GENERAL ELECTRIC

After racking up strong earnings growth in 2010, major U.S. manufacturers are expect to set the stage for a slower-paced 2011 when they meet with analysts and investors to lay out their expectations for the coming year.

European plane-maker, Airbus, is expected to announce today its plans to upgrade its best-selling A320 passenger jets with new engines supplied by General Electric Co. and Pratt & Whitney, sources familiar with the plans informed Reuters.

The US Department of Energy has set up an expert committee to report on its activities in energy efficiency and renewables to the Energy Secretary.

Plenty of research - from sources like GE and Deloitte, to name a few - has shown that range anxiety, or the fear of running out of battery charge in the middle of the road, is one of the biggest factors scaring consumers away from electric vehicles (EVs).

General Electric Co will buy 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015 for its own fleet and through its Capital Fleet Services business.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced 20 new trade deals with India worth about $10 billion, which are likely to create around 53,000 jobs in the United States. Deals ranging from sale of heavy transport and commercial aircraft, to gas and steam turbines have been inked. Obama, who is on a 10-day trip through Asia, presided over a meeting of U.S. and Indian executives in India's financial capital of Mumbai.

France's Sanofi-Aventis on Sunday publicly disclosed its $18.5 billion (11.8 billion pounds), $69 (44.36 pounds)-per-share cash offer for Genzyme Corp in a bid to rouse shareholders after failing to engage the U.S. biotechnology company in merger talks.

Dow Chemical Co posted lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday as three plant outages offset a jump in sales across all units and regions, sending shares of the biggest U.S. chemical producer down 3.6 percent in premarket trading.

MetLife Inc , the biggest U.S. life insurance company, posted a second-quarter profit of $1.53 billion, helped by higher premium revenue from sales domestically and abroad.

Russia plans its biggest sell-off of state assets since the early 1990s as it seeks to raise over $29 billion to plug budget gaps over the next three years, finance ministry sources told Reuters on Saturday.

Honeywell International Inc and Ingersoll-Rand Plc raised their 2010 profit forecasts and General Electric Co boosted its dividend in moves that underlined U.S. manufacturers' growing confidence in the economic recovery.

General Electric Co moved to raise its dividend by 20 percent on Friday, in a sign that the largest U.S. conglomerate has put the worst of the financial crisis behind it.

Johnson & Johnson's revenue missed expectations and it again cut its 2010 profit forecast, citing recalls of Tylenol and other medicines which it said are the subject of a U.S. criminal investigation.

General Electric Co posted its first quarterly profit increase in more than two years on Friday, but a sharper-than-expected drop in revenue spooked investors and its shares fell about 4 percent.

U.S. stock indexes fell as much as 2.4 percent on Friday after consumer sentiment fell to an 11-month low and consumer prices fell, while GE and two big U.S. banking companies missed quarterly revenue expectations.

U.S. stocks slumped on Friday after Bank of America, Citigroup and bellwether GE reported disappointing revenues and the consumer mood darkened on resurgent fears about the economy.

General Electric Co reported a 16.1 percent rise in profit, topping analysts' expectations and ending a streak of nine quarters of decline, on strong demand for healthcare and oil and gas equipment.

World stocks eased on Friday on a worsening outlook for the U.S. economy that also pushed the dollar to 7-month low against the yen and near a 2-month trough versus the euro.

South Korea is ready to consider creative solutions to open its market to more U.S. beef and auto imports to help win U.S. approval of a bilateral free trade agreement

GlaxoSmithKline expects to record a legal charge of 1.57 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) for the second quarter after settling the substantial majority of claims relating to its controversial diabetes pill Avandia.

GlaxoSmithKline expects to record a legal charge of 1.57 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) for the second quarter after settling the substantial majority of claims relating to its controversial diabetes pill Avandia.