IBT Staff Reporter

First Data Corp. said on Tuesday its shareholders voted in favor of its $26 billion leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., but some investors remained unsure about whether the deal will close on time at current terms.

Consumer confidence rose to a nearly six-year high in July as consumers perceived improvements in business conditions and the labor market, a report said on Tuesday.

John Felderhof, the lone remaining key figure in the multibillion-dollar Bre-X gold fraud, was found not guilty on Tuesday of insider trading and misleading investors in the only prosecution brought in the greatest mining scam of all time.

Investors worry that deteriorating borrowing conditions will saddle lenders -- and not just Citigroup -- with too many soured investments.

U.S. oil climbed above $77 on Wednesday, inching towards its all-time high, on forecasts for another weekly decline in crude stocks in top consumer the United States and a recovery in world share markets.

CBS Corp on Tuesday said second-quarter earnings fell sharply from a year ago, when it was helped by a tax benefit and the sale of its Paramount Parks, but still beat expectations on stronger results from its publishing and outdoor divisions.

General Motors Corp on Tuesday said it flipped to a quarterly net profit, trouncing Wall Street estimates as it benefited from cost-cutting, a better mix of products and growing sales overseas. GM, whose shares rose about 6 percent in early electronic trading following the results, posted a net profit of $891 million, or $1.56 a share, compared with a net loss of $3.4 billion, or $5.98 a share a year earlier.

Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it planned to eliminate 3 percent to 4 percent of its global work force of about 120,500 people as part of a plan to improve its cost structure. The cost-cutting plan is expected to generate pretax cost savings of $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion in 2008, the diversified health care company said.

Stocks around the world bounced back sharply on Tuesday as volatile credit markets stabilized and after Wall St took heart from still-brisk corporate earnings growth and the smooth wind-up of another troubled hedge fund.

China on Tuesday deflected U.S. pressure for a faster rise in the yuan and bolder economic reforms by telling visiting Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that it is still poor and poses no threat to anyone.

Even in the face of rapid economic and industrial expansion, a prominent Chinese economist is advocating for higher taxes on production resources in order to increase energy savings and protection of the environment.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc's diabetes drug Avandia should stay on the U.S. market, even though data suggest it may increase the risk of a heart attack for some patients, an advisory panel said on Monday in a 22-1 vote.

Japan's two top steel makers, who have more than half of the raw steel home market, announced strong earnings for the April through June quarter on Monday.

A New York lawmaker said on Monday she plans to offer legislation to address some of the problems plaguing credit card customers who have been blindsided with interest rate changes and various fees.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said on Monday it is highly unlikely to proceed with its $5 billion bid for Dow Jones & Co. Inc. unless it wins more support from Dow Jones's controlling family. The comment from a News Corp. spokesman pushed Dow Jones shares down as much 8.5 percent.

Hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, LLC said on Monday that it took over Sowood Capital's credit portfolio following speculation last week that heavy losses might force the smaller hedge fund to shut down.

Asian shares slid on Monday after U.S. stocks suffered a second day of heavy losses on worries that companies were facing tighter credit conditions, while uncertainty in global equity markets drove up the yen. Worries that problems in the housing market could spill over into other parts of the U.S. economy -- Asia's main export market -- and that tighter credit would cause takeover activity to slow, saw the S&P 500 index suffer its worst week in nearly five years.

U.S. gold futures bounced in quiet trade early on Monday, after a volatile week when the market sold off heavily on risk aversion, as investors looked for new impetus during the usually slower summer months.

Stocks were little changed on Monday after gyrating between negative and positive territory in the first half hour as worsening sentiment about the global credit environment countered optimism about economic growth. Tightening lending standards threaten to slow or halt the heavy pace of corporate buy-outs that have fueled a rally in equities.

British PM Gordon Brown wants to keep close ties and says his nation shares its ideals with America.

China's Lenovo Group, the world's third-largest computer maker, is expected to post a six-fold rise in quarterly profit on Thursday on strong corporate demand but faces unrelenting price pressure at home.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc's widely used diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled off the market, U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientist David Graham said in a presentation prepared for delivery on Monday.

Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. wireless service, said on Monday it would buy Rural Cellular Corp for $757 million in cash to save on roaming costs and expand its customer base.

Verizon Communications Inc. said on Monday its second-quarter profit rose 4.5 percent as subscriber growth for its FiOS TV service accelerated while wireless growth remained steady.

More than half of U.S. mid-sized companies are not planning to hire over the next 12 months or may lay people off, and fewer than a third of the firms expect strong economic growth, a survey said on Monday.

China's central bank on Monday raised the amount that lenders must hold in reserve for the ninth time in 13 months, the latest step in its campaign to keep the world's fourth-largest economy in check.

John Malone, the U.S. media mogul and chairman of Liberty Global, is considering entering a $23 billion auction for cable operator Virgin Media, the Financial Times reported on its Web site on Sunday.

Dutch bank ABN AMRO withdrew its recommendation of a takeover by Barclays, leaving it neutral between the British bank's offer and a higher bid from Royal Bank of Scotland's consortium. The Netherlands' biggest bank, the target of a 66 billion-euro ($89.55 billion) offer from Barclays and a 71 billion-euro bid from RBS, Belgium's Fortis and Spain's Santander, also reported a 7.1 percent decline in its second-quarter net profit on Monday.

Oil prices dipped on Monday as investors took profit after U.S. crude prices leapt more than $2 to their second-highest close on record, fuelled by upbeat signals on the U.S. economy and nagging supply worries.