J.P. Morgan shareholders rejected a proposal to split James Dimon's dual roles as chief executive and chairman, and re-elected all the members of the bank's board.

The Irish government denied it is sheltering some of the world's largest corporations, such as Apple, from paying taxes, saying the country's long-standing low corporation tax regime is transparent and doesn't make it a tax haven.

Sprint boosted its offer for Clearwire by 14%, succumbing to shareholder pressure with the hope of winning over vigorous opposition to the deal.

Senate investigators said Apple turned to "alchemy" and "ghost companies" to pay no corporate income tax to any national government on tens of billions of dollars in overseas income over the past four years.

Home Depot raised its full-year outlook and said net profit jumped 18% amid what CEO Frank Blake called a recovering housing market.

Best Buy posted a quarterly loss as it ramped up cost-cutting and revenue continued to slide. Online sales improved, however.

Philip Morris International has agreed to buy the 20% that it doesn't already own in its Mexican tobacco business for about $700 million. The stake is currently held by Grupo Carso SAB, a conglomerate founded by Carlos Slim.

Saks fiscal first-quarter profit sank 38% as the luxury retailer's results were hurt by store-closing costs and debt-extinguishment losses, though same-store sales rose 5.9%.

It took Whirlpool eight months to close a 1,000-person factory in Arkansas last year amid falling sales. In Italy, the company has been trying for three years to cut 500 jobs—with only partial success.

Security company G4S said Chief Executive Nick Buckles, who was heavily criticized over the company's handling of the London Olympic Games last year, will resign at the end of the month.