IBT Staff Reporter

Shares in telecoms equipment maker Ericsson plunged more than 29 percent on Tuesday, their biggest intraday fall on record, after the firm said third-quarter earnings were well short of expectations. Last month, Ericsson executives had been more optimistic, saying the company was poised to grab an even bigger slice of the markets it targets.

Appliance and handset maker LG Electronics Inc posted a better-than-expected 15-fold rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday, boosted by rising demand for displays and mobile phones.

Microsoft told a South Korean court it wants to drop its appeal against a landmark antitrust ruling by the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), and the government agency said on Tuesday it was studying the decision.

Taiwan's Asustek said on Tuesday it will sell its new low-cost laptop PCs to consumers for as little as T$7,999 ($245) apiece, as it takes aim at more casual users in developed markets.

Oculus has entered into a reverse takeover agreement with waste recycling and carbon credit firm Aretae in a deal worth S$600 million ($410 million), the former contact lens maker said in a statement on Tuesday.

Singapore's Best World, a health care firm focused on China, expects profit growth to take a hit this year due to higher costs from its aggressive expansion drive, a company executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

China's CITIC Bank Corp Ltd is bidding for a stake in Bear Stearns Cos, a senior Chinese regulator said, in the first official confirmation of media reports that the state-run bank was a potential suitor for the smallest of Wall Street's five big independent brokerages.

Harry Potter might have waved his wand and cast a spell, but author J.K. Rowling sat down and cheerfully signed 1,600 books for schoolkids on Monday as she launched her first U.S. book tour in seven years.

Patients on the U.S. government's Medicare plan could have saved $15 billion in 2007 a report says, striking up a political debate.

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday said third-quarter profit fell, hurt by restructuring charges and weak demand for its Procrit anemia drug, but the results handily beat Wall Street expectations.

Spain's competition watchdog has opened a probe of the country's three largest mobile phone operators for possible collusion, Spain's Consumer and Users Organisation said on Monday.

A new ratings measure that incorporates digital-recorder playback failed to boost the bulk of the shows airing during the first week of the TV season, according to Nielsen Media Research data issued Monday.

Adobe Systems Inc said on Monday the BBC will use its Flash software to broadcast video and audio from its Web site, giving the Web content software company another high-profile customer.

Major U.S. telephone carriers refused to answer questions from the Democratic-led Congress about their possible participation in President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program, according to documents released by lawmakers on Monday.

Current, the television network backed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, is embarking on a new Internet strategy to enlist viewers in submitting video and commentary to create broadcast TV news.

Amid an uproar over the huge demand for seats to pop idol Hannah Montana's tour, a U.S. federal judge on Monday barred the use of automated software to make mass ticket purchases from the leading box-office service Ticketmaster.

AT&T's bid to sell video services and compete with cable television providers suffered a regulatory setback on Monday when Connecticut officials rejected its application to provide Internet-based TV services.

U.S. broadcasters promised on Monday to air more than $327 million worth of television spots as part of a broad campaign to alert consumers about the approaching switch-over to digital television.

Delta Air Lines Inc, which emerged from bankruptcy at the end of April, posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, boosted by international flying. The performance gave an indication that the industry's recovery from a long slump is still intact despite soaring fuel prices and signs that U.S. economy is slowing.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Tuesday he believed North Korea would stop its uranium enrichment program by the end of the year.

Two aircraft were involved in a minor collision on the ground at London's Heathrow airport on Monday. No one was injured.

U.S. shoppers may spend more money on holiday purchases this year, but that spending will increase at only about half the pace it did a year ago, an industry trade group study released on Tuesday found.

The yen rallied from the previous day's two-month lows versus the euro and dollar on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar fell sharply as a sell-off in European equities underlined a diminished appetite for risk.

Poor corporate earnings and renewed worries about credit rattled investors on Tuesday, while record high oil prices threatened to add pressure to world growth.

Oil thundered towards $88 a barrel on Tuesday, hitting a new record and extending a rally that has added eight dollars in as many days on tight supplies, strong demand and tension in northern Iraq.

An energy development consortium led by U.S. oil producer Chevron Corp. in Kazakhstan is facing challenges from the Russian government over a pipeline that runs through Russian territory, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Growth in U.S. industrial output likely slowed in September, as the housing slump seemed to cool the manufacturing sector and the demand for big-ticket items, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

U.S. financial markets are healthier after a turbulent summer, but a full recovery will take time and the Federal Reserve will act as needed to support market stability as well as noninflationary growth, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday.

Retail stocks fell on Monday, outpacing losses in the broader market, with Big Lots leading decliners.