The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
_0">* Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time. Most officials at the June meeting also indicated that they expect an interest rate hike to come next year. (on.wsj.com/VLc1vo)
* IBM on Wednesday pledged to spend $3 billion over five years on semiconductor research. The money will be directed toward two major tasks: tackling technical obstacles to the miniaturization of circuitry on conventional silicon chips and developing alternative materials and technologies to keep boosting computing speed while consuming less energy. (on.wsj.com/1nffCfJ)
* The Education Department says it was unaware of the dire state of Corinthian Colleges Inc's finances before it moved June 12 to restrict access to federal student-aid dollars, which made up 80 percent of Corinthian's revenue. The aid freeze was designed to pressure the company to comply with an investigation into recruiting tactics, administration officials say, not to force its closure. (on.wsj.com/1szTnRZ)
* Chinese exports grew in June on the back of strengthening U.S. consumer demand, in a positive sign for China's crucial factory sector and for the global outlook. The pace of export growth disappointed some economists, though others blamed the lingering impact of distortions in last year's Chinese trade numbers used to make the comparison. (on.wsj.com/1ra3L2H)
* European Union antitrust officials have started questioning rival firms about Facebook Inc's proposed $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp, ahead of a formal review that could be a test case for how to apply EU competition law to the new world of social media. (on.wsj.com/1n7ifLz)
* U.S. regulators are poised to complete long-awaited rules intended to prevent a repeat of the investor stampede out of money-market mutual funds that threatened to freeze corporate lending during the 2008 financial crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to vote on a plan as early as this month that would require certain money funds catering to large, institutional investors to abandon their fixed $1 share price and float in value like other mutual funds, these people said. (on.wsj.com/1ol2KkG) (Compiled by Sudarshan Varadhan in Bangalore)