IBT Staff Reporter

Stock futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday as a report that Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc may need more capital revived fears about the stability of the struggling financial sector.

Fears about a possible global flu crisis and renewed worries over the capital health of some U.S. banks combined on Tuesday to rattle economists' hopes the financial system was stabilizing.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes are down 1.3-1.7 percent, pointing to a sharply lower start on Wall Street.

Japan and China are looking at cooperating on next-generation cellphone services, which would help China develop its wireless technology and Japanese makers expand in China, a Japanese government official said.

General Motors Corp on Monday offered its final plan to reorganize outside bankruptcy by slashing bond debt, cutting over 21,000 more U.S. jobs and emerging as a nationalized automaker under majority control by the U.S. government.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes are down 1.3-1.7 percent, pointing to a sharply lower start on Wall Street.

U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc they may need to raise more capital following stress testing of the two banks, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Oil major BP Plc reported a 62 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday due to a collapse in oil and gas prices, but heavy cost cutting helped it beat all analysts' forecasts.

World stocks and oil fell for a second day on Tuesday and investors took refuge in the yen as a report that major U.S. banks may need more capital hit markets already dropping on fears of a swine flu pandemic.

Network equipment maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc is bolstering its partnership with IBM, in a sign it may be gaining market share from industry leader Cisco Systems Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co said on Monday that its first phone based on Google Inc's Android operating system would be available in major European countries Europe in June.

U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc that following recent stress testing of the two banks they may need to raise more capital, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Qatar is in talks to buy a stake in Germany's Porsche and may also invest in other carmakers as the Gulf gas exporter looks to park some of its sovereign wealth abroad, according to media reports.

Renewed fears about the health of the global economy spooked markets on Tuesday as risks rose that Mexican swine flu may become a pandemic and a newspaper report said U.S. banks may need to raise fresh capital.

When is it OK to lie? What would you do with 100 Christmas trees in July? If you were a cereal, what kind would you be?

Asian stocks slipped for a second day on Tuesday on worries about the potential economic fallout from the swine virus outbreak, even as investor reaction remained limited due to uncertainty about the full impact.

Oil prices extended losses on Tuesday, falling about 2 percent toward $49 a barrel after a report that Citigroup and Bank of America may need to raise more capital, renewing worries about the financial sector.

The rising risk that a global pandemic could snuff out frail signs of recovery in the world economy spurred nervous investors to seek safe havens on Tuesday, after the World Health Organisation raised its alert level for a deadly swine flu outbreak that started in Mexico.

Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's top PC maker, is launching a new line of inexpensive business laptops with fresh features targeting users at small and medium-size companies.

Oil prices extended losses and fell below $50 a barrel on Tuesday, as a rising death toll from a flu outbreak that started in Mexico fanned fears of a pandemic potentially hurting the world economy and air travel.

Too many regulators currently watch over U.S. companies and a fear that some industries may soon face even more rules could be hurting the U.S. recovery, two top financial industry executives said.

After 83 years of storied history and with a huge following for its famous older models, Pontiac on Monday became the highest-profile victim of the U.S. auto industry crisis with General Motors Corp's announcement the brand would cease to exist in 2010.

Operating acute care and behavioral health hospital, Universal Health Services Inc. said Monday its first quarter profit rose 14 percent despite slow in and out admissions patients.

Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems announced Monday it is expanding by launching Tessera Solar, a new unit to manufacture the products used to build large solar-thermal power plants in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

General Electric (GE) unveiled new technology that can hold information equivalent of 20 Blu-ray disks on one single standard disk.

The World Bank said today that it will provide Mexico with more than $205 million to fight the deadly swine flu which broke out last week.

Kate Harding has spent most of her life on one diet or another, losing weight but always gaining it back. Determined to improve her quality of life, she joined a fast-growing group of anti-dieting activists promoting overweight people's civil rights.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced Sunday it had reached a preliminary agreement for supporting Tanzania to ease the impact of the global financial crisis on its export-driven economy.

The cost of carbon capture and sequestration infrastructure in the United States that would include each of the coal-fired electricity plants in the country could cost over a trillion of dollars, industry experts told CBS news program 60 Minutes in a segment that aired on Sunday.