IBT Staff Reporter

We now live in a fully global society where it is imperative to have an awareness of cultural differences as they relate to networking etiquette. We often notice differences within our own states. Certainly between regions of the nation; but what about businesses that are networking with businesses in other parts of the world? We actually cross cultures with every person we meet.

Toyota Motor Corp. will double Camry sedan production capacity at its joint venture with China in the province of Guangzhou to 200,000 units by the end of this year, according to Reuters.

EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard said on Friday he first knew in April of potential production problems on the Airbus A380 but there was no reason at the time to think the planemaker could not resolve them.

U.S. inflation developments bear watching, but the impact of high energy costs on other prices has been limited and the economy will adjust over time, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke declared on Thursday.

The U.S. workforce is in shape to benefit from globalization and from increased specialization that is boosting productivity, Federal Reserve Governor Donald Kohn said on Thursday.

A global sell-off in stocks that started in May is not over and may only be just starting, Abhijit Chakrabortti, global equity strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said on Tuesday.

The month-long slide in global stocks has wiped out at least $2 trillion in wealth, leaving investors few alternatives to preserve their holdings aside from bonds and money markets.

A group including Goldman Sachs agreed to buy Associated British Ports, Britain's largest ports group, for 2.5 billion pounds ($4.6 billion) on Wednesday, the latest in a string of UK port takeovers.

The first working model of a $100 laptop aimed at providing mobile computing to under privileged children made its debut on Friday at the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) in Boston.

Union workers at Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. voted on Sunday to reject a proposed contract that the company said was its best offer.

Apple Computer Inc., maker of the ubiquitous iPod media player, was given an ultimatum on Monday to change the song download terms and conditions of its iTunes online download shop, having been found to have broken a local consumer protection law.

Independent Norwegian oil firm DNO said Monday that preliminary testing of the Tawke #1 well in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq confirmed gross recoverable oil reserves of approximately 100 million barrels.

Federal Reserve officials kept up their tough talk on inflation on Monday, bolstering expectations in financial markets that another rate increase is on the way at the Fed's policy meeting later this month.

Online job site Monster Worldwide Inc. and four other companies on Monday disclosed investigations by U.S. authorities into executive stock options grants, widening a scandal that now involves some 40 companies.

Lance Armstrong has been pretty impressive on the roads of France. But on Wall Street, not so much.

Investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said on Monday its quarterly earnings rose, as revenue from trading and investment banking jumped.

The market has been nothing to shout about recently. But investors holding Life Insurance stocks may not have noticed. As of Friday’s close, stocks in that industry were up 52 percent on average, over the past six months. What’s more, I counted at 11 other industries showing at least 15 percent returns over the same period.

U.S. Treasuries were down slightly on Monday, ahead of a series of Federal Reserve speakers this session and before this week's inflation data, which could shed insight on the likelihood of a June rate hike.

Latin America's fixation with the football World Cup in the next month is likely to slow trade in the region but some wonder if it will be enough to dampen instability global markets.

Facing the loss of tens of thousands of unionized, blue-collar auto jobs in coming years, the head of the United Auto Workers on Sunday called for a more collaborative approach to the deep-seated problems facing the U.S. industry, including high health care costs.

It was the worst week since April 2005, thanks again to fears of inflation and the Fed.

Baggage handlers and ramp workers for Northwest Airlines approved concessions to their contracts on Friday, which allow the airline to pursue budget cuts as it attempts to emerge from bankruptcy.

The SCO Group Inc., currently pursuing a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against IBM over the Linux operating system, announced losses for the second quarter that more than doubled those of the same quarter last year.

Small cars were banned from Beijing's main roads less than a decade ago, as China's rulers worried that cheap, spluttering vehicles would clog lanes they hoped to fill with sleek modern autos.

Texas Instruments Inc. on Thursday raised its outlook for second-quarter earnings and revenue above market expectations on strong demand across its chip business, boosting its shares 3 percent.

Google Inc. is committed to doing business in China despite criticism the company has faced for abiding by Chinese government censorship restrictions, co-founder Sergey Brin said this week.

Tribune Co., the Chicago-based media conglomerate, said on Thursday that it would go ahead with a major, $2 billion share repurchase program that had been discussed for weeks.

Just as it seemed that Wall Street would be heading into a foruth day of steep declines on inflation fears and higher interest rates across the globe, investors rallied Thursday to end the day nearly flat.

The first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer won U.S. approval on Thursday when health officials cleared a Merck & Co. Inc. shot to block a sexually transmitted infection that causes the deadly disease.