INVESTMENT

Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, who is accused of running a massive $7-billion Ponzi scheme, is incompetent to stand trial and must go to a rehabilitation center for addiction to pain medication, a U.S. judge in Houston has ruled. The following are key facts about the disgraced business magnate and a timeline of his legal battle:

LinkedIn Corp announced plans to go public this year in what could be a test of investor appetite for social networking websites ahead of a highly anticipated Facebook offering.

Borders Group Inc received a financing commitment from GE Capital, providing a potential lifeline to the troubled bookseller, but said it would also explore options, including an in-court restructuring.

China will carefully open up its yuan to more trading based on market needs and plans to double its level of imports in five years, its commerce minister said on Thursday, as the country liberalizes its economy, now the world's second largest.

Gold fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, after a raft of positive economic data from the United States and more hawkish signals from some other central bank officials have sparked speculation that certain major economies would move to raise interest rates sooner than previously thought.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) defended the banking industry during a question-and-answer session with the media at a symposium at the world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, set out his vision for “sustainable and balanced” growth in the 21st Century, at Davos world economic forum.

China's annual inflation will probably top 6 percent around the middle of 2011 before losing steam in the second half of the year, the Bank of Communications said on Thursday.

Kenya's central bank cut its benchmark lending rate on Thursday for the first time since July, in a surprise move seen as a bid to curb rising Treasury bill and bond yields.

Ghana is on track for a record 800,000-tonne cocoa harvest this season, the head of sector body Cocobod told Reuters on Thursday, adding that any impact from smuggling from neighbouring Ivory Coast was limited so far.

Weeks of unrest in Tunisia will hit economic growth, frighten away tourists and discourage foreign direct investment which could fall by up to a third this year, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday.

Libya has set up a $24-billion fund for investment and local development that will focus on providing housing for its rapidly growing population, the online Oea newspaper reported on Thursday.

The top companies trading higher in NASDAQ stock market during Thursday's early session are: Berkshire Bancorp, WSB Holdings, Bassett Furniture Industries, Arctic Cat, and Netflix. The top companies trading lower in NASDAQ stock market during Thursday's early session are: Hawkins, Princeton National Bancorp, Span-America Medical Systems, ShoreTel, and First Financial Bancorp.

Invesco Ltd , one of the largest U.S. mutual fund companies, reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as it benefited from a big acquisition and increases in global stock markets.

Gold fell back from its third overnight rally in four days in London trade on Thursday, dropping 1.1% against the Dollar. We don't feel that this downward pressure can persist, given ample global liquidity and low long-term real interest rates, says Standard Bank's commodity team in a client note.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Thursday are: Netflix, Teradyne, Qualcomm, Symantec, AT&T, Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Procter & Gamble.

A key measure of business activity strengthened again in December, a lender group told Reuters on Tuesday, as companies borrowed more money to invest in their operations and did a better job of staying

Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to a modestly higher opening on Thursday ahead of economic data including durable goods orders and pending home sales as well as slew of earnings reports.

The companies which are expected to see active trade on Thursday are: Microsoft, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Amazon, AT&T, Altria Group, Caterpillar, Colgate-Palmolive and Eli Lilly.

America's college and university endowment funds recorded an 11.9 percent return last year, aided by big bets on alternative investments like hedge funds but helped even more by traditional stock and bond selections.

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reiterated his commitment to green technologies by vowing to flood America's highways with plug-in cars and will ask Congress for new programs to support sales and development of electric vehicles.