and debit processor, said its second fiscal quarter profit grew 28 percent in its first quarter as a public company as payments and transactions grew across all regions worldwide.

Nigeria's oil output was cut by around half on Monday after Exxon Mobil said all of its oil production in the country has been shut due to a workers' strike, while recent attacks by Niger Delta rebels affected Royal Dutch Shell output.

Intel sealed an alliance deal with maker of supercomputer, Cray Inc, to increase its competitive advantage against Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) which just introduced its first computer brand, early on Monday.

Bank of America Corp, seeking approval to buy the largest U.S. mortgage company, said it would help reduce home foreclosures by modifying or working out hundreds of thousands of mortgage loans to help more than 265,000 customers.

Hospira Inc. said it expects to take pretax charges of about $35 million as it plans to stop close a manufacturing plant in California.

Shares of RadioShack Corp. fell on Monday after the electronics retailer said its first-quarter net income fell worse than expected, dropping 8.7 percent on weaker results from its Sprint Nextel Corp. wireless business.

Sugar declined for the fourth time in New York on speculation of increased sugar output from Brazil flooding the market.

United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc are in advanced merger talks prompted by Continental Airlines Inc's decision this weekend to cancel similar talks with UAL, according to media reports.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian revealed on Monday that his investment company has accumulated a 4.7 percent stake in Ford Motor Co. shares and will seek to bring its total to 5.6 percent through an offer to buy stock.

U.S. newspaper circulation fell sharply in the six months leading through March, with the exception of the two largest national dailies, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, as more readers turn to online sites to read the latest news.

Gold futures rose on Monday after crude-oil contract hit a new record, raising the appeal of precious metals as a hedge against inflation.

Crude prices were steady on Monday retreating from a new record high near $120 a barrel in overnight trading, as concerns on supply disruptions appeared after a major pipeline in the U.K. was closed and an oil terminal was attacked in Nigeria.

Soybeans tumbled on Monday on speculation of cold, wet weather in the U.S. Midwest delaying corn seeding and increase planting of soybeans.

Sun's pursuit to have Java applications run on Apple's iPhone gained momentum as the two firms continued holding talks about the idea, while acknowledging a third party's efforts towards the same goal.

China's Railways Ministry plans to transport 10 million tons of grain from northeast to south in order to stabilize rice prices in south China, the Chinese official media CCTV reported today. The plan will be launched on May 1 and end on June 30, totally 60days.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday for the fourth day after billionaire Warren Buffett financed the $23 billion takeover of Wm. Wrigley Jr. by privately held mars, and investor Kirk Kerkorian bought a stake in Ford Motor Co.

Vodafone India, the arm of UK based world's largest wireless telecom company Vodafone, is likely to bring the much awaited, versatile and Macintosh operating system based Apple's iPhone to India this September as per market speculations ripe in the country.

Brazil's largest private-sector bank, Banco Bradesco, reported a 23.3 percent surge in net profit in the first quarter from the same period last year benefiting from the credit boom in Brazil.

AMD has so far reported six consecutive quarters of net losses as Intel regained much of the market share that it had lost to AMD in 2005 and the beginning of 2006.

Microsoft's plan of buying Yahoo is still in suspense after the deadline of Saturday that the software maker had made for Yahoo, passed without the Internet giant accepting the take-over.

Shares of Continental Airlines and UAL Corp. fell on Monday after the airlines denied rumors that they were in talks of a possible merger.

Mars Inc agreed to buy Chicago-based Wm Wrigley Jr. Company on Monday for $23 billion in cash, bringing together Mars, the maker of M&M's chocolate and Snickers bars together with Wrigley's, which sells Spearmint and Juicy Fruit gum.

Tokyo stocks closed higher Monday, briefly lifting Japan's benchmark Nikkei index above the 14,000 line for the first time in about two months, as optimism prevailed among market participants that the worst of the credit crunch is over.