IBT Staff Reporter

Oil prices fell on Wednesday after a U.S. government report showed a surprise increase in gasoline supplies in the world's top consumer heading into summer driving season.

Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Wednesday that it would buy privately held Arrow Group for $1.75 billion, clinching a long-expected deal by the U.S. generic drugmaker to expand internationally.

Russia hopes U.S. President Barack Obama will not pursue his predecessor's plan to deploy weapons in space but Moscow is ready to respond appropriately to any such moves, a senior Russian general said on Wednesday.

U.S. Bancorp and BB&T Corp repaid billions of dollars in government bailout funds on Wednesday, the first of the large banks to do so, ahead of eight others given permission to return the money.

The Nasdaq rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday as investors snapped up technology shares after a two-day sell-off, while both the Dow and the S&P 500 clung to modest gains as healthcare shares advanced.

Oil prices fell below $70 a barrel on Wednesday, after a U.S. government report showed a surprise increase in gasoline supplies in the world's top consumer heading into summer driving season.

U.S. Bancorp on Wednesday said it is repaying $6.6 billion in government bailout funds, becoming the first large bank to do so, ahead of nine others given permission to return the money.

Package delivery giant and U.S. economic bellwether FedEx Corp said the next two quarters will be extremely difficult as the recession and higher fuel prices bite into its bottom line, but said the pace of economic decline appears to be slowing.

President Barack Obama laid out his vision for reshaping U.S. financial regulation on Wednesday, aiming to tighten oversight of large firms whose excessive risk-taking triggered a global economic slump.

Stocks were mixed on Wednesday, weighted by a downgrade of 22 banks by Standard and Poor's and a disappointing earnings outlook from economic bellwether FedEx Corp .

Morgan Stanley on Wednesday repaid $10 billion in government bailout funds after the bank was given permission with nine others to return the money.

The official Apple iPhone 3.0 OS release time has not yet been confirmed by the company, but based on previous roll outs of the company, tech watchers are speculating the update will be out at 10am PST or 1pm EST.

Microsoft Corp's share of Internet searches continued to grow for a second week after the introduction of its new search engine Bing, industry tracker comScore Inc said on Wednesday.

The benchmark S&P 500 index should surge back to its October 2007 record above 1,500 by the end of 2012, provided the U.S. economy sees a V-shaped recovery, JPMorgan Chase Chief U.S. Equity Strategist Thomas Lee said on Wednesday.

Technology company LogMeIn Inc has set the terms of its planned $100 million initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Stocks slipped on Wednesday, weighted by a downgrade of 22 banks by Standard and Poor's and a disappointing earnings outlook from economic bellwether FedEx Corp .

PARIS - SAP AG, the world's biggest maker of business software, sees signs of an improvement in the sector and is sticking to its 2009 operating margin goal, Chief Executive Leo Apotheker said on Wednesday.

Danvers Bancorp Inc said it agreed to buy Beverly National Corp in an all-stock deal worth about $62 million to strengthen its market position in Massachusetts' Essex County.

Oil fell below $70 a barrel on Wednesday after a U.S. government report showed a surprise increase in gasoline supplies in the world's top consumer, but a drop in crude stocks limited losses.

The chief executive officer of Waste Management Inc, the No. 1 U.S. trash hauler, said on Wednesday that he expects to announce a partnership to build refuse-fired power plants in China within the next 20 days.

NICE Systems and Actimize, a NICE Systems Company, today announced the acquisition of the assets of Syfact, a pioneer of enterprise investigative case management solutions.

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton's proposed iron-ore joint venture has a strong monopolistic flavor and Chinese firms are actively seeking ways to cope with it, state media on Wednesday cited a senior official as saying.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that North Korea's nuclear posed a grave threat not only to the United States, but to world security.

British Airways is asking its staff to work for nothing or take unpaid leave in July, spokeswomen Kirsten Millard said on Tuesday. The airline offered workers to take between one week and one month of unpaid leave or unpaid work.

FedEx Corp reported a larger quarterly loss on Wednesday and gave an outlook well below Wall Street estimates for the current period, citing the recession's impact on package volumes and rising fuel costs that will hit its bottom line.

China will start executing prisoners by lethal injection rather than bullets by the end of this year, state media said Tuesday.

So what happens after the stimulus and pull forwards? This is a situation we will one day be asking... as I wrote the other day the master plan seems to be for the government to give away money month after month

Stocks slipped to session lows mid-morning on Wednesday, weighed down by bank shares after Standard and Poor's cut ratings and outlooks on 22 U.S. banks and after a disappointing earnings forecast from bellwether FedEx Corp .

Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Wednesday it will buy privately held Arrow Group for $1.75 billion, clinching a long-expected deal by the U.S. generic drugmaker to expand internationally.