IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stock index futures fell on Tuesday ahead of housing market data after the S&P 500 advanced for a third straight session, moving within 10 percent of its historic closing high.

Tiffany & Co forecast higher fiscal-year results on Tuesday, helped by its expansion in Asia and the Americas and sales that so far are in line with its projections.

Japan's Olympus Corp will unveil new endoscopes on Wednesday, its first major product launch since an accounting fraud erupted last year and threatened the 92-year-old firm's survival.

France's data protection watchdog has given internet search group Google Inc three weeks to answer questions about its new privacy policy, as part of a Europe-wide investigation being led by the French regulator.

Glencore International will resume operations at the only copper refinery in the Philippines by June or July, six months after a fire halted its operations, a company official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Australian iron ore miners, key beneficiaries of China's modern-day industrial revolution, on Tuesday signaled demand growth was finally slowing in response to Beijing's moves to cool its economy.

A senior executive at Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd <0016.HK>, Asia's largest property developer by market value, has been arrested by Hong Kong's anti-graft body over suspected bribery, in a rare case for a major property company in the city.

State-run Air India will push ahead with its purchase of 27 of Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner aircraft, India's Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on Tuesday, despite a heavy debt burden and a long-running dispute with the plane maker.

Apple has cemented its dominance as the most popular mobile platform among application developers while Google's Android has receded and Research In Motion's devices plunged anew, according to a quarterly survey that may signal sales trends for mobile devices.

Royal Bank of Scotland is closing its equity capital market and corporate finance units in South Korea and cash equities businesses in Indonesia, Singapore and Korea, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Australian iron ore miners, key beneficiaries of China's modern-day industrial revolution, on Tuesday signaled demand growth was finally slowing in response to Beijing's moves to cool its economy.

The chief executive of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide said oil prices would have to rise pretty significantly from current levels to put a dent in hotel demand.

The owners of the New York Mets agreed to pay $162 million to settle a lawsuit by the trustee seeking money for the victims of Bernard Madoff's fraud, a deal that eases pressure on the owners of the cash-strapped baseball team.

Berkshire Hathaway won dismissal on Monday of a shareholder lawsuit that stemmed from allegations former executive David Sokol profited by violating the company's insider trading policy.

Washington Mutual Inc , one of the biggest corporate casualties of the 2008 financial crisis, on Monday emerged from bankruptcy protection, just two weeks after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc also emerged from Chapter 11.

Facebook will pay just a 1.1 percent fee to underwriters of its initial public offering, according to a source with knowledge of the company's plans, doling out a much slimmer than typical payout.

Victims of Allen Stanford's estimated $7 billion Ponzi scheme won a victory when a federal appeals court said they may pursue class-action litigation against third parties they believe aided in the now-convicted swindler's fraud.

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook, moving swiftly after taking over from late Silicon Valley icon Steve Jobs, fulfilled a longstanding desire of investors by initiating a quarterly dividend and share buyback that will pay out $45 billion over three years.

Hamburger chain Wendy's Co knocked Burger King Corp from its spot as the second-largest U.S. hamburger chain in 2011, but sales of both companies continued to lag McDonald's Corp , the country's No. 1 restaurant chain.

The Treasury Department said on Monday it made a $25 billion profit on sales of mortgage-backed securities acquired during the financial crisis, part of its ongoing efforts to wind down taxpayer-financed bailout programs.

Investors showed scant faith in Greece's ability to cut its colossal debt after an auction on Monday which handed insured holders of defaulted bonds a large payout.

Shares in Sprint Nextel fell 4.5 percent on Monday after an analyst report said there is an increasing risk that the No. 3 U.S. mobile provider could end up filing for bankruptcy as the debt-laden company faces tough competition and steep costs due to factors such as its iPhone deal with Apple Inc.

The S&P 500 extended its rally on Monday to climb within 10 percent of its historic closing high, after Apple said it would pay a $10 billion annual dividend and buy back stock.

A federal appeals court will wait until late September to review U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff's rejection of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud settlement with Citigroup Inc over mortgage investments.

With just five days to go for nations to put forward nominees to lead the World Bank, there are few signs the United States has finalized its choice to lead the global development lender.

Valero Energy Corp said on Monday it will halt operations at its 235,000 barrel-per-day Aruba refinery by the end of March, the second time since 2009 that the plant has been forced to shut due to low margins that have battered Atlantic Basin refiners.

Car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corp <7211.T> plans to double production at its automobile plant in Illinois to 70,000 vehicles per year, Japanese business daily Nikkei reported.

The Federal Reserve has not yet decided whether to embark on a third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, though it remains an option, an influential Fed official said on Monday.

Foxconn Technology Group, the top maker of Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads, is not off the hook after a U.S. radio show retracted a program critical of working conditions at one of its Chinese factories.