IBT Staff Reporter

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes shot up by 6.7 percent in April, the biggest monthly gain in 7-1/2 years, according to a report on Tuesday that buttressed views the U.S. recession was easing.

MillerCoors, the second-largest brewer in the United States, sees beer sales growth slowing less rapidly in the downturn than wine and spirits and as the beermaker focuses on premium light and craft beers.

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes shot up by 6.7 percent in April, the biggest monthly gain in 7-1/2 years, according to a report on Tuesday that buttressed views the U.S. recession was easing.

General Motors Corp said on Tuesday it reached a tentative deal to sell its Hummer brand to a privately held Chinese company, part of an effort to drop four unprofitable vehicle lines and leave bankruptcy as a leaner company.

U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday will open a debate that has stymied them for at least a decade: the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant housing finance agencies nearly felled by the credit crisis.

Microsoft Corp argued before an appeals court on Tuesday that its Outlook calendar date-picker tool did not infringe an Alcatel-Lucent patent and asked for a $358 million jury verdict to be overturned.

Stocks rose for a fourth straight day on Tuesday as an upbeat report on home sales bolstered hopes for an economic recovery as well as shares in construction companies.

The number of customers who don’t buy personal computers directly from PC makers will continuously increase over the next four years, forcing manufacturers to do a better job of customer segmentation and go-to-market strategies, research firm Gartner Inc. said on Tuesday.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor sought to answer critics on Tuesday with a vow to follow the law ultimately and completely, and a key senator said he wanted confirmation hearings next month so she can rebut what he called unfounded charges of racism.

U.S. auto sales fell nearly 34 percent in May from a year earlier, but aggressive discounting helped steady results for the battered industry, according to monthly results released on Tuesday.

Sun Microsystems opens the annual JavaOne conference this year with the debut of Java Store, a global marketplace for cutting-edge Java applications.

Norway's Opera Software overtook Apple's iPhone browser in May as the most popular mobile browser in the world, Web analytics firm StatCounter said on Tuesday.

Stocks rose for the fourth straight day on Tuesday as an upbeat report on sales of previously owned U.S. homes bolstered hopes for an economic recovery.

Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase & Co and several other banks said they have raised more than $19 billion as lenders scramble to extricate themselves from Washington's grip.

Popular energy drink Red Bull was withdrawn from supermarkets in Hong Kong, after the country's Department of Health and Centre for Food Safety found traces of cocaine in the product, the agency reported.

General Motors filed the largest bankruptcy of any industrial company in US history this Monday, and alongside it, unveiled plans to close more dealerships, factories, and support services across the nation.

Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday its new Windows 7 operating system will be generally available on October 22, well ahead of its original schedule and in time for the holiday shopping season.

Atlanta based Delta Air Lines Inc. has postponed indefinitely its long-awaited inaugural flight Kenya and Liberia after the Department of Homeland Security told the carrier more time would be needed to approve the carriers request.

Data suggests that the U.S. ban on short selling of financial stocks in 2008 did not impact stock prices, the chief executive of exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group Inc told business leaders on Tuesday.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Tuesday that his agency will grant nearly $50 million from the government’s economic stimulus package funds to advance commercial deployment of geothermal heating pumps.

Sony Corp unveiled on Tuesday the latest in its Playstation Portable line of hand-held devices, the PSP Go, as it races to catch rival Nintendo in the mobile gaming arena.

Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday that U.S. sales fell 24.2 percent in May for all of its brands as the only U.S. automaker not in bankruptcy reported its strongest domestic sales month since July 2008.

A Chinese renewable energy official said today China will invest about 100 billion yuan ($14.6 billion) to boost its wind power capacity to 30,000 Megawatts from 12,000 MW it currently generates, Bloomberg reported.

Chrysler LLC reported on Tuesday total unit sales of 79,010 for the month of May units, representing the best retail sales month of 2009 while the company also had an above average performance compared to industry.

At the Nintendo E3 2009 press conference, the company introduced the Wii MotionPlus, an attachment which delivers precise and distinct motion control and a new Super Mario Bros game.

U.S. distressed debt, among the hardest hit asset classes last year, has become the best, with returns of 39.5 percent year to date as risk appetite improves, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

The FBI and other U.S. agencies are working to prevent fraud and corruption related to government bailout money and the economic stimulus package, in what could be the next wave of cases in the financial crisis, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Tuesday.

Stocks rose on Tuesday as an upbeat report on sales of previously owned U.S. homes bolstered hopes for an economic recovery.

North Korea will probably appoint Leader Kim Jong-Il’s third and youngest son as his successor, news reports said on Tuesday.