The marketing chief who directed about $8 billion a year advertising products such as Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste and Gillette shavers is stepping down, the Procter & Gamble Co. said Tuesday.

Consumer goods company Procter & Gamble Co. agreed to sell its ThermaCare heat wrap business to a unit of drug maker Wyeth on Tuesday.

Procter & Gamble Co., which makes Tide detergent, Duracell batteries and Pampers diapers, said Tuesday that Marc S. Pritchard will replace James R. Stengel as global marketing officer, effective Aug. 1.

Among the earnings projection stories for Tuesday, July 15, from AP Financial News:

Shares of consumer products companies dropped Tuesday morning before recovering later in the session, after Kimberly-Clark late Monday reduced its second-quarter and full-year outlook below analyst expectations.

Procter & Gamble Co., maker of Tide detergent, Duracell batteries and Pampers diapers, reaffirmed its revenue and profit outlook Tuesday for its fiscal fourth quarter ended in June.

Procter & Gamble affirmed its earnings and sales outlook for its fiscal fourth quarter, after warnings from other consumer products companies.

A glance at the new Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer that is being formed by the Belgian company's $52 billion takeover of U.S.-based Anheuser:

Steve Ballmer has been CEO at Microsoft Corp for eight years, but he will finally get to move into the corner office vacated by Bill Gates, the college friend who brought him to the company nearly three decades ago.

By anyone's reckoning, it was a rough week.  Crude oil continued its relentless climb; banks and brokerages gave hints of more discouraging news; government data pointed to a weak economy; even strong companies like Nike, Oracle, and Research In Motion issued cautious guidance; and Federal Reserve policymakers, widely perceived as powerless to help, left interest rates unchanged.  But all week, even through the worst of the market's sell-offs, CNBC guests offered

Almost everywhere they looked during the week, investors saw red ink flowing. But CNBC guests worked hard to find bright spots in the murk.

To help investors prepare their portfolios for next week, CNBC asked the market experts for their best stock picks now.

With the credit crunch weighing on consumers' wallets, tap water is making a comeback.

When the News Corporation added MySpace to its portfolio nearly three years ago, it expected that if its base of 16 million users kept growing — and each user kept adding friends, sharing photos and swapping flirty messages — the advertising dollars would roll in, the New York Times reported.

To help investors get their portfolios ready for next week, CNBC asked the market pros for their best stock picks now.