IBT Staff Reporter

Toyota Motor Corp shares lagged a strong rise in other Japanese auto stocks on Wednesday after the world's biggest automaker said it would shut down production at two of its U.S. factories to match slowing sales.

Sweden's Ericsson increased the lead on the global mobile network gear market in the fourth quarter, helped by an acquisition of key assets of bankrupt Nortel, research firm Dell'Oro said on Wednesday.

Billionaire investor George Soros' hedge fund more than doubled its bet on the price of gold during the fourth quarter, a portion of the firm's total U.S.-listed equity holdings of $8.8 billion at the end of 2009.

In the hard, exhaust-choked reality of his days trawling Longhua's clogged roads, taxi driver Zhang Bo's ambition to buy a small flat for his young family has slipped out of reach for now.

EBay Inc will launch a new online retail platform in five European countries and Russia by the end of March, spurring cross-border transactions and allowing buyers to navigate purchases in their native languages.

Simon Property Group Inc sought to pluck General Growth Properties out of bankruptcy on Tuesday, offering to pay $7 billion to creditors and nearly $3 billion to shareholders.

U.S. regulators on Tuesday opened an investigation into whether Toyota Motor Corp acted in a timely way to recall cars for acceleration problems, and the automaker moved to slow its U.S. production to avoid a costly ballooning of inventories.

The purpose of the Obama administration's upcoming summit on healthcare is to find solutions to issues like soaring insurance premiums, not score political points against the Republicans, the White House insisted on Tuesday.

The weather gods cursed the Vancouver Winter Olympics again on Tuesday, forcing delays to Alpine skiing, snowboarding and ski jumping, with rain near Vancouver and snow and fog shrouding the mountains.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission unveiled a plan on Tuesday that would require Internet providers to offer minimum home connection speeds by 2020, a proposal that some telecommunications companies panned as unrealistic.

The percentage of Americans falling behind on credit card bills stabilized in January, according to data from the six major lenders, signaling that U.S. consumer credit woes may be leveling off.

Hershey Co has started to share its consumer marketing data with U.S. retailers to help drive sales of chocolate, Chief Executive David West said on Tuesday.

There's only one Warren Buffett to go around, and non-U.S. investors will get less of him this year.

Internet telephony firm Skype made its first major leap into cellphones on Tuesday, striking a deal with the largest U.S. mobile carrier Verizon Wireless.

Burger King Holdings Inc will sell Starbucks Corp's Seattle's Best Coffee at its U.S. restaurants by autumn, as it revamps its morning menu and responds to the successful launch of McCafe coffee by McDonald's Corp .

The chief executive of Vodafone Group Plc, the world's largest mobile network operator, expressed the fears of many on Tuesday when he said Google Inc should not be allowed to dominate the mobile space.

Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt urged the mobile industry not to block opportunities offered by the mobile Web and said Google and telecoms carriers could have a symbiotic relationship.

The cost of rebuilding impoverished Haiti after last month's catastrophic earthquake could reach nearly $14 billion (8.87 billion pounds), making it proportionately the most destructive natural disaster in modern times, economists at the Inter-American Development Bank said on Tuesday.

Belgian train drivers went on strike on Tuesday, a day after a rail crash that killed 18 people, increasing disruption to local and international services.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of the nation's first nuclear power plant in nearly three decades while calling for a comprehensive energy and climate legislation that promotes clean energy.

Prosecutors argued on Tuesday that Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, indicted on fraud charges in a sprawling insider trading probe, would have an unfair advantage if a civil trial by market regulators went ahead before a criminal trial.

Growing mountains of U.S. government debt will increase pressure on Federal Reserve to hold interest rates low, making it harder to avoid inflation, a senior Fed official said on Tuesday.

Home-builder sentiment rose more than expected in February as low interest rates and a sharper than expected drop in unemployment boosted confidence for the first time since September, the National Association of Home Builders said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission unveiled a plan on Tuesday that would require Internet providers to offer minimum home connection speeds by 2020, a proposal that some telecommunications companies panned as unrealistic.

The release of the RBA board minutes saw a fairly muted reaction initially on the AUD/USD as it drifted around the 0.8890 level before popping through the 89 cents in Asian afternoon trade.

Carl Icahn on Tuesday launched a tender offer to buy control of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, potentially triggering a technical default in the studio's bank credit facility.

U.S. stocks rose in light trading on Tuesday, as better than expected earnings reports, analyst upgrades and rising commodities prices influenced gains.

U.S. stocks posted their biggest daily percentage gain in three months on Tuesday after strong revenue from drugmaker Merck and regional manufacturing data instilled confidence in the economic outlook.