Oracle Corp launched its first computer hardware product on Wednesday, signalling that the technology leader is ready to move beyond its core sector of business software.

For the first time since its founding 31 years back, Oracle Corp has decided to sell computer hardware products which for the time being include a database machine and a small storage device. Both the products have been manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Co. and have been in development for three years. The products have been designed to enable companies a speedier extraction of information stored on Oracle’s database software while also taking up less space in corporate data centers.

The database machine carries a price-tag of $650,000 and is capable of storing data up to 168 terabytes. With the launching of this machine into the computer hardware market, the Oracle-HP partnership hopes to take on other database storage systems developed by companies like Netezza Corp, IBM Corp as well as EMC Corp.

Both the database machine and the storage system were unveiled by Oracle Chief Executive, Larry Ellison before a 43000-strong crowd gathered for an Oracle customer conference.

In recent years, Oracle has been investing hugely in expanding its outlay of software applications so as to appeal to corporate clients who prefer buying as many programs as possible from a single vendor.

Nike recorded a drop of 10 percent in its profits during the first quarter. The company attributed this fall in profits to a one-time tax gain earlier in the year which was not repeated.

Nike is a world-renowned athletic shoe and apparel company with sales and manufacturing operations across the globe. On Wednesday, the company reported that its net income had fallen to $510.5 million or $1.03 a share from $569.7 million or $1.12 a share it recorded a year back. However the corresponding quarter in 2007 included a special one-time tax gain of $104.5 million that had raised earnings by 20 cents a share. If adjusted for the benefit, net income would have gone up by 10 percent.

The first quarter figures released by Nike also showed a jump in revenues which recorded a rise of 17 percent to $5.43 billion. This was mainly due to increased sales from international operations, especially Asia along with changes in currency rates which played its part in increasing revenue of the company by 7 percentage points in the quarter.

Results of first quarter showed that Nike had beaten estimates of analysts from Thomas Financial who had predicted that the company would earn 92 cents per share.

New data on home sales in the US has revealed a drop of 2.2 percent which is still below expectations. The recent downward figures of home sales indicate that the repercussions of last year’s housing market crisis are far from over, despite federal rescue packages for mortgage finance companies and other relief measures for homeowners facing foreclosures.

The National Association of Realtors released home sales figures on Wednesday which showed that despite an 11 percent drop in home sales compared to August last year, home sales have been on the rise in certain areas of California, Nevada and Florida. This is mainly because home prices have fallen drastically in these states which have prompted buyers to snap up homes at steep discounts. The median sales price plunged by 9.5% to $203,100 marking the steepest price decline since 1999.

The inventory of unsold homes too fell from an all-time record of 4.6 million in July to 4.3 million in August this year. However analysts were not yet ready to celebrate the drop of 7 percent in the number of unsold homes since thousands of foreclosed properties are blocked in courts while those homeowners who are compelled to sell are keeping off the markets. Moreover economists believe that five months of inventory is more desirable.

Crippled by financial losses on Fannie and Freddie securities, Gateway Bank has agreed to be purchased by a much smaller financial institution, Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc.

Sources say that the all-stock deal between Gateway and Hampton Roads is being valued at $101 million in which each share of the former will be traded for 0.67 shares of the latter. The deal marks the acquisition of one of the biggest coastal lenders by a company half its size. Currently Gateway’s total assets are over $2 billion while Hampton Roads claimed that as of June 30 this year, it had $845 million worth of assets.

Gateway Bank suffered major losses after Fannie and red die passed under government control. This led to the writing down of a substantial portion of its $40.4 million investments in the mortgage finance companies which left Gateway Bank is search of additional capital to stay afloat.

The merger of Gateway and Hampton Roads is still subject to regulatory and stockholder approval but if passed, the deal will probably be closed in the fourth quarter. After the merger, assets of the combined bank are expected to total $3 billion. The branches of Gateway Bank would continue to operate under its original names even after the acquisition.

The tainted-milk scandal in China has spread across the globe and industries as many Countries have begun recalling other Chinese food items like candy bars, yoghurt and rice balls.

In the United Kingdoms, popular retail chain Tesco took down Chinese-made White Rabbit Creamy Candies from its shelves after reports came in that the milk candies in Singapore and New Zealand had tested positive for melamine contamination. Chinese dairy and food products have now been banned in more than a dozen countries, the latest being France and South Korea which have even halted the entry of other food items like biscuits and candies that could contain dairy derivatives.

China has been rocked by the tainted-milk scandal which has killed four infants so far and landed 53000 others in hospitals. Baby formula in many supplies was found to be contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers. The ingestion of even small amounts of melamine can cause severe kidney damage among infants. Suppliers are suspected of adding melamine to milk and infant formula in order to make them appear high in protein content.

Safety officials from US and other European countries say that the melamine poisoning highlights the need for more stringent enforcement of product safety standards in manufacturing.