Batman fans inspired by his latest box office hit can bam and kapow alongside the Caped Crusader and other superheroes with the launch of the world's first licensed massively multiplayer online comic book game. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is using this week's mammoth Comic-Con International show at the San Diego Convention Center to introduce the

U.S. regulators reached an agreement to conditionally approve Sirius Satellite Radio Inc's purchase of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc as the companies said they would pay mlns of dollars to settle allegations of past rule violations. The three Republicans on the five-member Federal Communications Commission have agreed in principle to vote in favor of letting

European stocks fell on Thursday, giving up most of the previous day's gains as cuts in annual forecasts from Daimler and Renault hit autos and weakening commodities dragged oils and miners lower. Credit Suisse surged 5.3% after posting forecast-beating earnings, but the results failed to spark a rally in the banking sector, which lost 0.8%.

Jobless claims jumped last week and the pace of existing home sales tumbled to a 10-year low as slowing growth hit hiring and a glut of unsold homes weighed on the real estate market, data on Thursday showed. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped 34,000 last week, the Labor

Ford Motor Co posted a $8.7 bln quarterly loss on Thursday as it wrote down the value of truck and SUV operations and cautioned that it did not expect to see a U.S. economic turnaround until 2010. The loss was deeper than analysts had forecast and sent Ford shares down by 7% in premarket trading.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on Greek cement manufacturer Titan Cement Co. S.A. to 'BBB-/A-3' from 'BBB/A-2' and removed the ratings from CreditWatch where they had been placed with negative implications on May 6, 2008. The outlook is negative. "The downgrade reflects the expected sharp negative impacts

Futures for the S&P were down 0.3%, for the Dow Jones industrial average down 0.2% and for the Nasdaq up 0.3% at 0940 GMT. Companies reporting include 3M , Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dow Chemical, Eli Lilly, Ford, Xerox . Meanwhile, key macro data is U.S. home sales at 1400 GMT and jobless claims at 1230 GMT.

The House of Representatives passed a massive housing rescue bill on Wednesday after the White House dropped a threatened veto, paving the way for passage of measures aimed at shoring up the worst U.S. home market since the Great Depression. Withdrawal of the veto threat spurred investors to snap up shares and bonds of mortgage