BUSINESS

The Chinese manufacturing sector continued to weaken in April, although its rate of deterioration slowed from March, as demand remained low and new business declined, according to HSBC and Martkit's China Manufacturing PMI survey Wednesday.

Spain?s chief economist said Wednesday Bolivia will ?compensate Red Eléctrica Española the costs invested in the country?s electricity network? after the South American country announced it would expropriate the local unit of the Spanish utility, Transportadora de Electricidad S.A.

Dragged down by a precipitous slump in demand for civilian aircraft, U.S. factory orders dropped at the highest rate in three years during March, data released by the Commerce Department Wednesday morning showed.

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp., the No. 2 natural gas producer in the U.S., plunged Wednesday after a report that the CEO and co-founder secretly ran a hedge fund that traded in the same commodities that the Oklahoma City company produces.

Euro zone manufacturing shrank at the sharpest level in nearly three years, sending the euro falling against the dollar and raising more concerns for the region.

Motorola Mobility Holdings (Nasdaq: MMI) won a patent ruling in Germany that bans Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the world's biggest software company, from selling Windows 7 and other products.

Twitter, the social media site that already claims 100 million members, is running fine and sees no need for an initial public offering -- at least not yet, CEO Dick Costolo said.

In an attempt to entice developers, Research In Motion (RIM) has given a glimpse of the new BlackBerry 10 phones at the BlackBerry World conference that kicked off in Orlando, Florida, May 1.

The IPO on everyone's minds for the past few years -- and possibly the biggest one in history -- is upon us: Facebook will finally make its Wall Street debut on Friday, May 18, 2012. Sources also say Facebook will begin its IPO roadshow on Monday, May 7. Will Mark Zuckerberg enjoy the biggest IPO in history?

Virgin Group CEO Sir Richard Branson is going to do the impossible - be on board every Virgin Atlantic flight from now on. Or at least his likeness will be after Virgin Atlantic announced Little Richard ice cubes so Branson can chill with passengers.

On May 1st fans were thrilled when Activision finally announced its sequel to 2010?s ?Black Ops,? and now a day later details about the campaign are beginning to emerge. Recently ?Black Ops 2? has been the worst kept secret among the gaming community, with numerous leaks leaving fans expectant and excited rather than surprised.

Le Pen?s refusal to support Sarkozy may lead many of her supporters to similarly boycott the election, which would likely hand a victory over to Hollande.

Respected semiconductor maker Microchip Technology (Nasdaq: MCHP) said it will acquire smaller Standard Microsystems (Nasdaq: SMSC) for $939 million.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest gold mining company, said Wednesday its first-quarter profit rose 3 percent as a big jump in sales and a higher selling price offset rising costs and slightly less gold production.

Germany's jobless rate edged higher last month on a seasonally adjusted basis after touching a post-reunification low in March, data showed on Wednesday, reviving concerns about the resilience of the German economy to the euro zone crisis.

The U.S. private sector added far fewer jobs than forecast in April, ADP reported on Wednesday, giving the market a pause as it awaits Friday's government employment report.

Gold prices retreated towards $1,650 an ounce on Wednesday as the dollar strengthened against the euro, after a downbeat reading of euro zone manufacturing activity contrasted with stronger data from the United States.

As if the rumors about the release and features of Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 are not enough, the tech world has turned to another device - Apple's MacBook Pro 2012, which is reported to be released by June.

The U.S. private sector added just 119,000 jobs in April, ADP announced on Wednesday in its monthly report -- substantially below the Bloomberg News consensus estimate of 183,000.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade Wednesday are: Protalix BioTherapeutics, Charming Shoppes, Tripadvisor, Genworth Financial, Wynn Resorts, UBS AG, Herbalife, CBS Corp, Patni Computer Systems and Chesapeake Energy Corp.

The 808 Pureview is expected to be released on May 7 and their reports further have confirmed the Sim Free handset price at £539.95 (approx. $875.96). Here are the top 5 picks out on the market retail shelves which can doom the sales of the monster camera entrant ready for release.

Futures on major U.S. indices point to a lower opening on Wednesday as investors awaited data on the U.S. private sector jobs market from payroll processing firm ADP.

Asian stock markets ended higher on Wednesday as upbeat U.S. manufacturing data eased worries that the world's biggest economy had lost momentum at the start of the second quarter.

The HTC One X, which features a mammoth yet bright and beautiful 4.7-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 pixel (720p) resolution, Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon S4 CPU, a 1.5-GHz dual-core chip, 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage, is finally launching on the AT&T network on May 6 for $199. The phone will face major competition from other AT&T phones like Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket 4G, iPhone 4S, Nokia Lumia 900, LG Nitro HD and Galaxy Note.

India's manufacturing activity improved in April compared to previous month, according to the HSBC flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released Wednesday.

The Asian stock market advanced on Wednesday as sentiment was buoyed following the release of improved manufacturing data in both the U.S. and China.

Swiss banking giant UBS reported on Wednesday that its profit for the first quarter declined 54 percent from the same period last year after being affected by charges on its debt.

China?s manufacturing activity improved in April compared to March but continued to contract for the sixth straight month, according to the final HSBC flash Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released Wednesday.

Facebook is likely to begin its IPO roadshow next week, which would confirm several reports that the company will premiere on the public market sometime in mid-May.