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The two-day plunge in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the most valuable technology company, has cost it the title of world’s most valuable company.

Nicholas Mockford, ExxonMobil Brussels exec, was shot dead about 2 weeks ago in an apparent robbery attempt, but things look very fishy.

Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) surged past $700 for the first time, just a year after topping $400. The move brings Apple's market value to about $650 billion, cementing its 2012 role as the world's most valuable company, ahead of Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM).

Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, rose $2.04 to $662.63, Wednesday in advance of the expected announcement of the iPhone 5 at a product introduction in San Francisco, which isn’t scheduled until late morning.

Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, set new record highs Friday ahead of next Wednesday’s announcement of a new member of the iPhone family, perhaps the iPhone 5.

A new report released by the business consulting giant McKinsey Global Institute, showed that social-media tools stand to add $900 billion to $1.3 trillion to the economy, largely through increased productivity among skilled workers.

At least one major refiner, BP PLC (NYSE: BP), has said it is shutting down production in the region. Production shutdowns can lead to price spikes at the pump fairly quickly.

Royal Dutch Shell announced plans to spend at least $1 billion a year exploiting China's supply of shale gas, Reuters reported. The news came from the energy firm's head executive in China, Lim Haw Kuang, who responded to Reuters' questions about the alleged $1 billion-a-year plan to invest in the potentially vast natural gas trove.

Apple Inc's market value climbed past $623 billion on Monday, surpassing the record set by Microsoft Corp during the heyday of technology stocks in 1999.

Iraqi officials on Tuesday said their country's next oil lease auction will not allow companies to sign contracts with Iraq's semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.

Turkey signed the pipeline deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Sunday, bypassing the central government in Baghdad.

The Obama administration will reportedly restrict hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, by promulgating a set of rules governing such practices on federal land.

BP Plc (BP.L) reported a bigger-than-expected profit drop on the back of a fall in production prompted by the need to sell oil fields to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster, raising concerns about the oil group's turnaround plan.

Exxon Mobil Corp has shut the 160,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) North Line crude oil pipeline in Louisiana after a leak spilled 1,900 barrels of crude oil in a rural area over the weekend, affecting a conduit that supplies the nation's third-largest refinery.

Stocks advanced in choppy trade on Thursday as another batch of positive earnings and a strong housing report put equities on track for a third straight day of gains.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK), the second-largest producer of natural gas in the United States, announced on Thursday that it was stopping a controversial program that gave its chief executive officer a stake in the company's wells.

Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, posted a lower first-quarter profit on Thursday as its oil and natural gas production slumped more than 5 percent, pushing its shares down 1.1 percent premarket.

Natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp said on Thursday it would halt a controversial program that gave company founder and chief executive Aubrey McClendon an ownership stake in its wells.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) will increase its quarterly dividend 21 percent to become the largest corporate dividend payer, according to Standard & Poor's on Wednesday.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), the largest U.S. oil company, and one of the major players in reviving the Iraqi oil industry, has been excluded from that country's next energy auction amid a dispute between Baghdad and the Kurds.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Rosneft (LON: ROSN) are expected to cement a historic deal on Monday that would allow Exxon access to Russia's Arctic reserves and catapult Rosneft on the global energy stage by granting it entry into North America, reported Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter.

With the price of natural gas at its lowest point in two years, natural gas-producing companies are trying to raise enough capital to keep afloat, and the second-largest among them is no exception.

Chesapeake Energy Corp, the second largest natural gas producer in the US, said on Monday that it has finalized three deals to sell its assets, which will raise $2.6 billion, as it faces cash crunch and a rising debt.

Iraq is facing a serious crisis, Kurdistan's leader Massoud Barzani said during a recent visit in Washington -- and his semiautonomous region's ambitions in the oil-and-gas business aren't going to help defuse potentially explosive ethnic tensions.

The Kurdistan Regional Government announced Friday that the Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) told its president this week the oil-and-gas major is committed to a controversial exploration contract that has angered officials of Iraq's national government.

Historically, the CEO of a corporate sponsor of the tournament, which began Thursday in Georgia, congratulates the Masters winner. But Augusta National has been a men-only club since its 1933 founding.

A day after Iraq's oil minister announced Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) confirmed it was freezing a controversial exploration deal in Kurdistan, the autonomous region's natural resource minister said Baghdad is lying.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) has confirmed its intention to freeze a controversial deal with the Kurdish government. That may lead Baghdad to let the U.S. company compete again for exploration contracts.

After months of speculation and suggested threats against Exxon Mobil Corp., Iraqi officials announced Friday that the largest U.S. oil and gas company has frozen its deal with Kurdistan. Exxon Mobil declined to comment.