IBT Staff Reporter

China's industrial output growth eased much more than expected in April to suggest the world's second-biggest economy is cooling, reducing the need for further aggressive monetary policy tightening even as inflation remains stubbornly high.

Greece is nearing agreement for supplemental EU/IMF loans of 50 to 60 billion euros to cover its funding gap in 2012 and 2013 in exchange for bold privatizations, Greek newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Senior EU and IMF inspectors arrived in Athens on Wednesday to press Greece to shore up its finances, while workers walked off the job to protest against austerity-induced recession.

Apple has been awarded a patent for a dock connector for landscape or horizontal docking.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages surged last week at the fastest pace in two months as interest rates dropped for a fourth week in a row, an industry group said on Wednesday.

Google decided to ratchet up excitement around the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which runs its tablet specific OS Android 3.0, by giving it for free to 5,000 attendees at the Google I/O conference and incurring about $499 per piece or $2.5 million in total.

Toyota Motor Corp posted a steeper-than-expected fall in quarterly profits after Japan's biggest quake on record hit output, and lamented that making cars at home was tougher than ever now with disasters compounding the impact of a strong yen.

American International Group and the U.S. Treasury scaled back plans for a share sale after the insurance company's stock posted a steady decline and closed near an 8-month low on Tuesday, a source familiar with the situation said.

Toyota Motor Corp reported a 52 percent drop in quarterly operating profit as it suffered from supply disruptions as a result of the March 11 earthquake in Japan. The world's biggest automaker is facing another tough year ahead as a severe shortage of parts caused by Japan's biggest earthquake on record hammers production just as it was putting its recall woes behind it.

HSBC is to streamline its wealth management business, retreat from retail banking in some countries and may sell its U.S. credit cards arm as new CEO Stuart Gulliver attempts to cut $3.5 billion in costs and revive flagging profits.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 all up 0.1 percent.

TOKYO, May 11 - Toyota Motor Corp posted a 52 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Wednesday and gave no annual forecasts, as expected, as it struggles to measure the scope of the disruption to production after the March 11 earthquake.

World stocks rose for a second straight day on Wednesday thanks to favorable U.S. and European corporate earnings, while the euro slipped on uncertainty over whether debt-laden Greece would need additional financial aid.

ArcelorMittal , the world's largest steelmaker, forecast strong prices and shipments that would propel earnings to a post-crisis high in the second quarter following a sharp rebound at the start of the year.

HSBC is to streamline its wealth management business, retreat from retail banking in some countries and may sell its U.S. credit cards arm as new CEO Stuart Gulliver attempts to cut $3.5 billion in costs and revive flagging profits.

China on Tuesday pledged easier access for U.S. companies to key sectors of its economy by removing barriers to its huge market in government contracts and offering a foothold to U.S. mutual funds.

Facebook users' personal information could have been accidentally leaked to third parties, in particular advertisers, over the past few years, Symantec Corp said in its official blog.

Tokyo Electric Power Co likely made a net loss of more than 1 trillion yen ($12.4 billion) in the year that ended on March 31, the biggest ever for a non-financial Japanese firm, after booking costs to scrap nuclear reactors and writing off tax assets, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Asian shares firmed on Wednesday as rising global commodity prices boosted energy and resource stocks, while investors largely shrugged off data from China suggesting growth there is starting to slow.

HSBC Holdings Plc is reviewing its U.S. cards business and streamlining its wealth management and retail banking operations as it eyes savings of up to $3.5 billion, Europe's biggest bank said on Wednesday.

HSBC Holdings Plc <0005.HK>, Europe's biggest bank, is looking to slash up to $3.5 billion in costs by cutting the scale of its wealth management and retail banking businesses, it said on Wednesday.

Sony Play Station Network is still down after the May 8 deadline for the restoration, but the company hopes it will be up “within the next few days”.

China's inflation eased a touch to 5.3 percent in the year to April from a 32-month high of 5.4 percent in March but was still higher than expected, keeping the door open for more tightening steps.

After numerous rumors and conspiracy theories regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden, the CIA announced today that they plan to show photos of Bin Laden's corpse to selected lawakers of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee members. Senate members can choose to view the images at the CIA agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Skype's owners, led by private equity firm Silver Lake, are set to earn more than three times their investment, for a total capital gain of more than $5 billion, on the sale of Skype to Microsoft Corp, a source familiar with the situation said.

Major banks are willing to pay as much as $5 billion to settle claims by federal and state officials of improper mortgage foreclosure practices, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

After three weeks of the PlayStation Network outage, which was caused by hackers last month, Sony has announced that it will take a few more days until the service is restored. The company plans to test the system's strength fully before restoring the online network which offers gaming, streaming movies, and other services.

Embattled consumer electronics giant Sony said on Tuesday its PlayStation Network, that was hacked last month, will remain offline for at least few more days till it figures out a way to make it secure.

The impact of AT&T Inc's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile on competition, pricing and consumer choice will be examined at a congressional hearing on Wednesday where top executives are due to appear.