IBT Staff Reporter

Dow Jones & Co. Inc. board member David Li, a prominent Hong Kong banker, may face civil charges in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission insider trading investigation linked to News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for the U.S. media company.

Canadian wholesale trade grew 0.6 percent in May from April, slightly more than expected, while inventories fell for the first time in five months, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.

Ailing Motorola was dealt another blow as the phone maker slipped a spot into third place behind second place Samsung in the race for global shipments.

NEW YORK,U.S. Treasuries eased on Thursday as investors booked some profits on a week of gains, but the market remained solidly underpinned by fears that more bad news on housing was just around the corner.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) rose more than 4 percent in pre-market trading on Thursday, a day after the company expressed optimism for its full year outlook and reported a higher second quarter profit.

Bank of America Corp., the second-largest U.S. bank, said on Thursday quarterly profit rose 5 percent, as private equity and investment banking gains offset lower retail banking earnings and worsening loan quality.

Equities overcame concerns about credit market risks on Thursday, rising solidly while the dollar stuck close to record lows against the euro.

The highest growth in 11-½ years secured expectations of tighter policy to prevent the economy from overheating.

Hewlett-Packard continued its reign as the top personal computer maker in the world as its closest rival Dell declined for the second quarter but still managed to hold its U.S. lead.

Chinese actress-turned-director Xu Jinglei became the world's most widely read blogger this month when her blog logged 100 million page views within about 600 days, the Beijing News said on Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei average inched up 0.23 percent on Thursday as earnings hopes lifted Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and shipping firms such as Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd.

EBay Inc. on Wednesday posted a 50 percent rise in net profit on strength in its core auction and payments businesses, but left its 2007 outlook unchanged, defying Wall Street's hopes for a boost.

Walt Disney Co. music label Hollywood Records is offering a new CD format with extra features to encourage compact-disc purchases in a bid to reverse declining CD sales.

Washington Mutual Inc. (WM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders, on Wednesday said it will stop offering some of the most popular home loans for subprime borrowers, after rising defaults caused losses to mount for dozens of lenders.

Hotel occupancy is down in some top vacation spots, not through lack of visitors, but because more travelers are investing in permanent options such as property and time shares in places they love.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to file civil charges against Dow Jones & Co. Inc. board member David Li over an insider trading probe linked to News Corp.'s bid for the media company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke provided cold comfort on Wednesday to those worried that the subprime mortgage mess will infect other areas of finance, though he lifted spirits in the bond market.

Core inflation in the United States is likely to hold below a 2 percent annual rate through the end of 2008, according to a senior vice president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

The European Union has temporarily suspended its World Trade Organisation (WTO) complaint against India over the latter’s duties levied against European wine and spirit imports.

Honda Motor Co. announced on Wednesday that it plans to build new plants and increase car output as the Japanese carmaker ramps up global capacity to meet the growing demand for its fuel efficient models.

Sony's efforts to turn around its struggling videogame unit during the last week have left mixed reactions, but one analyst believes that further price cuts to its Playstation 3 game console are inevitable.

Canada's population is aging so quickly that in a decade, there could be more people leaving the work force than entering it, a factor which will pose major challenges for employers, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.

Social networking company Facebook will attempt to convince the court to discard claims that its founder Mark Zuckerberg stole ideas from his college classmates to start his online site.

Bookstore chain Borders said it has removed copies of a book about Belgian comics hero Tintin's adventures in Africa from the children's section of its U.S. stores, as well as British outlets, amid allegations of racism.

Web reports and photographs say they may contain the ending to the eagerly awaited seventh and final book

Sales of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 game console surpassed one million units in Japan in about eight months after its launch, more than four times as long as it took Nintendo's hot-selling Wii to reach the same mark.

Several brokerages raised their share price targets for Intel Corp. on Wednesday, betting the leading chip maker would improve after reporting disappointing profit margins for the last quarter.

Gulf Arab state Qatar values Britain's third largest supermarket group at $24.5 billion, including debt.

Abandoning long held positions on farm and industrial goods is essential to salvaging a deal, they say.