* The European Commission finds leading computer chipmaker Intel guilty of violating European anti-trust rules and orders it to pay a fine of €1.06 billion ($1.4 billion). full story
* One in 374 U.S. mortgages is in default or foreclosure and the number of distressed homeowners is sure to grow.
* Sales at U.S. retailers fell for a second straight month in April as cash-strapped consumers held back on some purchases, according to a government report on Wednesday that dealt a blow to hopes the economy was beginning to improve,retail sales slipped 0.4 percent after falling by 1.3 percent in March.
* The US financial system has completed a big part of the painful adjustment away from its excessively leveraged state, and lending is starting to improve, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday.
* A day after saying big US banks probably needed to raise only one-fourth the capital demanded by the government, Standard & Poor's said the nation's banking crisis has "merely entered a new phase" and might not end before 2013.