IBT Staff Reporter

Citigroup is teaming up with online bank Saxo Bank to launch a web-based foreign exchange trading platform called CitiFX Pro.

Money management firm Blackrock has been approached by the three largest U.S. banks to run a $75 billion superfund to create a market for hard-to-trade securities imperiled by the subprime credit crisis, according to a report.

FOX was the winner in the adults 18-49 demographics category for the week ending Sunday, making it the first time it won before Thanksgiving since 1998, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the financial experts at Goldman Sachs -- who earned a Wall Street record profit of $9.34 billion in 2006-- are setting up a charity fund which they expect to grow to more than $1 billion within the next few years.

The yen surged to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years on Wednesday as investors pared back exposure to risky trades on worries about credit market losses and the health of the U.S. economy.

U.S. airlines were dogged more by anxiety than by operational glitches on Wednesday as the Thanksgiving travel rush began in earnest with scattered delays and no major problems.

U.S. activist investors are preparing a flurry of corporate ballot measures at Wall Street banks in hopes that some big items on their wish lists, such as CEO pay reforms, will gain new traction amid the subprime lending crisis.

Officials at UPS said in October that its growth this peak season would be slower than in the previous four years. FedEx last week cut its forecast for the company's current quarter that ended November 30, citing fuel costs and weak freight volumes in its trucking unit.

The United Nations' food aid agency has called on budding film-makers to help it raise awareness of hunger and bring the reality of abject poverty and suffering to the YouTube generation.

US stocks fell to the lowest its been in three-months on Wednesday, following the growing unease over the economic outlook and weakening credit markets.

Stricken British bank Northern Rock (NRK.L) has received more rescue proposals, but warned that one of them contemplated an offer well below Tuesday's closing price, sparking a new slide in its shares on Wednesday.

Mortgage applications fell last week, with demand for both refinancings and home purchases waning, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted mortgage application index fell 3.6 percent to 681.7 in the week ended November 16.

Deere & Co. (DE.N) reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday, and provided an upbeat outlook for the coming year, as strong sales to farmers worldwide offset a downturn in construction sales, especially in the United States.

A summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth this weekend will be dominated by a decision on whether to suspend Pakistan for a second time because of President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule.

Saboteurs staged a coordinated attack on France's high-speed rail network early on Wednesday, causing nationwide delays to services already hit by an eight-day transport strike, the SNCF state railways said.

The mood among consumers hit the skids in November as gasoline prices soared and the housing market downturn threatened to ensnare more Americans, a report showed on Wednesday.A drop in weekly mortgage applications, signs of stress in the labor market and crude oil prices on the cusp of $100 per barrel threw up caution flags on the eve of the critical holiday spending rush.

Buying Ford Motor Co's premium Jaguar and Land Rover brands would catapult Tata Motors or Mahindra & Mahindra onto the global stage, but doubts either Indian automaker can successfully pull off such a deal are weighing on their share prices.

Honda Motor Co's redesigned Fit subcompact won Japan's Car of the Year award, beating finalists including Nissan Motor Co's Skyline and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd's Subaru Impreza.

Shares in Malaysian state-controlled carmaker Proton sank to a near seven-year-low on Wednesday, a day after the government ended talks with Germany's Volkswagen over a possible alliance.

Shares of Freddie Mac fell as much as 9.5 percent on Wednesday after analysts slashed their price targets on the stock, saying an unexpectedly wide third-quarter loss may make it tough for the No. 2 U.S. home funding company to inject the liquidity needed to rescue an ailing housing market.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Japan's largest bank, posted a 49 percent drop in first-half profit on Wednesday, hit by subprime-related investments and hefty losses at its credit card unit.

Mary-Kate Olsen, one-half of the acting Olsen twins who gained fame on 1990s television show Full House, has been hospitalized in New York City for a kidney infection, her representative said on Tuesday.

GM's electric car will launch by 2010 despite internal skeptics and worriers, a company chief says

Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia! and Legally Blonde may be off the menu as a strike by Broadway stagehands enters its 12th day. So how about Crime and Punishment?

New Line Cinema has asked a New York federal judge to stop a documentary whose home video release is timed to coincide with the theatrical release of The Golden Compass.

The dollar hit a record low against the euro and a basket of major currencies on Wednesday and the yen rose sharply as concerns on the health of the U.S. economy and global credit markets saw investors flea risky carry trades.

The Internet has become a key teaching tool for Islamist militants who are using it to educate recruits in cyber training camps, crime and security experts said on Wednesday.

Hewlett-Packard Co's better-than-expected quarterly results may raise the bar for competitor Dell Inc , which is more vulnerable to U.S. economic woes and reports earnings next week.

Israeli authorities plan to issue a new anti-hijack identification system to incoming aircraft which they say is foolproof, but some experts are not convinced it will plug all the security holes on the horizon.