IBT Staff Reporter

Asian carmakers aim to churn out higher profits in Europe by moving up-market now that they have established a solid foothold in the region, while their local rivals struggle with excess inventories and restructuring costs.

Lumber prices have lost a third of their value since January amid a cooling U.S. housing sector, and a softwood trade deal between the United States and Canada won't stem the slide soon because implementation may be delayed.

IBM and Xing Inc., a subsidiary of Brother Industries, announced a partnership to design and develop wireless karaoke controllers, allowing users to search for songs and order food or drinks from their tables.

On Thursday, HP Inc. announced the acquisition of PC manufacturer VoodooPC, maker of specialized gaming desktops and notebooks, however some experts contend the purchase will have little affect on HP's revenues.

Dell announced on Friday that an additional 200 thousand batteries need to be recalled, expanding the initial recall the firm placed in August.

British Airways, Europe's third largest airline, said on Friday its pension deficit had risen to 2.1 billion pounds following a new actuarial valuation.

China is quietly adjusting its policy on the yuan, letting it appreciate a little faster and setting the stage for a possibly wider trading band, traders and analysts said after a recent surge in the currency's value.

The founder of craigslist, the free social networking and classifieds Web site, said on Thursday he is not interested in selling out, a few hours after social networking site MySpace was valued at $15 billion.

Korean social networking Cyworld's recently launched U.S. unit said on Thursday it signed with a Hollywood talent agency to help it win licensing deals with media properties that appeal to young Web users.

Billionaire investor and dot-com veteran Mark Cuban had harsh words on Thursday for YouTube, the online site that lets people share video clips, saying only a moron would purchase the wildly popular start-up.

Hong Kong's foreign-exchange market can leverage its strengths to become an international centre, Monetary Authority Chief Executive Joseph Yam says.

Auto giant DaimlerChrysler AG is in detailed discussions with China's Chery Automobile to make cars for sale in the United States and other markets and could finalize the deal soon, sources said on Friday. Most funding would be from DaimlerChrysler with U.S. models labeled as Chrysler.

Oil steadied above $62 on Friday as burgeoning U.S. inventories and slower-than-expected economic growth balanced possible action from some OPEC producers to trim output to halt the decline in prices.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. breezed past investor and analyst expectations in delivering its second-quarter results on Thursday and forecast strong growth in subscribers for the future......

Lenovo Group Ltd, the 3rd largest personal computer maker in the world, become a new member of pc makers annoyed by the problem......

Miners are 'staggeringly cheap' after share prices dropped while metals prices stayed strong, and some of their earnings may beat expectations

Soft drinks company Britvic said on Friday its full year results would be towards the top end of market expectations after favourable summer trading aided by hot weather and the World Cup.

The government hopes legislation banning age discrimination in the workplace from this weekend will also change cultural attitudes

Kazakh state oil and gas firm KazMunaiGas's exploration and production unit priced its IPO at $14.64 per global depository receipt on Friday

Consumers waste almost 2 billion pounds per year on rarely used labour saving gadgets and now have almost 80 million white elephants in their homes.

Investing in football club equities was once the domain of the staunch supporter, interested more in hanging a share certificate on the wall than making money.

The part of capital in market began to flow into power shares in recent two days as the China Life Insurance perform ordinary.

The FTSE 100 index is seen opening 2 points higher on Friday, financial bookmakers said, after the index ended up 0.69 percent at 5,9871.3 points in the previous session.

Man Group, the world's largest listed hedge fund firm, said it expected fee income and earnings per share to have risen by about a third in the six months to the end of September

An expanding pool of workers means the economy can grow faster than the government assumes without fuelling inflation, according to an influential think tank.

Aegis Group has won the pan European media buying and planning account for General Motors, the world's second largest spender on advertising behind Procter & Gamble

The pace of U.S. economic growth softened more sharply than expected in the second quarter and corporate profits rose feebly......

Insurance companies which are currently being monitored for non-payment of insurance coverage will submit an additional 100,000 cases on non-payment on Friday to Japan's Ministry of Finance.

One of Japan's major convenience store companies opened a new chain in Tokyo on Wednesday which targets female customers, the company announced.