Munich - Infineon Technologies AG announced Friday plans to slash its workforce by 10 per cent after Europe's second biggest semiconductor group posted a third-quarter net loss of 592 million euros (930 million dollars) amid fierce market competition.

The chipmaker's further loss came the group was forced to announce further writedowns of 411 million euros for its memory chip offshoot Qimonda.

After initially falling by about 2.7 per cent following the release of Infineon's latest results, the group's shares rebounded by
3.3 per cent to 5 euros in mid-morning trading in Frankfurt.

Zurich - Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse said Thursday it returned to the black in the second quarter of 2008, with net earnings of 1.2 billion francs (1.16 billion dollars).

The figure was 62 per cent below the second-quarter 2007 result, but an improvement after the bank had lost 2.15 billion francs in the first quarter this year reflecting the turbulence in the subprime mortgage sector.

Credit Suisse said that in the second quarter all three of its divisions - private banking, investment banking and wealth management - operated at a profit.

Paris - Faced with a weakening automobile market and rising costs for raw materials and transport, French auto maker Renault said Thursday it would cut jobs to reduce overhead costs by 10 per cent.

The move was to be based primarily on what the company said would be "voluntary departures," most of them in Europe. The announcement was made as Renault announced excellent first-half profits and sales results.

Renault provided no details about how many jobs would be cut, but French radio station RTL reported Thursday that it involved some 7,000 employees, most of them in France.

The station also said that Renault head Carlos Ghosn had discussed the step with French President Nicolas Sarkozy late Wednesday.

Stockholm - Nordic telecommunications group Telia Sonera on Thursday posted higher pre-tax income for second quarter 2008.

The group said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was 7.97 billion kronor (1.3 billion dollars), compared to 7.51 billion kronor in the corresponding business period 2007.

Sales in the quarter increased 5.7 per cent to 25.27 billion kronor.

Chief Executive Lars Nyberg said operations in Eurasia developed "strongly."

Wellington - New Zealand's consumer watchdog Commerce Commission on Thursday launched an investigation into the country's third largest finance company, Hanover Finance Limited, after it froze repayments to 16,500 investors owed more than 550 million New Zealand dollars (about 421 million US dollars).

The commission said its investigation centred on whether the company had breached the Fair Trading Act by making misleading representations to prospective investors and the public generally.

Hanover Finance suspended business on Wednesday, with its joint owner Mark Hotchin saying, "Against a backdrop of global credit uncertainties, falling property prices and lower reinvestment rates, the industry model has collapsed."

San Francisco - Amazon. com's second-quarter earnings more than doubled to 158 million dollars thanks to strong sales around the world and strong demand for toys and electronics.

The pioneer of online retail stores said its sales rose 41 per cent to 4.06 billion dollars compared to 2.89 billion dollars in the year-ago quarter. The profit of 158 million dollars, or 37 cents a share, was up from 78 million dollars, or 19 cents a share. International sales rose by 47 per cent helped by the dollar's decline against other currencies.