3M boosted its first-quarter earnings guidance on Thursday, saying growth across its businesses came in stronger than expected. Its shares jumped 5.1 percent.

HP showed off new products and research tailored to India, including a writing tablet that makes it easier to enter characters from two of India's national languages into a computer

Shares of NEC Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Japan's two biggest cell-phone makers, gained after the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported the companies will form a handset parts-making venture with TI to cut production cost.

Microsoft announced that it had bought Lionhead Studios, a British company that developed the "Fable" role-playing games for its Xbox videogame consoles.

LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics are slashing prices for 32-inch flat panel TVs in Korea market.