IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited the outcome of a two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting, though earnings results from Boeing Co and Caterpillar Inc limited gains.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday resumed a two-day meeting that is expected to end with a decision to leave interest rates near zero and a restated vow to keep them low for an extended period.

A proposed Italian law has roiled Web companies and civil liberties groups as the country moves closer to Internet censorship.

Electronic connector maker Tyco Electronics Ltd's posted a larger-than-expected jump in quarterly profit on Wednesday, as its clients ramped up purchases to restock depleted inventories.

U.S. mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks, reflecting a dramatic drop in demand for home refinancing loans, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

The Norwegian central bank chief said in a speech on Norwegian housing finance on Monday that loan-to-value ratios were in some cases alarmingly high.

Boeing Co on Wednesday reported a net profit on a 42 percent revenue increase even as it grappled with a decline in orders in 2009 during an economic downturn.

Caterpillar Inc , the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday and said it was seeing encouraging signs that economies around the world were rebounding.

After his worst political setback since he took office a year ago, President Barack Obama will vow to revive U.S. job growth and tame skyrocketing budget deficits in a crucial speech on Wednesday.

A Google knock-off has surfaced in China to compete with the world's largest search engine, while at the same time pleading with it to stay in the country despite censorship and hacking allegations.

BlackRock Inc's fourth-quarter earnings report gave investors an indication of the jolt the world's biggest asset manager may get from its move into exchange-traded funds following its December 1 acquisition of Barclays Global Investors.

Leading bankers and industry groups warned on Wednesday against isolated initiatives by the United States and Britain to regulate banks, saying one set of rules were needed to govern the global banking industry.

Stock index futures pointed to a mixed opening on Wall Street on Wednesday, following declines in Europe and Asia, with some caution expected ahead of the Federal Reserve interest rate decision later in the day.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner denied any role in disclosures about American International Group's payments to banks and defended his decisions as New York Federal Reserve chief to pay full price to retire AIG credit default swaps.

Global stock markets fell again on Wednesday, hitting their lowest in two months as investors fretted about a monetary squeeze from central banks around the world and also the impact of tightening U.S. banking regulation.

Asian stocks fell for the ninth straight day on Wednesday on fears that China's heightened efforts to rein in soaring credit growth could hamper the global economic recovery.

Valero Energy Corp , the top independent U.S. refiner, is working to sell its remaining plants on the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean, the Wall Street Journal said.

(Corrects in first line and in text that Asia stocks ex-Japan fell for the 9th straight day, not the 8th)

Software maker Oracle Corp , which is near to closing its $7 billion acquisition of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc , plans to hire 2,000 sales and engineering employees, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Toyota Motor Corp said it will suspend sales in North America of eight models involved in recall, a move that could throw the timing of its earnings recovery into doubt and one that pushed its shares 2 percent lower.

The Swiss government needs to resolve the legal impasse which threatens to derail a deal with U.S. tax authorities over UBS client data, the bank's chairman Kaspar Villiger was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

South Korea's LG Electronics Inc posted a higher-than-expected quarterly operating profit and forecast sales and profits would improve in the first quarter as a global recovery prompts consumers to spend more on electronics.

As President Barack Obama goes before Congress and the U.S. public on national television on Wednesday evening for the annual State of the Union address, he faces the challenges of double digit unemployment, a declining approval rating, and some intense criticism over his latest spending freeze proposal

eHarmony Inc, which operates a website to help singles find relationships, said on Tuesday that it settled a class action lawsuit over same-sex matching.

Anticipation mounts as the world eagerly awaits details of Apple's 'latest creation' on Wednesday.

In a victory for ratings agencies, a U.S. judge on Tuesday dismissed claims against Moody's Corp and McGraw-Hill's Standard & Poor's in litigation over nearly $100 billion of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc mortgage-backed securities.

Some fear the government deal announced on Monday to allow Live Nation and Ticketmaster to merge - creating a colossal concert promoter and ticketing agent - will weigh on ticket prices.

The New York Federal Reserve Bank actively supported insurer American International Group's regulatory requests to keep its bank counterparties confidential but did not pressure the bailed-out firm for secrecy, the bank's top lawyer said on Tuesday.

Yahoo Inc said revenue could grow for the first time in six quarters in the first three months of 2010, noting that demand for premium display advertising had improved significantly.