ECONOMY & MARKETS

Credit card usage in the United States rose in December last year for the first time in more than two years, indicating that consumers are becoming more confident on the economic conditions in the country.

U.S. stocks opened modestly lower on Tuesday after China raised interest rates for the third time since last October in response to accelerating consumer and asset inflation.

This is a world obsessed with demand...[and] many central banks' policy settings are very, very loose...making for serious inflationary pressures, UBS said. The outlook for food prices is that they could rise exponentially from here if we were to see another shock. There's no buffer right now.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Conexant Systems, Herley Industries, Exide Technologies, Vical, and Motricity. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: ADDvantage Technologies Group, PennantPark Investment, Breitburn Energy Partners, Allot Communications, and Glu Mobile.

German industrial production fell more than expected in December 2010, posting a decline for a second consecutive month.

ThinkEquity said it has added Altera to the Think Fast list, which predicts stocks that are expected to see a near-term upside.

Gold inched higher on Tuesday as equities fell, the euro picked up and flows of metal out of exchange-traded funds stabilized, although a rise in Chinese benchmark rates limited gains.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Tuesday are: Sandisk, ProLogis, Urban Outfitters, Newmont Mining, Ford Motor, Avon Products, Akamai Technologies, Genworth Financial, Nyse Euronext and Sara Lee.

Alcatel-Lucent has developed lightRadio, a cube-shaped antenna that would fit in the palm of a hand, signaling an end to the current form of basestations and cell towers. lightRadio promises greener, simpler, lighter networks that the company says will radically shrink and simplify base stations and cell towers.....

China central bank raised interest rates for the second time in just over a month on Tuesday in a bid to rein in inflation as inflation stayed above 4 percent for a third month.

Miner Xstrata Plc reported a surge in profit for the full year on stronger commodity prices, and proposed a final dividend of 20 cents a share, reflecting a return to pre-financial crisis levels.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Monday are: International Coal Group, Aspen Insurance Holdings, New York Times, Harry Winston Diamond and Elan Corp. The top after-market NYSE losers on Monday are: Triangle Capital, One Liberty Properties, Principal Financial, FMC Corp and Becton.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Exide Technologies, Herley Industries, Conexant Systems, CSP, and WSB Holdings. The top after-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Glu Mobile, SunPower, Breitburn Energy Partners, PennantPark Investment, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions.

British gas producer BG Group Plc posted a rise in quarterly profit helped by higher commodity prices and a lower exploration charge and the company lifted its full year dividend by 10 percent to 21.60 cents a share.

The price of crude oil - and the consumer products like gasoline and diesel fuel that are made from it - will head higher in the summer months, said John Hofmeister, former CEO of Shell Oil.

Stocks advanced as a series of merger deals excited investors, pushing the blue-chip indices to two-and-a-half-year highs in the absence of significant economic news.

U.S. stocks advanced in early trade on Monday with the S&P 500 Index gaining 4.88 points, or 0.37 percent, to trade at 1,315.75 at 9:50 a.m. EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 36.63 points, or 0.30 percent, to trade at 12,128.78. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.31 percent.

Jefferies & Co. said investors are uncertain about Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) future in consumer technology and that they have chosen to discount all parts of the business until it becomes clearer what Microsoft’s competitive position in the key areas of tablets, smartphones and online search will be.

Sanofi-Aventis is reportedly expected to sweeten its bid for U.S. biotechnology company Genzyme later this week. The two companies are said to be negotiating a cash deal worth $74 a share or $19 billion, plus extra payments linked to experimental multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Glu Mobile, Orexigen Therapeutics, Veeco Instruments, Progenics Pharmaceuticals, and InterDigital. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Yongye International, Kandi Technologies, China Agritech, and Cognizant Technology Solutions.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Monday are: Bristol Myers Squibb, Chesapeake Energy, Sprint Nextel, Valero Energy, Bank of America, Aetna, Verizon Communications, Weyerhaeuser, Nvidia and Corning.

The companies which are expected to see active trade on Monday are: Cognizant Technology, SYSCO, Read Becton, FMC Corp, Hasbro, Humana, Loews Corp, Lorillard and Pioneer Natural Resources.

Randgold Resources sees a surge in production for 2011 as it reported a 43 percent rise in full-year profit in spite of operational and political setbacks. The company, which boosted its annual dividend by 18 percent to 20 cents, forecasts production to be between 750,000 and 790,000 ounces for 2011.

RBC Capital Markets said in the Plane Truth edition that it spoke to most of Boeing Co.'s (BA) 25 largest 737 customers (accounting for about 70 percent of the 737 backlog) to gauge their interest in a re-engined 737, a new clean-sheet-of-paper narrowbody plane, and their appetite for the Airbus A320 NEO (New Engine Option) offering.

U.S. crude futures edged above $89.05 a barrel on Monday, recovering from a near 2 percent drop in the previous session, supported by the political crisis in Egypt and a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate to a 21-month low.

The rupee steadied on Monday after rising early, tracking the domestic sharemarket and some dollar inflows, but traders expected it to remain range bound during the day.

The Egyptian pound fell on Sunday when trade resumed after a week-long suspension due to political unrest, but the drop was less sharp than many traders had feared as the central bank appeared to support the currency.

Egypt's Banks opened for the first time in a week to queues of customers seeking to access their accounts on Sunday, but the Egyptian pound weakened only modestly after violent protests gave way to calmer political talks.

India's GDP for the 2010/11 fiscal year is estimated to grow at 8.6 percent, a government statement said on Monday.