IBT Staff Reporter

The Dow and the S&P 500 briefly turned negative on Tuesday, weighed by a sell-off in financial shares following news of stock offerings by major banks seeking to raise capital, including JPMorgan .

NASA, which has tiptoed into the new world of social media with Twittering astronauts and Facebooking rovers, is taking the next step with an invitation-only outreach to the twedia to cover a space shuttle launch.

Microsoft Corp on Monday offered a glimpse into a future where the Xbox 360 console is the centerpiece of any living room, and games, social interaction and communications are controlled with the wave of a hand.

Modine Manufacturing Co , a maker of heating and cooling systems for vehicles, posted a wider quarterly loss, hurt by the economic downturn and low production rates in the auto parts industry.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc sold $1.9 billion worth of shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on Monday, according to a source familiar with the pricing.

Shares of Research In Motion will likely come under pressure in the next few weeks as two rivals launch new handsets to compete with its BlackBerry smartphone, an analyst says.

Diversified U.S. manufacturer Honeywell International Inc said on Tuesday it had landed a contract worth up to $700 million over 10 years to provide logistical services to the U.S. Marine Corps.

Morgan Stanley said Tuesday it expects to pay back the government’s TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) bailout investment by the end of June, announcing today that it intends to raise $2.2 billion by selling common stock.

GM is set to announce the sale of Hummer for $100-$200 million at some point today, marking the most anyone paid for one of those since Eliot Spitzer.

Google Inc is stepping up efforts to infuse its search engine into the operations of the most technically sophisticated corporations as well as the least digitally savvy businesses.

General Motors Corp expects to have a 'very healthy' cash balance when it emerges from bankruptcy court protection in the next 60 to 90 days as a leaner company, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday.

Cell phone maker INQ Mobile plans to introduce a Twitter phone in time for the Christmas sales season, hoping to benefit from surging interest in the micro-blogging service, INQ's head told Reuters on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as key housing data provided further evidence the U.S. recession was abating.

Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase & Co and several other banks said they have raised at least $18 billion as lenders scramble to extricate themselves from Washington's grip.

The U.S. climate change bill making its way through Congress is the best legislative bet to help the country take the lead in tackling global warming on the world stage, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Monday.

Global consumer confidence is stabilizing after falling for 18 months, providing a glimmer of hope for a shattered world economy in which three quarters of households cut spending, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley plans to raise $2.2 billion in common equity to bring it closer to repaying its TARP loans, the company said on Tuesday.

Somali government forces drove Islamist insurgents from two districts of the capital on Tuesday in another day of heavy fighting that killed dozens of people, residents and officials said.

Japan approved on Tuesday plans for a missile early warning system and some ruling party lawmakers suggested Japan should inspect North Korean ships, as a report said the North was preparing to fire a mid-range missile.

The top item on the Chinese website of Beijing's embassy in Pyongyang is a condemnation of North Korea's nuclear test.

Pepsi Bottling Group raised its earnings forecast for the current quarter and full year on Tuesday, citing improved U.S. soft drink sales, lower commodity costs and less volatility in currency exchange rates.

The co-chief executive officer of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd received U.S. antitrust approval to buy the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

Express Scripts Inc launched a public offering of 23 million shares on Tuesday to raise money to finance its acquisition of WellPoint Inc's drug benefits unit.

Pakistani soldiers Tuesday rescued scores of students and staff from a military-run college who were abducted by Taliban militants in the northwest of the country, a military spokesman said.

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith plans to resign her government post, media reported on Tuesday, a new casualty of the expenses scandal sweeping through parliament.

The death toll rose to least 61 on Tuesday from an underground fire that killed illegal miners at a disused gold mine in South Africa, Harmony Gold Mining Co. said.

General Motors Corp said it had reached a preliminary deal to sell its Hummer brand, part of its effort to shed half of its eight U.S. lines and leave bankruptcy court protection as a leaner company.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will lobby the United States on Tuesday to rethink its demand to curb West Bank settlement growth, a dispute that has strained ties as the allies try to close ranks against Iran.

Google's open source Android operating system has been used as a smartphone operating system, and now the software will be used in Acer netbooks that are set to come out in the third quarter.