Business News

LONDON - World stock markets fell Tuesday following big gains on Monday, with China's main index posting its biggest drop in three months after the country's central bank warned commercial banks to control their lending.

LONDON (AFP) - The FTSE 100 fell at the start of trading on Tuesday after beginning the week sharply higher.

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower opening on Wall Street on Tuesday, following the previous session's sharp gains, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.18 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.26 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.38 percent at 0925 GMT (4:25 a.m. EST).

SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co.'s cost-cutting and push into new markets is helping soften the blow from weakness in the company's mainstay businesses.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Networking gear maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc. said Monday its fourth-quarter profit fell 6 percent as hefty costs offset a surge in revenue, but reiterated its guidance for fiscal 2010.

MINNEAPOLIS - Paint and coatings maker Valspar Corp. said Monday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit climbed as the company trimmed the cost of sales and research and development expenses.

BERLIN (AFP) - General Motors has repaid the 1.5 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) in bridging loans it received from Germany to keep its troubled European unit Opel afloat, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.

BERLIN (AFP) - General Motors will keep open Opel's Bochum plant in western Germany, the head of the US firm's European division, Nick Reilly, said on Tuesday.

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. - Valeant Pharmaceuticals said Monday it began selling a generic version of Librax, a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome drug.

It's been a hard year to work at General Electric . Salary freezes have hit its famously performance-driven employees, with some managers taking pay cuts. The price of GE stock, which once made millionaires out of even hourly workers, has gone nowhere as the rest of the market has risen. A 68% dividend cut -- the first in 71 years -- has stung execs who rely on a heavy dose of restricted shares.

About a year ago, observers of the UK commercial property market would not have been shocked to see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding around the corner.

I am not your typical MBA student. I chuckle thinking about the havoc I will wreak on the incoming class pie charts that the admissions office will prepare at the Georgetown McDonough School of Business (McDonough Full-Time MBA School Profile), where I will start this fall. How will they categorize a gay Bosnian Muslim refugee, a former chemist who writes about sexuality in Islam while counseling college students?

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - A cutting-edge French warship sailed into St. Petersburg Monday to show off its capabilities to potential buyers in the Russian navy, whose pursuit of an amphibious assault capacity is frightening some neighboring countries.

WASHINGTON - Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2 1/2 years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in October at a faster-than-expected pace to the highest in more than 2-1/2 years as buyers rushed to take advantage of a popular tax credit, a survey showed on Monday.