IBT Staff Reporter

The pace of existing home sales fell sharply in August to a 5.5 million-unit annual rate while single-family home inventories swelled to an 18-year high, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday.

Royal Bank of Scotland Plc said on Tuesday it will establish a new global banking centre in Amsterdam if its joint bid for Dutch bank ABN AMRO is successful.

Britain's government has appointed U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it on Northern Rock, a source close to the Treasury said, as the stricken bank told politicians its business was sound.

Shares in China Construction Bank (CCB) closed 32 percent higher on their Shanghai debut on Tuesday, beating other big Chinese lenders' first-day gains and boosting hopes for future large Shanghai share offers.

The London Stock Exchange said in a trading statement on Tuesday it would report very strong first-half results and was very close to completing its merger with Borsa Italiana.

Amazon.com Inc launched an early version of its highly anticipated digital music download store, which is seen as a potential rival to Apple Inc's dominant iTunes system.

Austrian oil and gas group OMV upped the ante in its battle to take over Hungary's MOL on Tuesday, telling MOL shareholders it would pay $20 billion if they overruled board opposition.

Microsoft Corp began selling Halo 3 on Tuesday, hoping the acclaimed alien shooter game will widen its lead over Sony Corp in the battle for industry dominance.

Yasuo Fukuda, a seasoned moderate lawmaker, was chosen Japan's prime minister on Tuesday, then tapped veteran ministers from his predecessor's cabinet to confront a resurgent opposition keen to force an election.

The dollar steadied above the previous day's 15-year troughs against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, as investors awaited U.S. data to determine how deeply the global credit crunch has affected the economy.

Home builder Lennar Corp posted a quarterly loss on Tuesday weighed down by charges and write-offs in a deteriorating housing market, and said it will cut more jobs in the fourth quarter.

Japanese markets mostly failed to react to the appointment of Yasuo Fukuda as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday. The appointment opens the way for Fukuda to take over the reins of departing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Treasury bonds rose on Monday, and yields dropped as investors looked to lock in gains from last week's strong stock market showing.

Nationstar Mortgage, the subprime unit of Fortress Investment Group LLC, said it is no longer accepting new loan applications from brokers, a signal the lender is winding down operations.

Singapore lender DBS Group's chief executive resigned on Monday, after a run of bad news battered the company's share price, leaving an unfulfilled quest to make the bank a big Asian player.

The head of Wal-Mart Store Inc's India operations said on Monday that the retailer is confronting issues securing real estate and talent, but it remains reasonably confident it can open its first cash-and-carry store in the country by the end of 2008.

Investors cashed out of China Eastern Airlines on Monday, sparking a 10.5 percent drop in its shares as hopes waned that Cathay Pacific Airways would unveil an alliance with Air China to buy part of the Shanghai-based carrier.

Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Monday it expects to modify terms on nearly 25,000 home loans this year to help people avoid foreclosures.

Copper closed at the highest in almost eight weeks as a slumping dollar made the metal cheaper for buyers using other currencies.

The turbulence on global financial markets will clearly affect the UK economy and inflation but it is too early to tell by how much, Bank of England hawk Andrew Sentance said on Monday.

Video game aficionados lined up before dawn on Monday for the midnight release of Halo 3, the acclaimed alien shooter game that Microsoft Corp hopes will widen its lead over Sony Corp in the battle for industry dominance.

Turmoil in global credit and money markets will likely continue as investors worry about the size of financial losses and where they might arise, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.

Harman International Industries Inc, whose $8 billion sale fell apart last week, warned on Monday that quarterly profit would be less than half what Wall Street expected, sending its shares down as much as 8 percent.

Microsoft Corp is talking to Facebook about an investment in the company that could value the fast-growing social network at $10 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Monday.

Sales of next-generation DVD players are not seen as likely to take off for another 18 months as consumers are still waiting for prices to fall and for the battle over two competing technologies to be resolved.

Google Inc is considering a Canadian launch of its Street View map feature, which offers street-level close-ups of city centers, but would blur people's faces and vehicle license plates to respect tougher Canadian privacy laws, the Web search firm said on Monday.

New York gold futures ended firmer near 28-year highs on Monday after the dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Monday his office has subpoenaed Facebook, accusing the social networking site of not keeping young users safe from sexual predators and not responding to user complaints.

National regulators need to agree on a basic set of global privacy protections for the Internet within the next five years, a senior official with web searcher Google said on Monday.