IBT Staff Reporter

Oil steadied below $76 a barrel on Wednesday after two days of losses, as investors awaited weekly U.S. inventory data expected to show refineries running harder to churn out more gasoline.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. announced a new model of its ubiquitous smartphone on Tuesday, this one able to operate on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

U.S. investors remain confident in the health of the economy and most expect the U.S. stock market to hold near its recent record levels or extend them modestly, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said on Wednesday it tripled the amount it set aside for loan losses as home equity borrowers missed payments, hurting the bank's second-quarter net income growth.

Hackers stole information from the U.S. Department of Transportation and several U.S. companies by seducing employees with fake job-listings on advertisements and e-mail, a computer security firm said.

A Brazilian airliner crashed and exploded in flames on Tuesday at Brazil's busiest airport, and around 200 people were feared dead in the country's second major air disaster in less than a year.

Canadian inflation numbers came in lower than expected in June, but stayed above the Bank of Canada's 2 percent target, adding weight to the view that the bank will hike interest rates at least one more time.

Altria Group Inc. posted lower quarterly profit on Wednesday, due in part to costs for closing a U.S. cigarette plant as it moves some production to Europe to cut costs and reduce excess capacity.

Mortgage applications rose slightly last week as a jump in refinancing demand overshadowed a drop in demand for loans to buy houses, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Crude oil prices are trading near $76 a barrel and topped $78 on Monday, within sight of the record high hit in August 2006 of $78.65.

Treasury bond yields edged lower in Europe on Wednesday after Bear Stearns told investors two of its hedge funds had very little value, and stocks were hit by weaker-than expected company earnings.

Shares of Internet portal Yahoo, Inc. fell more than 4 percent on Wednesday after the internet search giant posted a lower quarterly profit and gave a weaker-than expected forecast for the full fiscal year.

Following a number of reorganizational moves and company layoffs in 2006, Intel Corp. rebounded in its most recent quarter as profit jumped from the previous year but shares fell on lower margins.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday housing market woes could dampen an expected pickup in U.S. economic growth, but he restated that the central bank's main worry is inflation.

The board of Dow Jones & Co. Inc. endorsed on Tuesday a $5 billion buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., sending the deal to the controlling Bancroft family for final approval.

The chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc. apologized to shareholders on Tuesday for anonymously posting comments about his company on the Internet as the organic and natural foods grocer said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had launched a probe into the matter.

China's state-controlled media have warned citizens to raise their awareness and prevent leakage of state secrets, charging that illegal surveys by foreigners in the country were on the rise and threatening national security.

The Dow closed at a record on Tuesday, though retreating from the 14,000 mark it earlier crossed for the first time, while the Nasdaq rose to a six-and-a-half-year high on a cascade of stronger-than-expected earnings.

Indian consumer goods major Videocon has set its sight on entering the US market in a couple of years, with a possible Nasaq listing, the company’s chairman said.

Credit Suisse is buying up to 15 percent in Park Hotels in a deal worth up to $55 million, according to reports.

Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications, India's second-biggest mobile services provider, said on Monday it was acquiring US-based Ethernet services provider Yipes Enterprise Services Inc. for $300 million in an all-cash deal that would help Ambani gain a foothold in the US market and scale up its optic fiber network.

Coca-Cola Co. posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by strength in its developing China and India markets, and moderate gains in mature markets such as Germany and Japan.

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday stuck with its 2007 earnings forecast despite surprisingly strong second-quarter results, sending shares down more than 1.7 percent.

Discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. posted a 16 percent increase in second-quarter profit on Tuesday as new policies to attract clients paid off.

Drugmaker Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX) posted a 34 percent rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday, beating Wall Street estimates, helped by rising sales of its Alzheimer's disease medicine.

McDonald's Corp.'s chief executive sees plenty of room to increase U.S. sales and said it continues to review its debt levels, which it will discuss on a conference call with analysts next week.

The dollar rose versus the yen for the first time in three sessions after a government report showed foreign investors bought a record amount of U.S. securities in May.

Oil steadied above $76 a barrel on Tuesday, rebounding from an earlier drop as concerns over supply and speculative buying lent support.

World stocks fell on Tuesday from this week's record high while the credit market and dollar weakened, hit by fresh concerns that troubles in the risky end of the U.S. mortgage sector could spread to the wider economy.