May 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Sotheby's and hedge fund investor Daniel Loeb ended their long-running battle and agreed to let Loeb and two of his associates join the auction house's board. The decision is seen as a big victory for the billionaire investor's hedge fund, Third Point, the company's biggest shareholder. (http://r.reuters.com/gew98v)

* Gregg Steinhafel, chief executive of Target Corp resigned on Monday, signaling the depths of the damage done to the company by last year's breach of customer information. After extensive discussions between the board and Steinhafel, Target's board said on Monday that it had determined the company needed new leadership. (http://r.reuters.com/hew98v)

* Hedge funds, private citizens and public investors have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan against five banks that make up what is known as the London gold fix. The plaintiffs accuse the banks of having used their privileged positions as market makers to rig the price of gold to their benefit. (http://r.reuters.com/jew98v)

* The Chinese government has imposed new limits on foreign brands of milk powder and infant formula sold in China, according to reports on Monday by the state-run news media. The restrictions appear to be the latest attempt by the government to reduce the enormous demand for foreign-made dairy products and bolster the sale of domestic brands. (http://r.reuters.com/new98v)

* Sarah Kavanagh, a teenager in Hattiesburg, Mississippi started a petition on Change.org to get The Coca Cola Co to drop brominated vegetable oil from Powerade. The petition attracted almost 60,000 signatures and has got the company to eliminate the ingredient from all of its drinks by the end of the year. (http://r.reuters.com/qew98v)

* Pfizer Inc announced a 15 percent drop in first-quarter earnings on Monday and renewed its call to buy British rival AstraZeneca PLC. Pfizer has aggressively pursued AstraZeneca since January - raising its offer to more than $106 billion as recently as Friday - but so far AstraZeneca has rejected its advances, saying the bids are too low. (http://r.reuters.com/sew98v)

* The French government said on Monday that it would oppose General Electric's $13.5 billion offer for a large portion of Alstom, the country's largest industrial conglomerate, saying the deal should be reconfigured on a more equitable footing. (http://r.reuters.com/tew98v)

* In the latest patent trial involving Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Apple's lawyers had noted a potential discrepancy in the jurors' damages total. The lawyers said Samsung also owed damages for a patent infringed by the Galaxy S2 smartphone. The federal jury returned to court on Monday to recalculate some of the damages Samsung owed to Apple. After making the changes, the jury came to the same overall figure of $119.6 million. (http://r.reuters.com/vew98v)

* General Motors Co said on Monday that Jim Federico, a senior engineer responsible for global vehicle integration, would retire after 36 years to pursue other interests. Federico's departure brings the number of executives who have retired or resigned to four since the automaker admitted in February that it failed for years to recall cars with faulty ignition switches linked to 13 deaths. (http://r.reuters.com/wew98v) (Compiled by Ankush Sharma in Bangalore)