UNITED STATES

With three rounds of layoffs announced since the year began, Google Inc is showing rare signs of vulnerability.

Asian stocks pulled back from a six-month high on Thursday, while the safe-haven yen gained after China posted its slowest ever quarterly growth in a signal of the frailty of the global economy.

First-quarter sales at Roche Holding AG , the Swiss drugmaker that recently bought Genentech for $46.8 billion, rose 8 percent and met forecasts thanks to the strong growth of blockbuster cancer drug Avastin.

General Motors Corp has told U.S. dealers it is accelerating its timetable for closing about 1,700 dealerships as it rushes to meet a June 1 deadline to restructure under U.S. government oversight, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

First-quarter sales at Roche Holding AG , the Swiss drugmaker that recently bought Genentech for $46.8 billion, rose 8 percent due to strong sales of cancer medicines, in line with forecasts.

First-quarter sales at Roche Holding AG , the Swiss drugmaker that recently bought Genentech for $46.8 billion, rose 8 percent due to strong sales of cancer medicines, in line with forecasts.

Rosetta Stone Inc shares priced at $18 in the company's initial public offering, above the estimate range, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said on Wednesday, making it the fourth IPO on a U.S. exchange in 2009 as equities markets struggle to stabilize.

Oil fell back below $50 a barrel on Thursday, after surging more than 2 percent as equity markets rallied on signs the U.S. recession was easing, boosting hopes of a demand recovery in world's top energy consumer.

One of the nation’s largest public pension funds says it is looking to buy assets which are a part of the U.S. government’s $700 billion program to help banks sell off the illiquid investments.

British hedge fund manager Crispin Odey of Odey Asset Management said on Wednesday that he believes the current U.S. stock market rally could be lasting.

The U.S. will release the methods it used to measure the health of the nation’s 19 largest banks ahead of the release of the results of the so-called “stress tests” which would indicate which banks were in need of further government help, according to a report.

U.S. Energy trader SemGroup LP spiraled into bankruptcy last year after its top executives lied about its liquidity problems and mismanaged a speculative trading strategy, according to a report released by the company's court-appointed examiner on Wednesday.

General Motors Corp has told U.S. dealers it is accelerating its timetable for closing about 1,700 dealerships as it rushes to meet a June 1 deadline to restructure under U.S. government oversight, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

General Motors Corp has told U.S. dealers it is accelerating its timetable for closing about 1,700 dealerships as it rushes to meet a June 1 deadline to restructure under U.S. government oversight, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

New York Governor David Paterson will introduce legislation on Thursday to make gay marriage legal, but the move faces an uncertain vote in the state's Senate.

The U.S. economy continued to weaken in March and early April but the speed of contraction was fading amid scattered signs the country's recession may be nearing an end, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Fiat SpA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne turned up the heat on talks with struggling U.S. automaker Chrysler on Wednesday as General Motors Corp confirmed a possible buyer for its Saturn network.

Real money investors sat out the March stock market rally and are probably waiting for a second one around June or July, the head of the world's biggest stock exchange, NYSE Euronext , said in a newspaper interview.

Global shipments of personal computers slid 7.1 percent in the first quarter, industry tracker IDC said on Wednesday, although falling prices and the increasing popularity of netbooks helped keep sales from slipping even further.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Wednesday for a coordinated international effort to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa and said she would send an envoy to a Somali donors conference to pursue new anti-piracy steps.

As a deep recession strips Americans of their jobs, homes and investments, the 2009 U.S. tax season promises to see a large uptick in first-time delinquent income taxpayers.