BUSINESS

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), the largest company on earth by stock-market value, again took the top spot in Barron's annual survey of corporate respect.

Troubled BlackBerry developer Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), once the king of the smartphone hill with business, is scheduled to report first-quarter results after Thursday?s close.

Asian stock markets mostly advanced Wednesday but gains were capped as investors are opting for caution ahead of the EU summit that begins on Thursday.

Beverages giant Coca Cola announced Tuesday that it would invest nearly double the amount of money, along with its bottling partners, to $5 billion by 2020. The investment of $5 billion is higher by $3 billion from the earlier announcement made in November 2011 for a five-year period.

European markets rose Wednesday following global cues but investors remained watchful about the debt crisis lingering over the euro zone.

Crude oil futures slightly declined and hovered above $79 a barrel during Asian trading hours Wednesday as doubts over the ability of European leaders to address the debt crisis at a summit this week offset concerns over tightened North Sea supplies due to a strike in Norway.

After a failed attempt to ban the Samsung Galaxy S3's sales in the U.S., Apple finally has managed to stop sales of its South Korean rival's Galaxy Tab 10.1, deemed by many as the top contender to the iPad.

The top after-market Nasdaq gainers Tuesday were AeroVironment Inc, Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc, Zogenix Inc, United Therapeutics Corporation and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. The top after-market Nasdaq losers were: Omeros Corporation, O'Reilly Automotive Inc, Medivation Inc, IAC/InterActiveCorp and Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Tuesday were: BPZ Resources, MEMC Electronic Materials, Ultra Petroleum, Fusion-Io and Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes. The top after-market NYSE losers were: Campus Crest Communities, Harbinger Group, Yingli Green Energy Holding, HCA Holdings and AutoZone.

Most Asian markets rose Wednesday but investors remained watchful about the the debt crisis looming over the euro zone.

The Chinese government has spent billions to buy Japanese stocks as the euro zone crisis lingers, in an effort to diversify its investments, the AFP reported.

South Korea announced it will halt imports of Iranian crude oil as the European Union's ban on insuring oil shipments from Iran comes into effect toward the end of the month.

Several tech sites claim that Apple has built smaller dock connectors for its new phone, dubbed the iPhone '5,' by some. Three independent manufacturers have agreed the 19-pin port is in the works, but one extremely interesting fact mentioned was the size of the 19-pin port: Apparently, the new mini dock connector is very similar to the size of the Thunderbolt port available on many current MacBook laptops. That got me thinking: What if that is a Thunderbolt port?

The National Guestworker Alliance said Tuesday it has uncovered 482 federal citations for safety, health, wage and hour violations, among 12 of the 18 suppliers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) that the organization has been investigating.

Former Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson was arrested on DUI charges in DeKalb County, Ga., Sunday morning.

Padmasree Warrior, the veteran chief technology officer for Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), the No. 1 provider of Internet equipment, will now also run the company?s strategy office.

U.S. car sales are expected to have remained strong in June, maintaining a total seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of around 14 million vehicles, however sales are beginning to slow at the beginning of summer and a return to pre-recession sales levels is not foreseen anytime soon, according to early predictions by analysts at LMC Automotive and Kelley Blue Book.

The 54-cent decline in the average price of gasoline over the last 3 months should add approximately $54 billion of incremental income to U.S. consumers.

Nabisco, the makers of Oreo sandwich cookies, stirred controversy - and the wildest dreams of Oreo fanatics - when it posted a photo of a six-layer Oreo with cream in rainbow colors in an obvious support of gay pride. But will the Rainbow Oreo ever come to fruition?

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, a 540-year-old financial institution commonly called Europe's oldest bank, was the newest Continental house of finance to receive a government bailout, after the Italian Treasury granted the bank a ?3.9 billion ($4.87 billion) credit lifeline Tuesday. The rescue came even though Monte dei Paschi is seen as basically insolvent by the markets and is led by a banker currently under criminal indictment.

Although U.S. home prices inched up in April and new home sales rose to a two-year high in May, the national housing market remains uneven and weak, said a New York-based developer.

The price of crude oil fell Tuesday to less than $79 on the U.S. wholesale market, cutting the value of the commodity by about one-third since early March.

Even as the crisis in Air India continues with no signs of a solution in sight, another Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines is in fresh trouble with 80 of its engineers quitting their jobs.

Zuma?s ruling party has proposed that the nation?s key mining sector pay more in taxes to finance social spending and also wants to encourage state-owned enterprises to create more jobs.

Other threats outlined in Evans' inaugural Lord Mayor's Annual Defence and Security Lecture in London on Monday night included Al Qaeda infiltration of Arab Spring countries and potential extremists motivated by the possible collapse of the euro zone.

Passbook will be formally introduced with iOS 6, but Apple may also announce an expansion of that software, specifically for an NFC-capable iPhone. With the recent discovery of iPhone prototypes embedded with code that specifically mentioned near-field communication components, there's an excellent chance the company's next iPhone, which many have already crowned the iPhone 5, will feature Apple's patented iWallet technology.

79 teens were rescued over the weekend from a life of prostitution across America, and more than 100 pimps were arrested by the FBI.

The online travel site Orbitiz came under criticism Tuesday after admitting it is showing Mac users pricier travel options than PC searchers

Apple?s new Retina Display MacBook Pro line boasts high-definition images and resolution, but that doesn?t mean the new laptops are picture perfect. Some owners have reported an image persistence issue with the recently-revealed MacBook Pro, according to Apple Insider.