MARKETS / FINANCE

U.S. President Barack Obama pushed job creation to the top of his agenda and vowed not to abandon his struggling healthcare overhaul after a political setback that raised doubts about his leadership.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods edged higher last month and the number of workers filing applications for jobless aid fell last week, indicating the economy remains on a steady recovery path.

Procter & Gamble Co and Colgate-Palmolive Co boosted sales of their brand name products in the last few months, convincing consumers to spend a little more with a bigger investment in advertising.

Tech stocks dropped in morning trading on Thursday as financials struggled to keep gains, S&P 500 edges down.

Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China on Thursday in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.

Procter & Gamble Co and Colgate-Palmolive Co boosted sales of their brand name products in the last few months, convincing consumers to spend a little more with a bigger investment in advertising.

Procter & Gamble Co and Colgate-Palmolive Co boosted sales of their brand name products in the last few months, after persuading consumers to spend a little more with a bigger investment in advertising.

Motorola Inc posted a small quarterly profit versus a year-earlier loss but revenue missed Wall Street estimates for its first quarter selling phones based on Google Inc's Android software.

Wall St opened flat on Thursday in the wake of the President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech, which had no new plans to tighten Wall Street oversight, as durable goods orders and jobs data offered a mixed picture on the economy.

New models from Nokia and Motorola Inc helped them recapture market share in the lucrative smartphone sector, lifting both firms' results above expectations for the fourth quarter.

Top mobile phone maker Nokia'sfourth-quarter sales and profits beat expectations as it regained market share in smartphones, sending its stock price 14 percent higher.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose last month and the number of workers filing applications for unemployment aid fell last week, indicating the economy remains on a steady recovery path.

U.S. stock index futures were higher on Thursday in the wake of President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech, which had no new plans to tighten Wall Street oversight, and after strong results from Procter & Gamble and Ford.

Paid virtual private networks are quietly catching on in China as a way to access forbidden websites, analysts say, while authorities are leaving them alone until they become more popular.

Top mobile phone maker Nokia reported stronger than expected fourth-quarter sales and profits powered by improving market share in smartphones, sending its shares more than 10 percent higher.

Futures for the Nasdaq 100 briefly turned negative on Thursday ahead of major earnings results, with Greek credit default swap hitting record highs prompting investors to trade cautiously.

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's nomination for a second term running the world's most powerful central bank faces a decisive day in the Senate on Thursday when his confirmation vote looks set to go ahead.

Stock futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rise 0.4 to 0.5 percent, pointing to a stronger start on Wall Street on Thursday.

Toyota Motor Corp could face an unprecedented recall of 8 million cars over problems with sticking accelerators in the biggest ever blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.

India's cotton arrivals in the domestic market witnessed a minimal rise of 0.1% to 16.50 million bales since the start of crop year to January 23. Higher arrivals in Gujarat and Rajasthan markets offset in other growing states, according to the Cotton Corporation of India's data.

At a time when India's steel industry is slowly rising prices, its counterparts in the US are struggling to do the same as the production costs have gone up. But, the US steel industry is very skeptical about the prices rise as the demand for steel is yet to pick up properly in the country. Even as India and China are witnessing a major surge in demand for steel, the US industry is still slowly picking up pace.

Nickel prices largely depend on global steel demand, which is low in the west and up in China and India now. So, the fall in demand from auto makers in the west and a huge rise in China have complicated the nickel prices. Some 65% of nickel goes into making stainless steel.

As a major step towards it entry into Africa's energy fields, energy hungry India expressed its desire to develop refineries, natural gas and LNG projects in oil-rich Nigeria. India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora during his visit to the western African country said India has committed to invest more than $360 million in developing two oil blocks in Africa's largest energy-producing country.

The Philippines has decided to buy 2.1 million 50-kg bags of unhusked rice, locally known as palay, from local farmers starting February until April to help farmers. In a statement issued here National Food Authority of Philippines said this is almost a fifth of the agency's full-year procurement target of 11.6 million bags.

Noted global economist Nouriel Roubini says that there have been 'excessive increases' in gold and oil prices that is creating possible commodity bubbles. Talking to reporters at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, Roubini-a professor of economics at the New York University--said that there is an urgent need to curb the excessive rise in prices in commodities.

Toyota Motor Corp shut down sales of its best-selling vehicles on Wednesday under pressure from the Obama administration to address a product safety crisis that threatens its image in its largest market.

The U.S. dollar rose to a six-month high against the euro on Thursday, on signs the Federal Reserve is more confident about a recovery, while Asian equities were on track to snap a nine-day losing streak. U.S. stock futures rose during Asian session after U.S. President Barack Obama in an address to Congress had a more moderate tone on restrictions toward U.S. banks.

Stocks rose on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero and stock futures signaled more gains ahead after President Barack Obama struck a conciliatory tone on banks in his State of the Union speech.

Stock index futures added gains in late after-hours trading on Wednesday as investors took President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech as toning down some of the rhetoric that unnerved investors last week when he unveiled new restrictions on U.S. banks.