Business - Page 36

Reuters - Commerce Bancorp Inc. , a fast-growing Northeast U.S. bank, said on Tuesday that federal regulators are investigating transactions involving the company, its officers and directors, and "related" parties.

Reuters - Express Scripts Inc. on Tuesday launched a $24.8 billion offer for Caremark Rx Inc. , the latest step in a high-stakes takeover battle after Caremark last week said it preferred a deal with drugstore chain CVS Corp. .

Reuters - Oil prices plunged more than 3 percent on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia said OPEC production cuts were working well and there was no need for an emergency meeting of the producer group.

Reuters - An independent panel on Tuesday recommended that British oil major BP Plc. overhaul safety procedures at all five of its U.S. refineries after finding dangerous conditions at the plants.

AP - Healthy economic growth is welcomed everywhere, from Main Street to the White House. Just not on Wall Street. More Info...  

Reuters - Tesco Plc , Britain's biggest retailer, reported a 5.9 percent rise in underlying Christmas sales on Tuesday, beating most analysts' forecasts and most of its rivals amid strong organic food and online sales.

Reuters - A Chevron refinery fire in Richmond, California, burned for nearly nine hours before dying out on Monday but was not expected to affect production, officials said. More Info...  

Reuters - The company making the biggest splash at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week was not even there: Apple Computer Inc., which More Info...  

Reuters - Google Inc. has increased its share of the U.S. Web search market to 47.4 percent with a gain of 0.4 percent during December, while No. 2 ranked Yahoo Inc. also edged higher, a survey said on Monday.

Reuters - Venezuela intensified its nationalization fight with foreign companies on Monday, vowing to impose a takeover of oil majors' operations and grab all of a U.S. utility's stake in the country's largest private power company.

Reuters - Technology and globalization are changing the retail landscape and successful retailers will be those who can respond and adapt to those changes, attendees of the National Retail Federation's annual convention were told on Monday.

Business

Reuters - General Electric (GE) has agreed to buy the aerospace business of Britain's Smiths Group Plc for $4.8 billion cash as it seeks to capitalize on a flood of new plane orders and robust U.S. military spending.

Reuters - China drew a record $63.0 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2006, up 5 percent from 2005, the official Xinhua news agency cited Commerce Minister Bo Xilai as saying on Monday. More Info...  

Reuters - U.S. banking giant Citigroup has teamed up with CDC, a private equity investor owned by the British government, to invest at least $200 million (102 million pounds) in Africa, the Financial Times reported on Monday. More Info...  

AFP - Americans spent over 100 billion dollars shopping on the Internet in 2006, and growth in e-commerce is likely to extend its strong pace in the coming years, analysts say.

Reuters - The annual North American boat show season kicks into high gear this week with five major expos, from Atlanta to Toronto, opening nearly simultaneously, including one of the year's biggest inside the McCormick Place convention center here on Lake Michigan. More Info...  

Business

Reuters - U.S. stocks may rally this week if the early stages of the earnings season yield positive results and U.S. data shows price pressures are moderating enough to keep interest rates steady.

Reuters - A senior Iranian oil official said on Sunday OPEC had still not decided on whether to hold an emergency meeting soon to discuss a 15 percent drop in crude prices since the start of the year, a ministry Web site said.

Reuters - China and Southeast Asian countries agreed on Sunday to cut barriers to trade in services such as telecoms, transport and tourism as a key step to the world's most populous free trade zone.

Business

Reuters - U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will testify before Congress on monetary policy on February 14 and 15, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.