IBT Staff Reporter

Visa Inc , the world's largest credit and debit card processing network, posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, but analysts said new processing fee regulations could cut into future profits.

Sprint Nextel Corp said it lost fewer valuable contract customers in the second quarter than analysts expected, helped by its most advanced smartphone, the EVO from HTC Corp .

Visa Inc , the world's largest credit and debit card processing network, beat expectations with a quarterly profit of $716 million on Wednesday, as consumers resumed spending.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of three new members to the Federal Reserve's powerful board, including Janet Yellen for vice chairman, clearing the way for a final vote by the whole Senate.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) claim that many Australians have higher chronic disease risk because they missed out on breastfeeding when they were babies.

New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell unexpectedly for a second straight month in June, posting the largest drop since August in a sign economic recovery cooled in the second quarter.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc will sell a $788.5 million commercial mortgage-backed security, according to a term sheet sent to investors, in the largest deal of its kind since volume began crawling back after the financial crisis.

An imbalance in polyunsaturated fatty acids in the body, when excessive Omega 6 (linoleic acid) and less Omega 3 (alpha-linoleic acid) are absorbed from food, can lead to obesity, according to French researchers.

The Mobile telecom equipment market will grow 7 percent to $40.3 billion in 2011 after shrinking for two years in a row, helped by investments in new 4G mobile networks, research firm iSuppli said on Wednesday.

ConocoPhillips , the third-largest U.S. oil company, reported a 150 percent increase in underlying quarterly profit, in a dramatic bounceback of its volatile refining business.

With fist pumps and perfect tans, Jersey Shore returns to TV on Thursday for a new season of shows that has audiences wondering if the cast that put some reality back into reality TV is still really real after its brush with Hollywood stardom.

Shares of Research In Motion jumped on Wednesday on speculation that next week it would unveil a new touchscreen BlackBerry that could compete more effectively with Apple Inc's iPhone and other smartphones.

U.S. media companies are set to report revenue increases of 5 to 15 percent as they issue earnings reports over the next two weeks -- the best the industry has looked in at least two years.

Facebook Inc won a legal fight on Wednesday over claims its hugely popular social networking website infringed a patent owned by Leader Technologies, but the little-known company said it would ask the judge to set aside the verdict.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after weak durable goods figures and a downbeat assessment of the economy from the Fed's Beige Book kept the benchmark S&P 500 trapped below its 200-day moving average.

A New York judge put two shareholder lawsuits against executives and directors of Goldman Sachs Group Inc on hold until progress is made on 16 other lawsuits related to a controversial debt transaction involving the Wall Street bank.

The economy kept growing overall in recent weeks, but unevenly and it actually slowed in a few regions as housing markets softened after the end of a popular tax break, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Hackers replaced a Book of the Dead with neo-Nazi slogans and symbols on World War Two concentration camp Buchenwald's website (www.buchenwald.de) on Wednesday and completely erased the Mittelbau Dora camp website.

Mortgage loan originators will have to be fingerprinted and sign up to a central registry to do business in future, according to final rules issued on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve and other regulators.

U.S. home loan demand cooled last week as rising mortgage rates curbed refinancing requests that had soared to a 14-month high, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

New orders for manufactured goods like cars and planes fell unexpectedly for a second straight month in June, posting the largest drop since August in a sign economic recovery cooled in the second quarter.

Stocks were lower and the S&P 500 remained below a key technical level on Wednesday as conflicting reports showed improved corporate earnings and falling durable goods orders.

BP Plc may permanently shut the well that caused the worst off-shore oil spill in U.S. history as early as Monday, the company said on Wednesday as speculation grew over the assets it might sell to cover mounting costs.

Majority of Australian consumers favor having their own e-health record but at no cost to them, according to a phone survey commissioned by the CSC, the world's largest health systems integrator.

Algae have been studied for many years as a potential renewable energy feedstock to produce motor fuels. Below, we discuss the attributes of algae that make it potentially attractive and some of the technological and economic challenges in algae cultivation, harvesting, and oil extraction that must be addressed before algae-based fuels can be commercially produced.

Amazon.com said its best-selling Kindle device was currently out of stock, leading one Internet analyst to surmise the online retailer was poised to launch a new version.

Shares of BlackBerry smartphone maker Research In Motion Ltd jumped early on Wednesday on speculation it is set to unveil a long-awaited touchscreen handset designed to battle Apple Inc's popular iPhone.

Amazon.com said its best-selling Kindle device was currently out of stock, leading one Internet analyst to surmise the online retailer was poised to launch a new version.

Oil prices fell a second straight day on Wednesday after economic and industry data fueled concerns about the pace of economic recovery and energy demand growth and also rising oil inventories.