IBT Staff Reporter

Britain's FTSE 100 index closed easier on Thursday, giving up an early advance as buyers paused after Wednesday's steep gains on easing interest rate tensions. However, support services company Capita stood out with a 9.3 percent rise after it posted a forecast-beating 24 percent jump in interim profits.

Now might be a good time to put the Apple back into the investor's cart.

Intel Corp. announced on Thursday that it is making a number of senior management changes focused on improving the company's structure and achieving better decision-making.

Free video clips on YouTube are popular but its ads aren't.

The number of people filing initial claims for U.S. employment benefits last week fell 30,000 to its lowest level in a month because of fewer claims from the automobile industry, the government said on Thursday.

The European Union announced 10 million euros (8.6 million pounds) in aid on Thursday to help Lebanese fleeing fighting in their country and expressed grave concern over the humanitarian situation in the region.

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said the company was adopting voluntary principles to guide development of its flagship Windows operating system, which will include allowing computer manufacturers to set Google and other non-Microsoft search engines as a default.

Yahoo Inc., the world's largest Internet media company, and Motorola Inc., the second-biggest maker of mobile phones, said late on Wednesday that Motorola will embed Yahoo services on tens of millions of phones.

Google Inc. has begun testing a new version of its search system that makes finding information on the Web easier for the blind or visually impaired, its creator said on Wednesday.

Africa needs better infrastructure in order to maintain the continent's social and economic balance, former UN ambassador Andrew Young said in an interview with the World Bank on Tuesday.

Louis Lowenstein, a buttoned-down 81-year-old emeritus finance and law professor, is positioning himself to become the mutual fund industry's most urbane critic. Listening to him talk about his book in progress, which he promises will uncover the shame of the fund industry, is like watching a man sharpen his sword to do battle with a tank. One can't help but wish him well.

E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder — a parent, teacher or a boss — or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

U.S. phone company AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday it began marketing its AT&T Homezone, a long-awaited service that combines high-speed Internet and satellite television in one set-top box.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said on Wednesday it will launch four new models of high-definition plasma TVs, including the world's largest with a 103-inch panel, challenging LCD TVs' lead in offering higher resolution images.

Sony Corp. is to launch two models of high-definition camcorders that record images onto DVD discs and hard disk drives (HDDs), the first camcorder maker to offer such products, the company said on Wednesday.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke goes before Congress on Wednesday to deliver testimony on the U.S. economy that financial markets will scour for clues on where interest rates are heading.

Profits at large U.S. banks are up, but not as much as they could be. This week and next, banks are reporting their earnings as Wall Street investors cautiously note the factors that could mean lower earnings.

U.S. producer prices rose a steeper-than-expected 0.5 percent last month as food prices jumped, the government said on Tuesday, leading markets to boost bets for another Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

Merrill Lynch, the largest U.S. Brokerage firm, beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday as it reported a better than expected net quarterly income attributed to high equity trading revenue growth.

Nigeria opened an international economic summit on Monday to discuss Africa's investment opportunities abroad and the growth of the private sector.

High and volatile prices will continue to scare physical gold buyers in most parts of the world, but some markets such as China and Japan will remain strong, bullion dealers said.

Was the dollar's recent sharp run higher against a backdrop of conflict in the Middle East a pure geopolitical safe-haven play? Not quite, some say.

South African mobile operator MTN has paid $3.6 billion in cash to the shareholders of Investcom in one of the biggest payments made by a South African company for foreign assets said the group on Monday.

SanDisk Corp. unveiled a 4GB SD high capacity (SDHC) memory card, on Monday.

Microsoft Corp. has filed 26 lawsuits accusing U.S. companies of selling pirated software, the latest move in its ramped-up efforts to boost sales by cracking down on illegal copies.

Hollywood movie studios are set to allow secure transfer of downloadable movies to DVDs for the first time by using new software to facilitate the process.

Salesforce.com, provider of online tools to help companies, released a new version of its on-demand customer relations management software on Monday.

Investors have turned increasingly pessimistic about the future and now widely expect a weaker global economy and deteriorating corporate profits, a notably bearish Merrill Lynch poll showed on Tuesday.

General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner insisted on Tuesday he planned to keep his job even if the U.S. carmaker strikes a three-way alliance with rivals Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co.