COMPANIES

General Motors has dropped a December 31 deadline for bids for its Swedish car brand Saab, which will restart some production lines in January after a shutdown, Saab said on Wednesday.

China's steel industry association expects foreign miners to call for a 20-30 percent increase in benchmark iron ore prices in 2010, the official China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday.

The chairman of Nordea (NDA.ST) told Swedish daily Dagens Nyhetersaid it is not planning a large merger, refuting recent talk of a possible deal with rival Swedbank (SWEDa.ST).

China Mobile (0941.HK) said on Wednesday that it is moving ahead on schedule with a plan to list in China, after media reported that an investigation into one of its top executives could lead to a delay.

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) said on Tuesday it has ended a late-stage lung cancer study of its experimental drug figitumumab after an analysis showed it was unlikely to meet the main goal of improving overall survival.

An unprecedented 22 percent of U.S. consumers said they did not finish their Christmas shopping this year as fewer discounts kept many wallets closed, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Two shareholders of NH Hoteles (NHH.MC) announced a pact in the Spanish hotel chain on Tuesday to strengthen the shareholder base and following a similar move by three savings banks shareholders on Monday.

Spanish toll road firm Cintra has agreed to sell 60 percent of its stake in Cintra Chile to the Colombian ISA Group for 209 million euros ($300.7 million), its parent Ferrovial (FER1.MC) said, in a move to cut debt.

Lumber futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed lower on Tuesday, with end-of-the-year selling providing the primary pressure, traders said.

Antamina, a leading copper-zinc mine in Peru, said on Tuesday its $1.2 billion expansion plan should be formally approved by shareholders in the coming days.

Iraq's cabinet has requested certain changes in proposed deals with foreign firms to develop nine oilfields, the government spokesman said on Tuesday.

U.S. antitrust regulators approved Australian packaging group Amcor's (AMC.AX) purchase of mining company Rio Tinto's (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) Alcan packaging unit, the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

Canadian mining stocks jumped on Tuesday after Corriente Resources Inc (CTQ.TO), which has a copper-gold project in Ecuador, agreed to be taken over by Chinese suitors in their country's latest bid for an international resource developer.

Lehman Brothers International can begin distributing billions of dollars of frozen hedge fund assets after reaching agreement with a majority of the affected parties, said PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday.

U.S. consumer confidence rose to a three-month high in December, while prices in the hard-hit housing sector stalled in October, breaking a five-month string of gains.

General Motors Co is offering huge incentives to its dealers to speed up the sales of leftover inventory from its Saturn and Pontiac brands, that can push up the automaker's December sales, the Wall Street Journal said.

General Motors unit Opel said new registrations of its cars rose to the highest level in four years in 2009, when government-backed scrapping incentives bolstered a floundering European auto industry.

The Food and Drug Administration announced late Monday, a recall for Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplets after several consumers complained of an unusual musty, moldy odor.

China's Geely would barely lay a finger on Ford Motor Co's Volvo if it succeeds in acquiring the Swedish luxury car brand, the firm's top executive was quoted by state media as saying on Friday.

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Kazakhstan is in talks with a group of foreign companies led by BG (BG.L) and Eni (ENI.MI) to buy a stake in their Kazakh gas condensate project Karachaganak, Prime Minister Karim Masimov said on Tuesday.

General Motors Co [GM.UL] is offering huge incentives to its dealers to speed up the sales of leftover inventory from its Saturn and Pontiac brands, that can push up the automaker's December sales, the Wall Street Journal said.

China's Big Four banks led by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398.SS)(1398.HK), now the world's largest bank by market value, hold a combined 50 percent share of the domestic lending market, mostly for big state-owned enterprises.

U.S. home prices were unchanged in October, according to the widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller indexes released on Tuesday, indicating stabilization in the hard-hit housing sector though the figures dashed hopes for a sixth straight monthly increase.

New legislation may have a much more dire effect on credit card lenders' earnings than analysts had expected, and 2010 could be a brutal year for the companies.

Arigene Co Ltd (067850.KQ), a South Korean medical equipment maker, said it terminated its tender offer for the outstanding common stock of Trimeris Inc (TRMS.O) as the company was unable to secure sufficient fund for the deal.

Spyker Cars' chief executive expects a decision in days on whether the company has been successful in a bid to buy Sweden's Saab Automobile from U.S. parent General Motors.

Last year, turnaround expert William Snyder was sitting across a table from legendary U.S. chicken entrepreneur Lonnie Bo Pilgrim, explaining the drastic steps that would be necessary to rescue his 63-year-old company from possible liquidation.

Sumitomo Chemical Corp agreed to buy a $590 million stake in Australian farm chemicals maker Nufarm Ltd on Tuesday, in a surprise deal that knocked out a rival bid from China's Sinochem.