Hewlett Packard Company chief sales officer Andy Mattes, right, and Wan Shou Gu, left, from a Chinese company, sign papers of agreement in San Francisco, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. during a formal signing ceremony between U.S. and Chinese companies. A Chinese delegation signed contracts with American companies to buy billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods in an apparent effort to ease trade tension between the two countries. [AP]

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)