IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks inched higher on Tuesday as investors bet that quarterly earnings reports, which begin later on Tuesday, would beat estimates and brokerages raised price targets on some of the biggest technology stocks.

American Electric Power reached a settlement with the U.S. government that will cost the giant utility $4.6 billion to reduce harmful air pollution from 16 coal-burning power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.

Swiss bank UBS is expanding its wealth management business in Japan, bringing its brand of tailored banking to the rich of the world's second-biggest economy.

Cathay Financial, Taiwan's top financial holding firm, posted a forecast-beating three-fold rise in quarterly profit on Tuesday thanks to strong local stock returns and better net interest margins.

Student lender Sallie Mae said on Monday it has filed a lawsuit, seeking damages of $900 million, against the consortium that agreed to buy it for $25 billion but then proposed to revise its offer.

Britain threw a fresh lifeline to Northern Rock on Tuesday, offering to guarantee new retail deposits and extend funding arrangements in a bid to win the bank time to salvage something from its battered business.

The investment bank chose to offer its advice to the unexpected winner of the largest banking takeover ever.

France's Albert Fert and Germany's Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for discoveries allowing the miniaturization of hard disks in electronic devices from laptops to iPods.

Huge amounts of investment money pouring into commodity markets is increasing the risks for brokers, leaving the market more vulnerable to volatility, the chief executive of brokerage firm Sucden told Reuters.

The surge in the number of millionaires in the world is spawning a fast-growing industry -- wealth psychology.

Japan extended sanctions against North Korea on Tuesday, saying it needed to keep pressure on the reclusive communist state to resolve a feud over Japanese nationals abducted decades ago.

Brewers SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing have agreed to combine their U.S. operations to create a venture with annual sales of $6.6 billion that will be a strong number-two player to Anheuser-Busch.

Several of the beauty queens will take part in a new MTV reality show which shows what happens when their crowns come off.

Eight out of 10 households throw out personal information with the rubbish that could enable fraudsters to steal their identity, researchers say.

Citigroup said on Tuesday it would merge its retail securities business in Japan with unit Nikko Cordial Corp, as part of the U.S. financial firm's push in the world's second-largest economy.

Institutional investors may be tilting away from risky assets just as equity markets across the world are hitting record highs.

The global economic boom has accelerated greenhouse gas emissions to a dangerous threshold not expected for a decade and could potentially cause irreversible climate change, said one of Australia's leading scientists.

Sony Corp said it would cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console by 10 percent in Japan and launch a new model, in a bid to ignite demand in the run-up to the critical year-end shopping season.

The dollar firmed against the euro on Tuesday as it continued to draw support from a more positive U.S. economic outlook and a growing view the Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates later this month.

Stock futures were little changed on Tuesday with market attention on aluminum company Alcoa, which kicks off the quarterly earnings season.

Oil extended its losses to ease below $79 a barrel on Tuesday, after a nearly 3 percent slump in the previous session amid a wider slide in commodities tied to a rebound in the U.S. dollar.

With just over a day remaining until a strike deadline, representatives of the United Auto Workers union and Chrysler LLC bargained into Tuesday morning in a bid to reach a new contract for some 49,000 U.S. factory workers.

The government wants Blackwater to pay $8 million in compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed in a shooting.

Restaurant operator Yum Brands Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and boosted its full-year outlook on Monday, sending its shares up more than 4 percent in extended trading.

The dollar rose Monday on investor speculation that the U.S. economy may continue to show signs of strength and escape recession.

Gold fell after the dollar advanced against the euro on Monday, reducing the appeal of the precious metals as alternative investments.

Crude Oil Falls More Than $2 as Dollar Rebounds

Blue-chip stocks dipped on Monday as a 2 percent drop in oil prices dragged the energy sector lower and investors locked in profits after Friday's rally.

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has given investors plenty to worry about throughout the year, but they have shrugged off his cautionary remarks and embraced his couched reassurances. It might be time to reconsider Dimon's cautionary side after Merrill Lynch & Co Inc unveiled a $5.5 billion credit implosion last week.