INVESTMENT

Sharp Corp will spend about 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) to build production lines for small and midsize LCDs, with Apple Inc slated to purchase bulk of the output for its iPhone, the Nikkei business daily said.

Edward Yardeni thinks copper prices can double in 2011 because there will be a shortage of it.

Stocks on Wall Street drifted lower, erasing an early-session rally, as the dollar jumped and traders weighed a credit downgrade warning on Spain and the U.S. Senate’s passage of the $885-billion tax cut extension bill.

With American businesses holding nearly $2 trillion on their books, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that a meeting with corporate executives of 20 of the largest U.S. companies will help elicit a variety of ideas to grow the economy and boost jobs amid an anemic recovery.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to a lower opening on Wednesday with futures on the S&P 500 down 0.47 percent, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.39 percent and Nasdaq100 futures down 0.47 percent.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: SurModics, Blue Coat Systems, Golar LNG, BJ's Restaurants, MannKind, Cathay General Bancorp, RealNetworks, Scientific Games, First Solar, and Advanced Energy Industries.

China is on course to attract a record $100 billion in foreign direct investment this year, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday, evidence that it remains a top destination for global firms despite concerns about market barriers and rising labor costs.

Some of the so-called emerging markets have advanced to a point where they might be considered “developed” -- or not, depending on one’s views and criteria. Further complicating this picture is the arrival of “frontier” markets – countries even less developed than the emerging markets, but boasting even greater long-term growth potential.

Ford Motor Co could reach its target of an investment grade credit rating more quickly than some outside observers might have thought, Executive Chairman Bill Ford said on Tuesday.

The FT reported that market-making brokerage and bank J.P.Morgan has materially reduced its bets on lower silver prices, citing a person familiar with the matter.

HCP Inc said on Monday it would buy most of the real estate assets of privately held nursing and assisted living firm HCR ManorCare Inc from Carlyle Group in a $6.1 billion sale and leaseback deal.

Private equity firm Carlyle Group's nursing and assisted living firm HCR ManorCare Inc is selling most of its real estate assets to HCP Inc , a health care real estate investment trust, in a $6.1 billion sale and leaseback deal, the companies said on Monday.

Galileo Global Advisors CEO Georges Ugeux speaks to IBTimes about investing in Asia outside the scope of public markets.

The Gold Price in Dollars hit a 3-session high in London on Monday, rising alongside world stock markets and commodities on what one trader called relief that Beijing did not hike Chinese interest rates as expected at the weekend.

Prices to Buy Gold held firm in London on Friday, ending of what one London trader called another roller-coaster week some 1.7% lower for Dollar and Sterling investors but unchanged vs. the single Euro currency.

European equities will beat 2010 gains by the end of next year, as companies get some help from better earnings and record-low interest rates that will overcome the sovereign debt crisis, Bloomberg said, citing a survey of 13 strategists.

Outside the US and UK - where today's no change decision from the Bank of England left interest rates near 33-year lows beneath inflation - emerging economies are also flirting with sub-zero real rates of interest, Japanese investment bank Nomura's London office notes.

German pharmaceuticals and chemical giant Bayer AG said it plans to invest 1-billion euros ($1.3-billion) in China in efforts to more than double sales in the country by 2015, as part of the company’s greater push into the Asia-Pacific region.

The markets for equities and government bonds have returned to their long-term pattern of moving in opposite directions as a result of a U.S. tax cuts deal that is expected to boost spending there.

James Tyree, CEO of Mesirow Financial, speaks to IBTimes about how his firm is navigating the challenges of the post-crisis financial world.

The bond market's horrific two-month stretch is teaching U.S. investors who poured some $700 billion into fixed income mutual funds in recent years a harsh lesson about risk.