By Patrick Temple-West and Kevin Drawbaugh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook made no apology on Tuesday for the iPad maker saving billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through Irish subsidiaries and told lawmakers that his company backs corporate tax reform, even though it may end up paying more. The …

By Alwyn Scott (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc wants the U.S. Export-Import Bank to stop helping state-owned foreign airlines buy wide-body jets from Boeing Co , and would be willing to forgo such support for its own purchases if all such subsidies were eliminated, its chief executive said on Wednesday. "We would be perfectly …

By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus is helping the economy recover but the central bank needs to see further signs of traction before taking its foot off the gas, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday. A decision to scale back the $85 billion in bonds the …

By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - Apple's ability to shelter billions of dollars of income from tax has depended on an unusual loophole in the Irish tax code that helps the country compete with other countries for investment and jobs. A U.S. Senate investigation revealed Tuesday that Apple, maker of iPhones, iPads and Mac …

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest decline in three weeks, after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed some officials were open to tapering large-scale asset purchases as early as at the June meeting. Trading was volatile - the Dow and the S&P …

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Home resales rose in April to the highest level in nearly 3-1/2 years and prices surged, offering the economy a buffer from the stiff headwinds posed by belt-tightening by Washington. The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday existing home sales advanced 0.6 percent …

By John O'Donnell and Martin Santa BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe edged closer to lifting banking secrecy on Wednesday after Austria said it was ready to share data on foreign depositors but Vienna's support could fade should efforts to strike a similar deal with Switzerland fail. Austria's dropping of objections allowed EU …

By Dhanya Skariachan (Reuters) - Lowe's Cos Inc reported a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, hurt by colder-than-usual weather at the start of the spring selling season and strong competition from larger rival Home Depot Inc . The results contrasted sharply with those of Home Depot and signaled that Lowe's, …

(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday it will spin off its majority stake in animal health business Zoetis Inc to shareholders by allowing them to swap Pfizer stock for Zoetis shares at a 7 percent discount. Pfizer, the largest U.S. drugmaker, sold Zoetis shares in an initial public offering in February that raised $2.2 …

DETROIT (Reuters) - China's largest auto parts maker and a boutique car company led by former General Motors Co executive Bob Lutz have offered $20 million to buy "green" carmaker Fisker Automotive, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Wanxiang and VL Automotive are looking to buy Fisker, which has not built …

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co's quarterly profit slid 32 percent but the world's largest personal computer maker raised the lower end of its full-year outlook after earnings per share beat forecasts, sending its stock 10 percent higher. Net income fell to $1.08 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $1.59 billion, …

By David Henry TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co's outspoken chairman and chief executive, won a vote of confidence on Tuesday as shareholders recommended that he keep his chairman title, giving him a greater margin of approval than last year. Investors who had pressed for Dimon to be stripped …

By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain, France and Germany called for stricter rules to stop companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon aggressively avoiding taxes in austerity bitten Europe, while acknowledging they had done nothing unlawful. At a summit to discuss energy and tax policy, the leaders of the three largest …