IBT Staff Reporter

Jerry York, a former board member of General Motors Corp (GMGMQ.PK) and an executive at Chrysler two decades ago, said on Tuesday the bankruptcies for the two automakers were

Stock futures pointed to a sharply higher open on Wednesday, as surging prices for oil and other commodities drove a global equities rally and Home Depot raised its outlook.

Italian car maker Fiat SpA was set to close its takeover of Chrysler on Wednesday in an ambitious move to survive and grow out of one of the worst crises in global auto industry.

Home Depot Inc raised its 2009 profit forecast and stood by its sales expectations on Wednesday ahead of a meeting with analysts and investors, sending its shares up nearly 4 percent.

Top global PC monitor maker TPV Technology on Wednesday said it is developing a low-cost, all-in-one desktop PC optimized for the Internet, in a bid to replicate the success of low-cost portable PCs known as netbooks.

Microsoft's Russia unit can resolve some of the issues raised in an anti-monopoly probe by providing information and will fully comply to resolve the rest of them, the CEO of Microsoft Rus LLC said on Wednesday.

While General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, GM's joint venture in China SAIC-GM-Wuling' sales exceeded 100,000 in May, topped among the Chinese car companies' sales in a single month.

Stock futures pointed to opening gains of more than 1 percent on Wednesday, following a rally in global stock markets underpinned by higher commodity and energy prices.

China's pursuit of mega-sized deals with global leaders in strategic industries will slow as Beijing recovers from Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto's stunning rejection of a $19.5 billion tie-up with state-owned Chinalco.

Japan will cut carbon emissions by 15 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels, Kyodo news agency said on Wednesday, a target greens and analysts say is not bold enough and could undermine global climate talks.

Energy prices, from fuel for interstate trucking to electric utility costs, would rise significantly under climate change legislation pending in the U.S. Congress, industry officials said on Tuesday.

The government should delay new rules that expand U.S. use of biofuels until 2011, the oil industry said on Tuesday, because there is too much work to do on the ground-breaking rules to start sooner.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 1.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 1.2 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 1.1 percent.

Opponents of a new hydrogen plant under construction at Chevron Corp's San Francisco Bay-area refinery in Richmond, California, plan to ask a California judge to stop the project because of a flawed environmental impact report, an attorney said Tuesday.

Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar stole back some of its recent losses against the Greenback over night, moving back above the 80 cent level for the first time in 3 days.

Indian shares rose 2.25 percent on Wednesday to its best close in 10 months, as markets across Asia and Europe were boosted by cash-flush investors buoyed by signs of revival in global economic growth.

European Union leaders will call at a summit next week for rapid progress on agreeing and implementing new financial regulations to prevent another global economic crisis, a draft summit declaration showed on Wednesday.

A spike in U.S. mortgage rates drove down total home loan applications last week as demand for refinancing shriveled to the lowest level since November, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

More than nine out of 10 U.S. retailers say they have had merchandise stolen by well-organized crime rings, according to a new report from a leading trade group.

They've got ones that clean, and others that pour drinks, so it was only a matter of time before Japanese inventors came up with robots that can cook.

Italian car maker Fiat SpA was set to close its takeover of Chrysler on Wednesday in an ambitious move to survive and grow out of one of the worst crises in global auto industry.

A U.S.-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one millionth word or phrase in the English language on Wednesday, although other linguists slammed it as nonsense and a stunt.

World stocks rose for a second day in a row on Wednesday as improving economic data in Asia and a weak dollar pushed oil to a fresh 7-month high above $71 a barrel, fuelling gains in resource-related stocks.

A Washington-based group representing information technology companies called on China on Wednesday to reconsider its requirement that Internet filtering software be bundled with new computers.

Asian shares rallied on Wednesday as reports of stronger-than-expected industrial output in China raised optimism about the global economy, lifting metals and oil prices at or near multi-month highs.

Oil topped $71 a barrel on Wednesday, after settling above $70 for the first time in seven months on a larger-than-expected fall in crude oil stocks and a forecast that falling oil demand may have bottomed.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the sale of Chrysler LLC to Italy's Fiat, while General Motors began to revamp its widely criticized board by naming former AT&T Inc chief executive Ed Whitacre as chairman.

The Obama administration will unveil executive pay rules for firms receiving government aid by the end of the week and will name a pay czar with power to reject compensation plans at firms getting exceptional assistance, an administration official said late on Tuesday.

The National Retail Federation welcomed the introduction of Senate legislation requiring credit card companies to negotiate over hidden credit card processing fees on Tuesday.