IBT Staff Reporter

Foreigners increased purchases of U.S. securities in November, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday, though it was private investors rather than central banks who did the bulk of the buying.

U.S. stocks advanced on Tuesday as price target upgrades of Caterpillar and Google offset disappointing Citigroup results and worries about another medical leave by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs.

Delta Air Lines Inc reported a lower-than-expected profit as fuel prices and plane repair costs increased, and its shares fell about 3 percent before the opening bell.

As part of his ongoing efforts to cut red tape in government, President Barack Obama is asking all the agencies under his control to review any of the rules which place unreasonable burdens upon businesses and hinder economic growth.

The Nasdaq 100 index <.NDX> was near session highs and in positive territory on Tuesday afternoon, led by gains in Google Inc and as Apple Inc cut its losses.

Boeing Co said the first delivery of its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner would come in the third quarter of 2011, clearing up fears about the schedule after a November electrical fire on a test flight threw the timing into doubt.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp's quarterly profit rose 6 percent, meeting expectations, as a rebound in trading and a jump in new assets may have helped the big U.S. online brokerage turn a corner.

Much has been said about America’s love affair with guns. Still, it is hard to overstate the size and intensity of the romance.

Foreigners increased purchases of U.S. securities in November, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday, though it was private investors rather than central banks who did most of the buying.

Is the recovery real? Check the revenue.

Ghana's stock exchange expects at least four new listings this year, including a local float by oil group Tullow Plc, and predicts that inflows of new pension funds will boost trading volumes.

South Africa petrochemicals group Sasol said on Tuesday it would not continue with a planned coal-to-liquids plant project in Indonesia as it seeks to focus more on gas-to-liquids opportunities.

Euro zone finance ministers have decided to take their time over beefing up the currency area's rescue fund as debt-stricken Greece denied a minister's comment that it should stretch out all its debt repayments.

Egyptian Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said on Tuesday that Egypt had adequate wheat stocks and had not changed the pace at which it was buying the grain.

Angola's much-delayed stock market will not open this year as many of the country's companies do not meet the requirements needed to participate on a bourse, the government said.

After making changes to its third-party data access function, Facebook does a u-turn and rescinds the new feature.

Ghana is still making preparations to launch a second Eurobond originally due in 2010, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said on Tuesday, stressing that market conditions were not behind the delay.

Uganda's 2010 sugar production rose slightly on a year earlier but fell short of forecasts, hit by technical problems at the leading producer and poor rains, an industry association said on Tuesday.

China's Sichuan Hongda Co. Ltd. will invest $3 billion in a coal-fired power plant and two iron ore mines in Tanzania, the state-run National Development Corporation (NDC) said on Tuesday.

South Sudan appealed for investors to plough $140 million into its war-hit wildlife parks, seeking to kick-start a tourism industry and wean itself off oil months ahead of its expected independence.

Talks to end Ivory Coast's post-election standoff remain in deadlock, with no sign Laurent Gbagbo will agree to step down as president and his rival unwilling to meet him until he does, mediators said on Tuesday.

German precious metals refinery group Heraeus reports massive demand for bars and coins, even as ETF trust funds and Comex futures contracts saw considerable profit-taking driven liquidations by institutional traders.

Boeing Co on Tuesday delayed first delivery of the 787 Dreamliner to the third quarter of 2011, clearing up doubts about the schedule after a November electrical fire on a test flight forced an emergency landing.

Chimei Innolux, Taiwan's largest LCD maker, plans to spin off its touch panel business as it seeks bigger gains from a business expected to be one of its fastest growth engines.

American Airlines, which is battling third-party ticket sellers over distribution costs and methods, on Tuesday said it has reached a deal with Priceline.com to use American's direct connect technology to access fares.

U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-NY, who lost her husband and saw her son injured in the 1993 Long Island train massacre, will introduce legislation today to ban the sale of enhanced gun clips, like the one used by the shooter in the Tucson massacre of Jan. 8.

After its last high-profile cloud-computing launch, the Office 365, Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, its cloud-based CRM offering, will be available worldwide.

The euro rose more than 1 percent against the dollar on Tuesday on buying by sovereign funds and a surge in German investor sentiment, while global stocks hit a fresh 28-month high despite a sluggish U.S. open.

Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc said it had received an additional three weeks from its lenders to file a bankruptcy reorganization plan.