Business News - Reuters

STOCKHOLM/WIESBADEN (Reuters) - General Motors was grappling with the future of two European units on Wednesday, seeking options for Saab after a sale collapsed and preparing to show unions its Opel restructuring plan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc , the insurer that received billions of dollars in a U.S. bailout, has been authorized by its board to pay Chief Executive Robert Benmosche's $7 million compensation, after it laid to rest concerns that he may quit the post.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials are increasingly confident the U.S. economic recovery will be durable, but do not see employment or inflation picking up soon, minutes from their November meeting showed.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Swift interest rate hikes aimed at containing inflation in product and asset prices could cause another downturn in the slowly recovering economies of the United States and Europe, the head of the World Bank said.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Starbucks will see China become the company's next major market after the United States in the near future, the firm's China chairman said on Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook has established a dual-class stock structure to ensure voting control by existing owners, but has no plans to become a public company, it said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell is to leave the company at the end of the year, indicating that he is looking for a bigger job at another company.

LONDON (Reuters) - LinkedIn, the world's biggest professional social network, will probably pursue an initial public offering some time but not in the near future, co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman told Reuters.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - J Crew Group Inc reported a quarterly net profit far above Wall Street estimates due to strong autumn sales of clothing and expanded profit margins from depressed year-ago levels.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government-run fund that safeguards U.S. bank deposits tumbled to a negative balance of $8.2 billion in the third quarter, as the number of problem banks surged by a third to 552.

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks rose while gold hit another record high and the dollar weakened on Wednesday after Federal Reserve minutes expressed confidence in the durability of the U.S. economic recovery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew more slowly than first thought in the third quarter, but a fifth month of gains in house prices in September and an improvement in consumer morale signaled the anemic recovery was intact.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge has barred the promotion of a scheme designed to help clients evade taxes on more than $1.25 billion in asset sales, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam attacked a U.S. regulator's lawsuit on Tuesday, denying insider trading charges and saying government wiretaps violated his constitutional rights.

PARIS (Reuters) - Half of the losses suffered by banks could still be hidden in their balance sheets, more so in Europe than in the United States, the International Monetary Fund's chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc cut its full-year forecast on expectations of a tough holiday season and high costs for its Nook electronic reader, while rival Borders Group Inc posted a wider-than-expected loss. Shares of both booksellers fell sharply.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve this month asked banks that were part of its "stress tests" to submit plans to repay government money, if they have not already repaid it, a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

DETROIT (Reuters) - A deal for General Motors Co to sell Saab collapsed on Tuesday when the buyer pulled out, in a move that threatens a 60-year-old Swedish auto brand with closure after mounting losses.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal securities regulators won an insider trading case when a jury in Boston ruled that a former Fidelity employee illegally profited from trading stocks that the mutual fund giant was buying for itself.