(Reuters) - Boeing Co's quarterly profit beat expectations as operating margins improved and it contained costs, sending shares of the company higher. The world's largest aerospace and defense company also raised its 2011 earnings forecast, but the range it gave was still slightly below the average Wall Street estimate.

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(Reuters) - There may be a point at which global investors get indigestion from U.S. money printing. A fresh round of U.S. monetary easing may even do more harm than good for long-term investors as another flood of easy money into fast-growing emerging economies risks refueling oil and commodity price inflation, sapping consumption and growth.

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(Reuters) - Executives from U.S. credit rating agencies are expected to face sharp congressional scrutiny on Wednesday for their companies' roles in the financial crisis and the U.S. debt ceiling debate. Deven Sharma, president of McGraw-Hill Cos Inc unit Standard & Poor's, and Michael Rowan, global managing director for the commercial group at Moody's Corp's Moody's Investors Service, are due to appear before the House Financial Services subcommittee.

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(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc will use its surging revenue to boost growth and drive expansion into areas such as Web content and cloud computing rather than boost its margins. The largest Internet retailer reported a jump in quarterly revenue on sales of its Kindle electronic reader and other electronics and forecast better-than-expected revenue for the current quarter, sending its shares up more than 6 percent late on Tuesday.

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(Reuters) - Contrasting statements by euro zone politicians to domestic audiences have underlined the fragility of last week's deal to rescue Greece and unsettled financial markets already on edge because of the U.S. debt impasse. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told lawmakers from his Pasok socialist party on Wednesday that debt-stricken Athens will effectively receive the first joint eurobonds in the form of loans at close to cost price from the euro zone's rescue fund.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Tuesday as concerns about debt ceiling talks offset strong earnings from blue chip companies. Wall Street started off little changed but soon fell in negative territory on fears that a failure to raise the debt limit by an August 2 deadline would deeply damage the economy. Ford Motor Co (F.N) was up 0.5 percent at $13.24 after the automaker's second-quarter earnings beat expectations as North American sales improved.

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(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co's quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations, helped by higher prices and improved sales in North America. Ford, the only U.S. automaker that did not accept a government bailout, has posted a net profit for eight straight quarters. It had racked up net losses of $30 billion from 2006 through 2008 when it cut jobs, sold unprofitable brands and reshaped a lineup laden with large SUVs and pickup trucks.

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(Reuters) - Billionaire investor George Soros, whose stock-picking career has spanned nearly four decades, said he will manage money only for himself as new regulations threaten to crimp the hedge fund industry he made famous. The octogenarian fund manager, known as much for earning $1 billion on a nervy currency bet as for giving away millions to support liberal causes, told investors that he will return roughly $1 billion to outside investors and turn Soros Fund Management into a family office.

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(Reuters) - New single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in June, but a sharp rise in prices and declining supply suggested the market for new houses was starting to stabilize, a government report showed on Tuesday. Other data showed consumers grew more confident about the future this month, even though there were still concerns about lack of jobs. The Commerce Department said new single family homes sales slipped 1 percent to a seasonally adjusted 312,000-unit annual rate. However, the median sales price for a new home increased 5.8 percent last month to $235,200.

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(Reuters) - Greece wants a voluntary swap of government bonds for longer maturity paper to start in August and be completed fast to emerge rapidly from an expected default rating, its deputy finance minister said on Tuesday. Greece's private sector creditors will take a 21 percent loss on their bond holdings as part of a 37 billion euro ($53 billion) contribution to the country's latest bailout plan, agreed at a euro zone summit last week.

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