Business & Financial News, U.S & International Breaking News

Wall Street's main indexes were set to open near record highs on Wednesday, as Joe Biden prepared to take charge as U.S. President, while Netflix jumped after saying it will no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies.

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance since October on Wednesday when he spoke to a group of teachers by video, easing concern about his unusual absence from the limelight and sending shares in the e-commerce giant surging.

Morgan Stanley boosted both its short and long-term operating targets on Wednesday after coronavirus-induced volatility in financial markets helped the Wall Street bank post a quarterly profit that sailed past estimates.

Rescue teams on Wednesday drilled new holes down a gold mine in China's Shandong province, searching for more survivors after an explosion 10 days ago and preparing an escape passage for a group known to still be alive, state media reported.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday it was "outrageous" that hundreds of thousands of police records had been deleted due to a human coding error with the Police National Computer.

A surge in the bond market's best gauge of how much inflation investors expect in the years ahead could be underestimating how long the economic shock from the pandemic will last, even if the new Joe Biden administration pushes its proposed massive stimulus package through Congress quickly.