BUSINESS

First Solar, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Gilead Sciences, Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Transocean, LivePerson, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday.

Interestingly, Iran and the Taliban have watched each other warily for the past fifteen years.

It may be hard to encapsulate in words, but consumers know when they're looking at something in a product that Apple did first.

While earlier reports suggested that the Cupertino tech giant might be switching to a smaller port with 19 pins from the traditional 30-pin dock connector, a latest report Wednesday suggested that Apple could shrink its connector dock even further to just eight pins and that it could also receive a new name altogether.

U.S. stock index futures point to a higher opening Thursday with investors keeping a close watch on the European Central Bank meeting later in the day, which is expected to announce stimulus measures to revive the economic growth.

Asian stock markets declined Thursday as investors awaited the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting later in the day after Federal Reserve did not offer any new monetary measures overnight.

Most of the European markets rose Thursday amid hope that the European Central Bank would announce stimulus measures later in the day to boost the faltering euro zone economy.

The top after-market Nasdaq gainers Wednesday were First Solar Inc, Cavium Inc, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc, SunPower Corporation and United Online Inc. The top after-market Nasdaq losers were Halozyme Therapeutics Inc, Zumiez Inc, Solta Medical Inc, LivePerson Inc and Synchronoss Technologies Inc.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Wednesday were Ellie Mae, Yelp Inc, Digital Domain Media Group, MEMC Electronic Materials and Dice Holdings. The top after-market NYSE losers were Abercrombie & Fitch, Weight Watchers International, Stone Energy Corp, Boston Beer Co and Level 3 Communications, Inc.

Research in Motion (RIM.TO) refuted on Wednesday a new round of Indian media reports, which claim that the BlackBerry maker has granted the government the encryption keys to its secure corporate email and messaging services.

Asian markets were mixed Thursday as investors remained watchful ahead of the European Central Bank meeting later in the day in which stimulus measures to boost the faltering euro zone economy are expected to be announced.

Asian shares eased Thursday as investors turned increasingly cautious with hopes of stimulus action by central banks fading ahead of a European Central Bank's meeting later in the day and after the U.S. Federal Reserve took no action a day earlier.

India's Sahara India Pariwar Ltd. has agreed to buy a controlling stake in New York's Plaza Hotel for $570 million, placing a bet on one of the most robust U.S. hotel markets.

Veteran actor John Goodman teamed up with Will Ferrell?s comedy website Funny or Die to produce a parody commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken, painting KFC as a pro-gay fast food establishment, poking fun at recent Chick-fil-A controversies.

Luo Yutong and Qin Kai helped lead China to yet another top finish.

The reaction to a market disturbance the affected the price of stock in hundreds of companies early Wednesday was markedly muted late in the day, as market participants, exchange operators and regulators were still trying to get a grasp on exactly what had just occurred.

Unconventional times require unconventional measures, and with the U.S. economy growing at a truly tepid rate, perhaps it's time to try an innovative fiscal stimulus proposal recommended by an economist about three years ago.

Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) reported on Wednesday July U.S. car sales up 26.1 percent to 164,898 as the company continued to recover from last year's natural disasters.

Japan's big three, Nissan, Toyota and Honda gained big in sales while Ford and GM had lackluster showings.

Thalia Paraskeva, 24, was getting increasingly desperate. Equipped with a degree in graphic design from Athens, she had no luck finding a job in Greece. One day, she booked a ticket to Berlin and swiftly packed some dresses, a jacket, a pair of snug boots and a Greek-German dictionary before boarding the plane.

Online education may not be able to duplicate the in-classroom experience in every way. But studies have shown that it can effective.

Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) reported on Wednesday July U.S. sales rose 45.3 percent to 116,944 as the Japanese automaker continues its robust recovery from last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan and flooding in Thailand.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday offered a gloomier view of the economy as the labor market showed no sign of improvement since its last meeting. However, despite mounting signs of a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy, central bank officials decided to take more time to make up their mind and refrained from enacting another monetary stimulus.

Investors are abandoning equity stocks amid the global economic slowdown and falling corporate revenues during the second quarter, according to multiple reports.

Euro zone Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) numbers continued their 11-month straight contraction, with manufacturing in Italy, Spain and Greece continuing their alarming downward trends.

Hyundai Motor Co. (Seul: 005380) reported on Wednesday July U.S. car sales up 4 percent to 62,021 vehicles, the company's best July ever despite constrained inventory for the Korean automaker.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Wednesday lowered its view of the U.S. economy, but kept interest rate policy and its non-traditional quantitative easing policy the same. The Fed said it now sees "economic activity decelerated somewhat over the first half of the year," compared to a previous view of the "economy has been expanding moderately."

If Apple plans to release the iPad Mini to the masses at the same time as the iPhone 5, Apple could run into the biggest crowds in the history of the company. And that's not necessarily a good thing. Assuming Apple unveils the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini at the same time, will the release dates for both devices be the same?

Nissan Motor Co. (Tokyo: 7201) reported on Wednesday U.S. July Car sales up 16.2 percent over the year before on strong demand for cars, particularly the Altima and Rogue models.