IBT Staff Reporter

General Motors Corp announced plans on Friday to spend 15 billion baht ($455 million) in Thailand over the next two years, reviving plans for a new diesel-engine plant and retooling existing production lines.

Amazon.com Inc blew past analysts' profit estimates in its closely watched holiday quarter and forecast revenue for early 2010 that topped already-high Wall Street expectations.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer Honeywell International Inc said profit eased 1 percent, reflecting weak demand for aviation components and equipment used to heat and cool large buildings.

U.S. mortgage rates fell for a fourth consecutive week, with 30-year mortgages remaining below 5 percent, a closely watched mortgage survey showed Thursday.

All parties involved in talks on the future of the Airbus A400M military transporter are trying to reach a deal as soon as possible, a spokesman for Germany's defense ministry said on Friday.

Real estate tycoon Donald Trump is considering whether to either buy or manage Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village housing complex in Manhattan, the New York Post reported.

Two House leaders are calling for investigations into how hackers managed to access and deface government websites this past Wednesday.

Chevron Corp , the second-largest U.S. oil company, posted a 37 percent drop in quarterly profit as refining troubles offset gains from higher oil prices and production.

The economy grew at a faster-than-expected 5.7 percent pace in the fourth quarter, the quickest pace in more than six years, as businesses reduced inventories less aggressively, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

World number one air bag and seat belt maker Autoliv gave an upbeat forecast for the coming year on Friday after posting fourth-quarter earnings above forecast.

U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday after forecast-topping profit reports from Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc and ahead of a reading on the U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product.

Honda Motor Co said on Friday it would recall a total 646,000 units of the Fit/Jazz and City models globally, including 140,000 in the United States.

Microsoft Corp posted a bigger-than-expected 60 percent jump in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of Windows 7, and said it expected business technology spending to recover this year.

Toyota Motor Corp faced scrutiny from Congress over its biggest ever safety recall as investors, suppliers and consumers weighed the impact of an unprecedented halt in U.S. production by the No.1 automaker.

Mattel Inc's holiday-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates, mainly on strong demand for the top toy company's Fashionista Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars.

Samsung Electronics expects rapidly recovering demand for its premium computer memory chips and flat screen TVs to drive growth this year, with the unwinding of global stimulus measures the key risk for sales.

Singapore's telecommunications giants SingTel and Starhub could be cut out of broadcasting the soccer World Cup, forcing fans to view matches live on the internet unless a deadlock over rights fees can be resolved.

Stock index futures pointed to a flat to higher open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.4 percent at 3:17 a.m..

Stocks in Asia tumbled on Friday, hurt by weak technology and resources shares and fresh worries about Greece's debt levels, which dragged the euro to a six-month low against the dollar.

North Korea is not near collapse and leader Kim Jong-il has recovered from his illnesses, but the destitute state is hurting from U.N. sanctions imposed for its nuclear test, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak said.

The U.S. economy likely grew at its fastest pace in nearly four years in the fourth quarter as businesses made less-aggressive cutbacks on inventories, a government report is expected to show on Friday.

U.N. climate talks will probably not agree an ambitious deal this year unless the economy improves and voters press for action, said India's top climate official Shyam Saran.

Angry crowds mobbed three food distribution sites in Haiti's capital on Thursday, the latest handouts to turn chaotic as aid groups struggle to help the throngs left desperate and hungry by the catastrophic earthquake.

Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian Islamist group said Friday.

The Afghan government on Thursday invited the Taliban to a peace council as its Western allies worked out plans to try to end the war in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday he would not rest until U.S. businesses were hiring again, as he took his recast agenda on the road and sought to dig out of his deepest political rut since taking office.

The U.S. economy likely grew at its fastest pace in nearly four years in the fourth quarter as businesses made less-aggressive cutbacks on inventories, a government report is expected to show on Friday.

McDonald's Corp. , the world's largest hamburger chain, said on Friday that it expects to boost its capital investment in China by about 25 percent in 2010.

Investor concern about tightening lending conditions in China and deteriorating finances in Greece and Japan led them to pull cash out of developed market equity funds for debt funds in the week ended January 27, fund tracker EPFR Global said late on Thursday.