Reuters - Hennes & Mauritz (HMb.ST), the world's third-biggest clothing retailer by sales, posted second-quarter pretax profits and May sales above market expectations on Wednesday, helped by a weak U.S. dollar and good weather.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc has offered early retirement to the 1,350 employees of its Japanese consumer finance unit, as the subprime-hit U.S. bank retreats from consumer lending in the world's second-largest economy.

AFP - China Everbright Bank said on Tuesday that it had applied to float on the country's local currency denominated A-share stock market.

Reuters - Activist investor Olivant has raised its stake in Swiss bank UBS to 2.5 percent and said on Wednesday it had fully supported the recent rights issue.

Reuters - A forward-looking measure of U.S. non-residential construction activity weakened last month but remains above a record low reached in March, an architects' trade group said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it had purchased privately held digital television advertising technology company Navic Networks.

Reuters - Movie studio DreamWorks SKG is close to a deal with India's Reliance ADA Group to form a new movie venture, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the talks.

Reuters - Office goods supplier Staples has won approval from the European Commission for its 1.7 billion euro ($2.64 billion) takeover bid for Dutch peer Corporate Express .

Reuters - Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co posted a 7 percent drop in first-quarter profit on Tuesday, but results were better than expected as the company gained market share in televisions, computers and video gaming.

AFP - Danish brewer Carlsberg, which together with Heineken acquired rival Scottish and Newcastle earlier this year, said Tuesday it had launched a savings plan at a cost of one billion kroner (134 million euros, 208 million dollars).

Reuters - U.S. technology stocks rose on Monday for the third straight session, fueled by optimism about sales for Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's new iPhone.

Reuters - World crude oil production has topped out at 85 million barrels per day even as demand keeps climbing, helping to drive a stunning surge in prices, billionaire oil investor T. Boone Pickens said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said on Tuesday she would do everything possible to "stop the sale" of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc to rival brewer InBev NV .

Reuters - Soaring energy costs pushed U.S. producer prices up sharply last month and housing starts fell to 17-year low, according to data on Tuesday that spotlighted the Federal Reserve's dilemma of tackling weak growth amid high inflation.