INVESTMENT

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.4 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.4 percent at 1007 GMT.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Exelis, MannKind, Velti, Amarin and LM Ericsson. The top after-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Hot Topic, Amtech Systems, Flow International, Idenix Pharma and Spectrum Pharma.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp is preparing to take legal action, including possible criminal complaints, against any executives found responsible for the accounting scandal engulfing the firm, according to an internal staff email.

Foreign direct investment into China climbed nearly 16 percent in the first 10 months of 2011 from a year earlier as foreign investors continued to flock to the world's fastest-growing major economy despite the global economic malaise.

Shares in Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp jumped on Wednesday on speculation that it can escape delisting over an accounting scandal and that the brunt of any punishment will be borne by a few executives rather than the firm itself.

Gold traded flat on Tuesday, recouping initial losses, fueled by worries over a euro zone economic slowdown and fears that France could be sucked into its spiraling debt crisis.

Reports Tuesday suggest that rather than auction itself to the likes of Microsoft or Walt Disney or to a private equity investor such as Silver Lake Partners or Providence Equity Partners, Yahoo may try a PIPE.

Hedge fund manager and long-time gold bull John Paulson's move to slash ETF bullion holdings by a third in the third quarter does not appear to be a sign that he is abandoning his upbeat view of the metal, industry sources and analysts said.

Bank of America Corp. learned a lesson from its abandoned debit card fee and will work to provide transparency and fair pricing to customers while producing a return for shareholders, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on Tuesday.

A U.S. regulator ordered JPMorgan Chase & Co to pay $3.62 million in fines and reimbursement for recommending investments linked to junk bonds to unsophisticated customers who might not have been able to take on the risks.

Tanzania's year-on-year inflation rate rose for the twelfth straight month in October on the back of higher food and fuel prices, and is expected by some analysts to keep climbing in the coming months.

Coke has enjoyed double-digit growth in India in 15 of the last 21 quarters.

A sharp slowdown in world growth would increase the risk of recession in poorer countries, whose budgets have barely recovered from the last economic slump just two years ago, the IMF said on Monday.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has indicated to parliament he is not likely to delay approval of Tullow Oil's long proposed partnership with Total and CNOOC further, because it would diminish his government's credibility in future negotiations.

Qatar Airways finally returned to the table to sign a $6.5-billion deal with Airbus.

Luxury fashion house Burberry has reported consistent double digit revenue growth for the first half of the year. The growth has been reported in retail, wholesale and almost all product categories of the brand.

An investment banker raised concerns about dubious accounting at Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp as long ago as the 1990s, after he discovered it was using Bermuda-based funds to invent assets and patch up its balance sheet, he told Reuters.

Canada-listed Sino-Forest Corp said an independent committee found no evidence of fraud at the Chinese timber firm following allegations from short-seller Muddy Waters it had exaggerated its assets, although the committee also said it had been unable to verify the company owned all of its forests.

Prime Minister-designate Mario Monti raced to assemble a new government for Italy on Tuesday while a sharp rise in French borrowing costs raised fears that the two-year debt crisis may spread to the euro zone's second biggest economy.

Venture capital investments in Canadian start-ups rose 51 percent in the third quarter as individual investors, pension administrators and government poured money into VC funds.

Hedge fund manager and long-time gold bull John Paulson slashed his bullion holdings by a third in the third quarter, data showed, dampening sentiment in the gold market on Tuesday.