Oil prices dropped to near $73 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showing unexpected growth in U.S. crude inventories cast more doubt on the recovery in the world's biggest economy.

ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steel maker, posted a fourth quarter profit of $1.07 billion Wednesday and said it expects demand to strengthen this year.

Honda Motor Co. is adding 437,000 vehicles to its 15-month old global recall for faulty airbags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker.

Baidu Inc., which operates China's most popular Internet search engine, said its quarterly earnings jumped 48 percent, beating expectations on strong revenue growth.

China's export growth accelerated in January and imports rose, adding to signs a recovery in global and Chinese demand is on track.

Asian stock markets mostly rose Wednesday after Europe and Wall Street gained on hopes a government debt crisis in Europe can be quarantined to smaller economies.

Americans backed off from holiday spending in January, but retail sales rose for a third month in a row compared with a year earlier, largely because of gas price hikes, according to figures released Wednesday by a key data service.

Prius owners in Japan are rushing to dealers Wednesday, a day after Toyota's president announced a global recall. Instead of screwdrivers and wrenches, what the mechanic is using to tackle the fix is a small laptop-like device that rewrites programming for the brakes.

California's insurance regulator plans to take steps Wednesday to pressure insurance companies into ending any financial relationship they have with Iran.

Signaling he'd meet critics part way on health care, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he's willing to sign a bill even if it doesn't deliver everything he pursued through a year of grinding effort at risk of going down as a dismal failure.

Asian stocks rose on Wednesday on signs that the European Union may rescue debt-strapped Greece, coaxing nervous investors back to riskier assets, but uncertainty over the plan weighed on the euro.

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's most dominant and profitable automaker, was not accustomed to outsiders telling it what to do, let alone some obscure bureaucrat from the United States, whose own car industry was on taxpayer-funded life support.

Honda Motor Co said it would recall another 440,000 cars around the world for faulty airbags as rival Toyota Motor Corp faced further probes over its largest-ever safety crisis.

Top global miner BHP Billiton signaled caution over a sustained global recovery and held off from a share buyback after reporting its weakest first-half profit in four years. BHP's July-December profit nevertheless beat market forecasts and was 24 percent stronger than in the previous half spurring the miner to raise its dividend slightly, pushing its shares up more than 3 percent.

ArcelorMittal , the world's top steelmaker, cautioned its markets would only recover slowly as it forecast higher shipments but lower selling prices in the early months of 2010, putting pressure on core profits.

European governments have agreed in principle to help heavily indebted Greece, a senior German coalition source said on Tuesday, in what would be the first rescue of a euro zone member in the currency's 11-year history.

A strong performance at its cable division and cost-cuts at its film studio propelled Walt Disney Co to better-than-expected earnings, but clouds remained over its theme parks.

Morgan Stanley's move to cut the firm's pay ratio followed prodding by large investors who questioned the firm's high pay levels, and the firm is preparing to take further steps to address shareholder concern, The Wall Street Journal Online reported on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama found common ground with Republicans on Tuesday over his top priorities of job creation and deficit reduction but drew a rebuke on healthcare reform.

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, from different sides of the political spectrum, expressed support on Tuesday for the U.S. government's aggressive steps in 2008 to keep the nation's banks and economy from a complete meltdown.

Shares end higher, lifted by the latest manufacturing index and increases in personal income and spending.

The cuts are expected to total an additional 450 out of about 6,800 employees. A steady decline in DVD revenue has forced Hollywood studios to cut staff.

OWN, jointly founded by Ms. Winfrey’s production company and Discovery Communications, is starting to reveal some details about its programming.

When you sign for a debit card at a retailer, the store pays your bank more than twice as much as when you enter a PIN — a strategy Visa hatched decades ago.

President Obama’s proposals to tax and curb the activities of Wall Street have thrown an unpredictable element into the debate over financial regulatory reform.

The Great Bailout is mostly over for the banks. For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the lifeline keeps getting longer.

The boom in the high-yield debt markets has bought time and breathing space for companies needing extra financial flexibility. But that has come at a cost, according to the latest annual report by Mody's Investors Service: more than $700 billion will come due between 2012 and 2014.

A letter was sent to the book seller’s board seeking permission for Ronald Burkle’s company to raise its stake to up to 37 percent without tripping poison pill provisions.

The cuts are expected to total an additional 450 out of about 6,800 employees. A steady decline in DVD revenue has forced Hollywood studios to cut staff.

The evangelical group Focus on the Family has purchased an ad for Super Bowl that is expected to contain an anti-abortion message.

Random brilliance from around the net. 

What's better than a 52-week low? How about a five-year plunge?

Looking for a megatrend? Then follow the leaders.

How to get into the habit of saving.

It's unanimous: Akamai is a buy.

Yesterday's market is today's moneymaking road map.

There's more to cash than dividends.     

You have more control over your taxes than you think.

Apple takes a sequential market-share hit, but it's no big deal.

Struggling public pension funds are tossing up a Hail Mary pass.

Look to new companies.

Markets don't reward smart people, nor should they.

Markets don't reward smart people, nor should they.

Why the Tea Party will have a hard time winning over Independents.

A new study shows that banks, not consumer victims, are increasingly feeling the pain of digital fraud.

How Twitter and ''The New Yorker'' can be friends.

The introduction of the iPad has re-energized an ongoing technology debate. Is it better to have one

After hours: NetGear, RealNetworks and Baidu shares rise.

Social games could be the perfect addition to Google's new social networking service.

Pierce Freeman's business card application is added to the App Store.

34 Recommendations

Honda Motor Co. is adding more than 378,000 cars to an existing safety recall for air bag inflation problems, the company said Tuesday.

27 Recommendations

Government safety officials Tuesday announced a recall of more than 500,000 drop-side cribs sold at Buy Buy Baby, Kmart, Wal-Mart and other stores after the death of three infants.

12 Recommendations

McDonald's Inc. sales, the world's largest fast food chain, said Tuesday a sales in stores open at least 13 months, a key sales comparison, rose 2.6 percent in January.

6 Recommendations

Consumers sent tepid signals to The Walt Disney Co. during the holiday quarter, as many of them still required discounts to step into theme parks and reduced spending on food, beverages and merchandise when they got there.

4 Recommendations

Senate Democrats circulated a jobs bill Tuesday that's light on new initiatives on boosting hiring and heavy with provisions sought by lobbyists for business groups, doctors and the satellite broadcasting industry.