Latest Business Wires

By Anupreeta Das and Tarmo Virki

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of U.S. business economists boosted their forecast for economic growth over the next year, but said the jobless rate will remain stubbornly high, a survey released on Monday showed.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Leading Indian outsourcers such as Tata Consultancy <TCS.BO>, Infosys <INFY.BO> and Wipro <WIPR.BO> stand to gain contracts worth about $1 billion in the next one or two years as U.S. banks emerge from the troubled asset relief program, the Economic Times reported on Monday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's defense ministry is moving toward selecting Lockheed Martin Corp's <LMT.N> F-35 jet as the mainstay of its next-generation fighter force, Kyodo news agency reported on Monday, citing ministry sources.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chieftain Capital Management, an investment firm with about $3 billion in assets, is breaking up following a rift among its managers, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Sunday.

By Kristina Cooke

By Jessica Hall

LONDON (Reuters) - Coca-Cola <KO.N>, the world's largest soft-drink maker, is planning to more than double its number of bottling plants in China within a decade, the Financial Times said.

By Leah Schnurr

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Current valuations of waste managers such as Waste Connections Inc <WCN.N>, Waste Management Inc <WM.N> and Republic Services Inc <RSG.N> give the company's shares a lot of room to rise, according to a Barron's story.

Bank of America may extend its search for a new chief executive into next year if its board is unable to pick a candidate in the next four days, according to a Bloomberg report.

When the holiday shopping season kicks off the day after Thanksgiving, retailers can expect to see millions of less frightened, but even more bargain-hungry customers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America <BAC.N> may extend its search for a new chief executive into next year if its board is unable to pick a candidate in the next four days, according to a report on the Bloomberg News website.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss food giant Nestle <NESN.VX> may consider a bid for Britain's Cadbury <CBRY.L> to challenge a hostile 9.9 billion-pound bid by Kraft Foods Inc and a potential move by Hershey, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

NEW DELHI, NOV. (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday there was no substitute to the U.S. dollar for replacement as the global reserve currency.

LONDON (Reuters) - Cadbury Plc <CBRY.L> would prefer a merger with U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co <HSY.N> rather than Kraft Foods Inc <KFT.N>, the British company's chairman Roger Carr told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The auction for Nortel Network's optical networking and carrier ethernet business went into a second day on Saturday, after Ciena <CIEN.O> called for a break in the auction late on Friday, two sources said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis has said he would consider postponing his retirement if directors need more time to find a successor or smooth the transition to the next CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of Delta Air Lines Inc <DAL.N> says the SkyTeam alliance of global carriers would be willing to invest more than its proposed $1.02 billion in Japan Airlines <9205.T>, the Wall Street Journal reported.

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss