IBT Staff Reporter

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis beat forecasts for fourth-quarter profit and expects earnings to rise 2 to 5 percent this year as growth areas such as vaccines offset stronger competition from generic rivals.

Oil rose above $74 a barrel on Wednesday, bouncing from earlier losses, as the euro extended gains against the dollar on hopes for a bailout for Greece.

Financial markets gave heavily indebted Greece a breather on Wednesday on growing expectations of a European Union rescue as civil servants staged the first major strike against Athens' crisis-driven austerity measures.

Browser firm Opera Software will introduce next week a version of its Mini browser for Apple's iPhone, the Norwegian firm said on Wednesday.

ArcelorMittal , the world's top steelmaker, cautioned its markets would only recover slowly as it forecast higher shipments but lower selling prices in the early months of 2010, putting pressure on core profits.

World stocks rose on Wednesday and Greece's borrowing costs fell on the prospects of a Greek bailout, while safe-haven German government bond prices dipped and the euro eased after the previous session's hefty gains. Oil prices fell after data showed a large build in U.S. inventories but gold prices were flat, taking a pause from Tuesday's rise.

Top global miner BHP Billiton signaled caution over a sustained global recovery and held off from a share buyback after reporting its weakest first-half profit in four years. BHP's July-December profit nevertheless beat market forecasts and was 24 percent stronger than in the previous half, spurring the miner to raise its dividend slightly, pushing its shares up more than 3 percent...

ArcelorMittal , the world's top steelmaker, forecast higher shipments but lower prices in the first three months of 2010 and a core profit that could fall from a fourth-quarter figure that just missed expectations.

Corrects cost of latest Honda recall in 12th paragraph to 2 billion yen to 3 billion yen, from 20 billion yen to 30 billion yen. Changes currency conversion.

Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.5 percent on Wednesday, with blue-chip shares that had been sold off on concerns about fiscal stability in Europe regaining ground with news of potential aid for heavily indebted Greece.

The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday, carrying the station's last two main components.

European governments have agreed in principle to help heavily indebted Greece, a senior German coalition source said on Tuesday, in what would be the first rescue of a euro zone member in the currency's 11-year history.

Asian stocks rose on Wednesday on signs that the European Union may rescue debt-strapped Greece, coaxing nervous investors back to riskier assets, but uncertainty over the plan weighed on the euro.

Computer hackers disabled several Australian government websites Wednesday in coordinated attacks protesting against a planned internet filter aimed at pornography.

Honda Motor Co said it would recall another 438,000 cars globally to replace an airbag deflator that could rupture and send shards toward the driver in an accident.

Asian stocks rose on Wednesday after reports that Europe was close to bailing out debt-strapped Greece, coaxing investors back to riskier assets, though uncertainty kept a lid on the euro.

A strong performance at its cable division and cost-cuts at its film studio propelled Walt Disney Co to better-than-expected earnings, but clouds remained over its theme parks.

Google Inc is tapping its huge network of Gmail users and Web surfers to create a Buzz that it hopes will help it catch up with online social networking leaders Facebook and Twitter.

Additional criminal charges were filed on Tuesday against Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam as prosecutors alleged he and his co-defendant reaped $49 million from illegal insider trading, up from an earlier claim of $40 million.

Additional criminal charges were filed on Tuesday against Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam as prosecutors alleged he and his co-defendant reaped $49 million from illegal insider trading, up from an earlier claim of $40 million.

Honda Motor Co Ltd said on Tuesday it is recalling 378,758 vehicles in the United States to fix an airbag defect linked to 11 injuries and one fatality.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, from different sides of the political spectrum, expressed support on Tuesday for the U.S. government's aggressive steps in 2008 to keep the nation's banks and economy from a complete meltdown.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, from different sides of the political spectrum, expressed support on Tuesday for the U.S. government's aggressive steps in 2008 to keep the nation's banks and economy from a complete meltdown.

Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan.

Walt Disney Co on Tuesday beat expectations on quarterly earnings as a recovering advertising market boosted its media operations and offset flat revenues at its parks and studio division.

U.S. wholesale inventories unexpectedly fell 0.8 percent in December, while sales rose 0.8 percent, a government report showed on Tuesday.

A billboard with a photo of former U.S. President George W. Bush and the question Miss me yet? is stirring controversy on the web.

The Dow posted its largest one-day percentage gain in three months on Tuesday, boosted by reports of an aid plan for heavily indebted Greece.

In the last few months, we have been reading predictions and forecasts from bullion analysts who insisted and argued that gold price is booming to touch $2,000, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 per ounce in the coming years. These forecasts have caught people's attention who have been pouring money into gold and other precious metals all these months. But after the big surge of gold price to $1,227 per ounce some two months back, the yellow metal has been climbing down the ladder of speculation.