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Stock index futures pointed to slight gains at the open on Thursday after jobless claims fell more than expected, boosting optimism about the upcoming January payrolls report.

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, a government report showed on Thursday, pointing to more healing in the nation's battered jobs market.

Amazon.com Inc's shares slid 12 percent in early trade on fears that heavy spending would hurt the retailer's profits even as revenue growth falls short of Wall Street expectations.

The Fall 2012 show packages, complete with decks of show cards picturing agencies' hottest models, have been released to the fashion world for New York fashion Week. Think of the show cards as baseball cards, only with edgier designs and more beautiful showpieces.

Amazon.com Inc shares slumped after the largest Internet retailer said it may lose money in the first quarter, a sign the company is continuing to spend heavily on expansion and new ventures.

Amazon.com Inc shares slumped after the largest Internet retailer said it may lose money in the first quarter, a sign the company is continuing to spend heavily on expansion and new ventures.

Japanese conglomerate Hitachi Ltd might post a 33 percent fall in its operating profit for the three months ended December, hurt by a strong yen and weak sales, business daily The Nikkei reported.

Exxon Mobil Corp's profit narrowly beat expectations, as rising oil prices offset falling margins for chemicals and fuel, and production fell short of some estimates, and its shares fell almost 2 percent.

German retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, suggesting Europe's debt crisis unsettled consumers during key Christmas trade, although economists said they expected the preliminary data to be revised upwards.

Honda Motor Co posted a 65 percent slide in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday and forecast the same drop for the full year, when natural disasters in Japan and Thailand hit it harder than rivals.

Japan's core consumer prices fell for the third consecutive month in the year to December, and mild deflation is expected to persist this year as energy prices stabilize and worries about Europe's debt crisis suppress wage growth and economic activity.

New single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in December for the first time in four months and the median home price dropped, dampening some of the hopes the housing sector will boost the economy this year.

Italy's borrowing costs dropped sharply as it sold the maximum amount of 5 billion euros at an auction of short-term debt on Thursday, helping drive down yields on its longer-dated bonds ahead of a crucial sale of five- and 10-year paper on Monday.

Nokia, the world's largest cellphone maker by volume, reported better-than-expected quarterly core earnings, although they still fell 73 percent as its new Windows Phones failed to compensate for diving sales of its old smartphones.

Microsoft's next-gen video game console, rumored to be called Xbox 720, will be ready to ship and be released by November 2013. The console will reportedly feature six times the processing power of its predecessor, the Xbox 360.

Gold fell on Tuesday as a lower euro, due to an impasse to restructure Greek debt, and weakness in crude oil and equities prompted investors to take profits.

Investors buoyed by a European Central Bank backstop flocked to a sale of Spanish short-term debt on Tuesday, buying three- and six-month paper at sharply lower yields to give a shot in the arm to the country's ambitious deficit-reduction program.

Stock index futures fell on Tuesday as talks to resolve Greece's debt crisis stumbled again and analysts pointed to a short-term top in equity markets after the S&P 500 posted five days of back-to-back gains.

Digital music revenues rose eight percent in 2011 to $5.2 billion, but it was not enough to prevent another annual decline in the overall market to $16.2 billion from $16.7 billion in 2010.

The BSE Sensex rose for a third straight session, inching up 0.08 percent on Monday, helped by financials while a decline in Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), which reported its first quarterly profit fall in two years, capped the index gains.

For fashion zealots around the world, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week is like Christmas, Halloween and the Fourth of July all in one. Happening twice per year, it is the jubilee for any and every fashion devotee. Fashion Week for Fall 2012 kicks off in New York City Feb. 9 and will usher in a slew of chilly-weather collections. In recent years, Fashion Week has not only catered to elite aficionados, but also to the end-consumer. Can pre-order options bridge the time gap between runway show and end-co...