IBT Staff Reporter

Consumer confidence bounced back from a 2-1/2 year low in November as apprehension about job and income prospects eased, according to a private sector report released on Tuesday.

Retailers reported strong sales last week as shoppers took advantage of discounts and longer store hours for the start of the holiday shopping season.

Italy's borrowing costs hit a euro lifetime high of nearly 8 percent on Tuesday, taking the debt crisis to a new level of intensity hours before new prime minister Mario Monti was to meet euro zone finance ministers to set out his economic reform plans.

Standing in long queues as Egyptians wait to cast their vote, many are tweeting, filming, and relaying their every observation, bringing a new dimension to election monitoring in the Arab world's most populous nation.

Stocks opened little changed on Tuesday as a strong rally in the previous session limited upside even as Italian bond yields fell from session highs.

AT&T is in talks with Leap Wireless International about a potential sale of some assets to the smaller operator in a last ditch effort to gain regulatory approval for AT&T's proposed T-Mobile USA purchase, according to a New York Times report.

Single-family home prices declined in September, highlighting the fragility of a market that is struggling to get back on its feet, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

French spirits group Remy Cointreau said on Tuesday it was actively looking for acquisitions after cutting first-half debt and said it had the firepower to seal deals worth up to 800 million euros ($1.07 billion).

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Tuesday after Italian bond yields fell from session highs amid hopes a meeting of European finance ministers will be a step forward in resolving the region's debt crisis.

Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's former doctor found guilty earlier this month of involuntary manslaughter, will learn his fate today as he faces a possible four year prison sentence.

American Airlines and its parent company AMR Corp filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after failing to win a labor deal with pilots and suffering from mounting fuel costs.

Italian borrowing costs hit euro lifetime peaks at a debt auction on Tuesday as investors demand ever higher premiums to keep funding the country, in a sign that the sovereign debt crisis is nearing make-or-break point.

U.S. computer software company SAS Institute cannot claim copyright protection for the functions performed by its programs, which have been replicated by a rival, an adviser to Europe's highest court said.

Stock index futures rose on Tuesday after Italian bond yields fell from session highs amid hopes a meeting of European finance ministers will be a step forward in resolving the region's debt crisis.

Thomas H. Lee Partners is interested in buying the U.S. operations of Yahoo Inc, breaking away from other bidders that are for now eyeing either a minority stake or teaming up with the Internet giant's partners in Asia, sources familiar with the matter said.

British government borrowing will fall much less than expected because of slower economic growth, finance minister George Osborne said on Tuesday, erasing any room for error in the coalition government's deficit reduction plan.

Tiffany & Co gave a holiday quarter profit outlook that missed Wall Street expectations, and fears that its gross margin could slip further and the pace of sales gains is slowing sent shares down nearly 7 percent.

The chief executive of Adidas , the world's second largest sportswear company, is eyeing a year-end boost to its basketball business following the end of the NBA lockout in the United States.

Stock index futures rose on Tuesday on investor relief over a well-received Italian bond auction that showed the highly indebted country still had access to capital markets.

Worries about the euro zone's debt crisis worsened in November and dragged the European Commission's economic and consumer sentiment index to a two-year low, heightening the risks of a recession in Europe.

Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.15 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.27 percent at 4:19 a.m. ET.

Tiffany & Co raised its full-year profit outlook on the expectation that its sales gains would continue in the holiday season, and it reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by sales of more expensive jewelry.

British finance minister George Osborne will pave the way for several more years of deep government spending cuts, when he reveals forecasts for much weaker growth and a borrowing overshoot of 86 billion pounds over the coming years.

In the past week Hungary's bonds have become junk, the forint has slumped to a near-record low against the euro and the OECD has said the economy is headed for recession next year.

International air freight traffic was 4.8 percent lower in October than a year previously, while international passenger traffic grew 4.6 percent but at a slowing pace, the International Air Transport Association said on Monday.

Microsoft Corp and U.S. mobile engineering firm AgreeYa Mobility on Tuesday signed an agreement to allow corporations and other users to connect to Microsoft services from a variety of computing platforms, including phones and tablets running Apple Inc's iOS and Google Inc's Android.

Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.15 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.27 percent at 4:19 a.m. ET.

When Novo Nordisk's chief financial officer met marketing colleagues last Friday the conversation moved far beyond the usual discussion of sales and performance. Jesper Brandgaard asked a simple, far-reaching question: how would the firm set prices for two pivotal new insulin products if the euro collapsed?

Euro zone finance ministers are to agree on Tuesday the details of bolstering their bailout fund to help prevent contagion in bond markets, under pressure from the United States and ratings agencies to staunch a two-year-old debt crisis.