Researchers at Linkoping University Sweden have created the analog and digital circuit inside living plants. Using the vascular system of a living rose as the model, they made the key elements of an electronic circuit inside the living rose and light up ions inside the flower's leaves.

China's main Shanghai stock index finish higher Wednesday, but other stock markets were mostly lower as investors are anxious about the volatile Chinese market.

Most U.S. companies so far this earnings season have managed to beat Wall Street profit forecasts despite weak sales, but investors hoping corporate headwinds have died down may need to temper their enthusiasm.

With earnings season underway, Wall Street is temporarily putting the U.S. Federal Reserve and macroeconomic policy on the back burner in favor of a focus on individual company results and forecasts for a pulse on the economy's health.

Wall Street is greeting what is expected to be the worst earnings season since 2009 with a gigantic shrug. Though there has been some selling in recent weeks, there's been no panic dumping of stocks, even though forecasts for S&P 500 first-quarter earnings have tumbled since Jan. 1, thanks to the surging dollar, falling oil prices and another severe winter. The earnings season unofficially kicks off Wednesday with results from aluminum company Alcoa (AA.N).

China will boost efforts this year to rid itself of a strong addiction to coal in a bid to reduce damaging pollution as well as cut the energy intensity of its economy, which is expected to grow at its lowest rate in 25 years.

U.S. producer prices recorded their biggest drop in more than five years in January as the cost of energy and a range of other goods tumbled, hinting at a disinflationary trend that could argue against the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.

Brent crude extended its rally on Tuesday, moving further away from six-year lows hit in January, but some analysts warned that prices had risen too far and could face a downward correction.

Craig Uden, who fattens cattle for beef on his Nebraska feedlot, expects to cut his energy costs by as much as a quarter this year because of falling oil prices - a silver lining in an otherwise tough rural economy.

Brent hovered near $55 a barrel on Thursday after data showed U.S. crude stockpiles set a record for the fifth week in a row, renewing fears that supply is still far outpacing demand.