Lumia

Nokia and Microsoft will hold a media event in New York City on Sept. 5 in what is widely expected to be an unveiling of Nokia's first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Nokia is struggling to get retail attention from AT&T Mobility for its Lumia 900 Windows Phone smartphone four months after the gadget went on sale, as both the handset maker and carrier look ahead to the launch of Windows Phone 8, according to a  Bloomberg  report.

Nokia shares rose sharply on Wednesday, boosted by industry rumours that Chinese computer maker Lenovo may be interested in the struggling Finnish firm. However, Lenovo dismissed such rumours.

Nokia is holding negotiations with European carriers to strike revenue sharing and exclusivity partnerships for its forthcoming smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software, according to a report in the  Financial Times .

Rating agency Fitch lowered Nokia's debt rating by two steps to 'BB-' from 'BB+' and raised worries over the company's current handset portfolio. The downgrade comes on the heels of weak second-quarter results from the Finnish handset maker.

Nokia offered a ray of sunshine to battered investors with second-quarter results that surpassed some expectations. Perhaps most importantly, the company reported Lumia smartphone sales that were above estimates--Nokia said it sold 4 million Lumia phones during the period, while analysts had expected the company to report sales of around 3.8 million, according to  Bloomberg . Still, Nokia's second-quarter net loss was $1.7 billion.