IBT Staff Reporter

HSBC Holdings Plc , which last month became one of the first foreign banks allowed to issue Chinese currency bonds in Hong Kong, said on Wednesday it is also preparing for yuan bond issuance in China.

Dutch utility Essent scrapped the sale of its waste-management unit, blaming low prices and other problems with bids for the failure of an auction that had once aimed to raise a billion euros or more.

Specialty food maker Premium Brands Income Fund said it signed a deal with Thallion Pharmaceuticals Inc to convert its company structure to a dividend-paying corporation from a trust.

The U.S. economy's recovery may have stalled after data on Wednesday showed half a million private sector jobs were lost in May and mortgage applications fell last week as rising interest rates frightened away buyers.

U.S. private employers chopped more than half a million jobs in May, signaling job conditions remain tough and dashing some hopes the economy was not deteriorating as rapidly as thought, a report on Wednesday showed.

Wall Street and European banks have long sat atop the rankings for arranging initial public offerings across Asia.

The Norwegian government said on Wednesday it would assess the impact of climate change on financial markets and urged global investors to join forces.

Canadian auto supplier Magna International aims to close a deal with General Motors over its Opel unit in September, Magna's co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf said Wednesday.

European stocks fell and Wall Street was set for a weaker start on Wednesday as investors turned cautious after economic optimism pushed world stocks to fresh 7-1/2 month highs and sterling to 2009 peaks earlier.

Schroders is adding wind power and forestry stocks to its climate change portfolio, saying heightened investor interest in the green theme should support share performances in the second half.

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, but said it would not give earnings outlook due to several uncertainties related to its business.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday after data showed employers chopped more than half a million jobs in May, signaling conditions remained tough.

Sony Corp unveiled on Tuesday a smaller, lighter PlayStation handled game device called the PSP Go, in a race to catch rival Nintendo in an intensely competitive mobile games arena.

(Corrects both headline and paragraph one to say quarterly loss was wider than market expectations, not narrower.)

Three Brazilian navy vessels were dispatched early Wednesday to the wreckage site of the Air France flight 447 after it crashed into the Atlantic on Sunday night after taking off from Rio de Janeiro destined to Paris.

European stocks fell on Wednesday and government bonds ticked higher after investors turned cautious after optimism about the global economy pushed world stocks to fresh 7-1/2 highs and sterling to 2009 peaks earlier.

HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Bank said on Wednesday that they were preparing for yuan-denominated bond issuance in China to help the country develop its local-currency financial markets.

U.S. car sales fell again in May, dropping 34% to 925,824 vehicles, but showed some signs of stabilization as Ford, General Motors and Toyota reported their highest monthly totals this year.

Japan should shun a politically inexplicable option of a rise in greenhouse gas emissions when it sets a 2020 target in coming days, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, but said it would not give earnings outlook due to several uncertainties related to its business.

JPMorgan Chase & Co is disbanding its stand-alone Principal Investment Management Group's hedge-fund business and private-equity division and shifting staff from this unit to sit within existing businesses, according to a person familiar with the reorganization.

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell for a fourth consecutive month in May, reaching the lowest level in eight months and offering another sign that the United States may be pulling out of a steep economic tailspin.

U.S. private employers chopped more than half a million jobs in May, signaling job conditions remain tough and dashing some hopes the economy was not deteriorating as rapidly as thought, a report on Wednesday showed.

A nationwide index of non-manufacturing economic activity is expected to show activity slowed in May, but less so than in April, according to economists polled by Reuters.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, as investors were set to take profits ahead of key macroeconomic data on jobs and manufacturing.

The oil markets' seven-day rally faltered on Wednesday ahead of weekly U.S. inventory data and as investors grew more cautious ahead of the $70 a barrel mark.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, as investors were set to book recent gains ahead of key macroeconomic data on jobs and manufacturing.

A U.S. Court of Appeals agreed on Tuesday to hear a challenge to Chrysler LLC's sale of most of its assets to a group led by Italian automaker Fiat , in a move that could potentially delay the deal.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, as investors were poised to pocket a portion of their recent lofty gains ahead of key macroeconomic data.