Industries

Retail

Coca-Cola Fourth-Quarter Profit Rises 55% as Sales Gain in India, China Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft-drink maker, said fourth-quarter profit gained 55 percent as volume sales grew in China and India. The shares rose the most in more than five months.

McDonald's January Sales Rise 2.6%, Top Estimates, on Demand in Asia, U.K. McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant company, said global sales rose 2.6 percent in January, topping some analysts’ estimates, as demand in Asia and the U.K. countered a decline in the U.S.

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Energy

Crude Oil Rises a Second Day as Dollar Weakens Against Euro, Equities Gain Crude oil rose the most in a week as the dollar weakened against the euro after the European Union held out the prospect of aiding Greece with its budget deficit.

Iraq's Government Allows Kurds to Resume Crude Oil Exports `Immediately' Iraq, holder of the world’s third- largest crude reserves, will resume oil exports from the northern Kurdish region “soon” after the government agreed to the local authority’s proposal on a payment method.

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Finance

MetLife Said to Weigh Using $8 Billion of Stock to Fund AIG Alico Buyout MetLife Inc. may use stock to pay for more than half of the planned $15 billion purchase of an American International Group Inc. life insurance unit, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

Commonwealth Bank First-Half Profit Rises on Fewer Defaults, Market Rally Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s biggest lender, said fiscal first-half profit climbed 13 percent as fewer customers defaulted on loans and global markets recovered.

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Health Care

Gilead's Quad Pill for AIDS May Overtake Atripla Sales, COO Milligan Says Gilead Sciences Inc., the world’s biggest maker of AIDS medicines, will begin three final-stage tests in 2010 for a four-drug combination pill against HIV that has the potential to generate $4 billion a year by 2014.

Amgen's Denosumab Helps Bones of Prostate Cancer Patients More Than Rival Amgen Inc.’s experimental drug denosumab reduced the rate of fractures in patients with prostate cancer, a use that may help the drug gain a broad market as a bone-strengthening treatment.

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Insurance

MetLife Said to Weigh Using $8 Billion of Stock to Fund AIG Alico Buyout MetLife Inc. may use stock to pay for more than half of the planned $15 billion purchase of an American International Group Inc. life insurance unit, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

Paulson Tells Buffett U.S. to Get `Every Penny' of Bailout Back from Banks Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, responding to a question from billionaire Warren Buffett, said the U.S. government will be repaid in full for the funds it put into the country’s lenders.

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Real Estate

`Blind Pools' Lose Appeal as Ziman, Callahan Plan Real Estate IPO Comeback Richard Ziman and Timothy Callahan want to raise money in the equity market after selling their real estate companies for a combined $12 billion before the property crash. Investors may balk at bankrolling their return.

Pulte Homes Reports 13th Straight Loss on Writedowns From Centex Purchase Pulte Homes Inc., the largest U.S. homebuilder, reported its 13th straight quarterly loss as a drop in market value after its purchase of rival Centex Corp. spurred a $563 million impairment charge.

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Technology

Disney Profit Tops Analysts' Estimates on TV Gains, Stablizing Parks Unit Walt Disney Co., the world’s biggest media company, reported fiscal first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as TV revenue rose and theme-park results stabilized.

Google Adds Social-Networking Feature to Gmail Program, Taking on Facebook Google Inc., the world’s most popular search engine, added a social-networking feature to its Gmail e- mail software, taking on market leader Facebook Inc.

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Transportation

Toyota to Reprogram Prius Brake Software as Global Recalls Top 8 Million Toyota Motor Corp. will recall 437,000 Prius and other gasoline-electric hybrids globally to fix a brake software glitch, complicating efforts by the world’s biggest carmaker to ease consumer concerns about its quality.

Ford, Geely Said to Miss Feb. 14 Target for Volvo Sale Deal on Financing Ford Motor Co. and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. are unlikely to sign a deal on the sale of the U.S. automaker’s Volvo unit by the start of the Lunar New Year on Feb. 14, said three people familiar with the negotiations.

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