IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co has held talks for several weeks with Italy's Ferrero Spa over a potential bid for Cadbury Plc that would rival a hostile offer from Kraft Foods Inc , The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

U.S. industrial output barely rose last month and wholesale inflation was tame, suggesting the economy's recovery from a severe recession was losing some steam as government stimulus faded.

Hackers could one day turn ordinary smartphones into rogue devices to attack major wireless networks, Research In Motion's security chief warned.

U.S. stocks rose to fresh 13-month highs on Tuesday as upbeat broker views on improving prospects for two Dow components offset disappointing holiday spending outlooks from Target and Home Depot.

Yesterday's release of the RBA board minutes from the November 3 0.25% interest rate rise cast some doubt as to the scale of the current wave of Monetary Policy tightening. In the minutes the central bank said ...further gradual adjustment in the cash rate would most likely be appropriate over time, though the pace of the adjustment remained an open question. The market had been looking for more aggressive wording given the hikes already priced in for 2010 and were somewhat disappointed by the...

Don't expect the expanded home buyer tax credit to be a permanent cure for the U.S. housing market. It won't.

Brazilian beauty Gisele Bunchen tops the list with an estimated $150 million fortune. According to Forbes, Bunchen is the highest-paid model in the world and also the sixteenth richest woman.

A congressional panel accused Bank of America Corp on Tuesday of knowing about Merrill Lynch's huge losses as early as November 2008, suggesting the bank misled investors in saying it did not grasp the depth of the problems until the following month.

Research In Motion's top executives say the BlackBerry will hold its ground in a fierce battle with Apple's iPhone and other rivals, even as a boom in smartphone sales shakes up a market segment that their company once ruled.

Three years after Congress took action, financial companies are getting final rules for revealing what they do with their customers' personal information.

A employee of mobile phone operator T-Mobile is facing prosecution after selling personal details of thousands of British customers to rival companies in an alleged major breach of data protection laws.

Citigroup Inc said on Tuesday it boosted the base salaries for its chief financial officer and a global markets co-head, but has left Chief Executive Vikram Pandit's salary unchanged.

A senior Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday that the U.S. central bank must remain vigilant about keeping inflation in check and not let patchy economic weakness deter it from beginning to withdraw extraordinary levels of support.

Qualcomm, the world's biggest chip maker, said on Tuesday that it expects to sell its TD-SCDMA chips in mainland China within the next year.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it was reducing the maximum maturity of loans from its discount window to 28 days from 90 days in light of the improvement in financial market conditions.

Arrow Electronics, an electronic parts and computer products distributor, said it agreed to buy A.E. Petsche Co, an Arlington, Texas-based supplier of specialty wire and cable, to boost its presence in the aerospace and defense markets.

U.S. stocks were little changed on Tuesday as outlooks from Target and Home Depot sparked caution about holiday spending, offsetting upbeat broker views on Microsoft and Exxon Mobil .

U.S. carmaker General Motors could cut between 9,000 and 10,000 jobs as part of its restructuring of its European operations, Nick Reilly, interim head of GM's European business, said on Tuesday.

Congress ought to clarify if a proposed super-regulator of the U.S. financial system should be an overlapping overseer of securities and futures exchanges, the chief futures regulator said on Tuesday.

U.S. carmaker General Motors could cut between 9,000 and 10,000 jobs as part of a restructuring of its European operations, Nick Reilly, interim head of GM's European business, said on Tuesday.

Top home improvement chain Home Depot Inc reported quarterly results that beat analysts' estimates, but made a forecast that suggested weaker results at the end of the year and said a recovery might not take hold until the second half of 2010.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will launch its long-awaited Windows Azure cloud computing system on Jan 1, as it looks to take advantage of the growing interest in internet-based software and services.

Lazard Ltd on Tuesday named insider Kenneth Jacobs as CEO and chairman, succeeding legendary Wall Street dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein, who died last month.

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday after discount retailer Target gave a cautious holiday season outlook, but positive brokerage comments on tech bellwether Microsoft helped limit losses.

Most of the thousands of rich people whose UBS bank accounts are to be handed over to U.S. authorities are suspected of serious fraud rather than simple tax evasion, Swiss authorities revealed on Tuesday.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will launch its long-awaited Windows Azure cloud computing system on Jan 1, as it looks to take advantage of the growing interest in internet-based software and services.

U.S. home builder sentiment held steady at a low level in November, according to a survey taken before the government extended a popular tax credit for first-time buyers.

The head of the largest U.S. labor federation urged President Barack Obama on Tuesday to use the $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund to help cash-starved small businesses as a way to stem rising joblessness.

U.S. home builder sentiment held steady at a low level in November, according to a survey taken before the government extended a popular tax credit for first-time buyers.