Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said U.S. foreign policy is in part responsible for soaring oil prices and predicted that crude will continue its upward spiral.
Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, is aiming to make cellulosic ethanol commercially viable within the next decade, a company executive said Thursday.
Vonage Holdings Corp., the beleaguered provider of Internet-based telephone service, said Thursday it has settled a patent lawsuit brought by Verizon Communications Inc. for a maximum of $120 million (?84 million).
The dollar fell against a basket of six other major currencies Thursday following a report that showed orders for manufactured goods in the United States fell unexpectedly in September.
Microsoft Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 23 percent as brisk sales of the new "Halo 3"video game, Windows and Office helped the software maker breeze past Wall Street's expectations.
In addition to scaling back its investment banking operations, Bank of America Corp. is exiting the wholesale mortgage business and eliminating about 700 jobs, according to bank officials Thursday.
Mattel Inc. recalled an additional 38,000 "Go Diego Go!"toys Thursday as part of a larger recall of 665,000 lead-contaminated children's products, the government said.
Wall Street closed slightly lower in erratic trading Thursday as investors, uneasy about the credit markets and record-high oil prices, took little solace from reports on new home sales and durable goods orders.
The industrial metals market rebounded Thursday as investors set aside concerns about sluggish U.S. economic growth and shifted their focus to China's increasing hunger for raw materials.
The global economy should continue to expand at a healthy pace during the next five years despite the U.S. housing crisis, according to a senior economist at the World Bank.
Business software maker BEA Systems Inc. put itself on the auction block Thursday, demanding at least $21per share in an effort to prod rival Oracle Corp. into raising its current bid by $1.5 billion (?1.05 billion).
