PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - June 3

June 3 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in the New York Times business pages on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* New-vehicle sales in the United States climbed to their highest levels of the year in May, despite rising gas prices and the bankruptcies of General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK and Chrysler. But demand is still below the levels that most automakers need to be profitable.

* General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK has reached a preliminary agreement for the sale of its Hummer brand of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to a machinery company in western China with ambitions to become a carmaker.

* The insurance industry says it wholeheartedly embraces a health care overhaul, promising Congress and the president that it will make it much easier for individuals to buy insurance on their own.

* Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ended his first visit to China on Tuesday by saying that his meetings here had begun to lay the foundation for greater cooperation between Washington and Beijing on a wide range of issues, including the global finance and climate change.

* The Justice Department has begun an investigation into whether the recruiting practices of some of the largest technology companies violated antitrust laws, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

* The unemployment rate in the European Union pushed higher in April, indicating that nascent signs of economic recovery had yet to be felt in the labor market.

* Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier, and the hedge fund Eastbourne Capital Management have succeeded in ousting the chairman of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc (AMLN.O) as well as its lead independent director, giving them a bigger-than-expected victory in their hard-fought proxy fight.

* The dollar slid to its weakest point since late September on Tuesday even as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in Beijing, tried to reassure the Chinese government that its investments in $1 trillion of United States debt were secure.

* Shares of Barclays Plc (BARC.L), the British bank, fell sharply Tuesday after Abu Dhabi sold a big part of its investment in the bank made near the height of the credit crisis last year.

* The number of home buyers who agreed to buy a previously occupied home rose the most in nearly eight years in April as the median sales price dropped by about 15 percent, a real estate trade group said Tuesday.

* Losses at the nation's savings-and-loan associations narrowed considerably in the first quarter, but the number of institutions in trouble increased, the Office of Thrift Supervision said Tuesday.

* Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV.N), the home builder, said Tuesday that it cut its quarterly loss, but its revenue fell by nearly half as it cut prices to encourage sales.

* Nokia (NOK1V.HE) on Tuesday began shipping its most Internet-friendly smartphone to date, the first in a series of high-end phones expected this summer.

* The Securities and Exchange Commission appointed a former federal prosecutor, George Canellos, to lead its New York office, the agency said Tuesday.