IBT Staff Reporter

Consumer confidence rebounded to its highest level in 13 months at the end of March as optimism about jobs and income overcame higher prices at the gasoline pump, according to a survey released on Friday.

The S&P cut early gains to turn negative on Friday, putting it on track to extend a losing streak to four straight sessions.

Stocks rose modestly on Friday, rebounding after a string of declines with equities on track for their strongest quarter in more than two years.

Saudi Arabia is likely to burn less crude in its power plants this summer thanks to rising output from dedicated gas fields and gas that would be associated with any increase in oil output to make up for lower Iranian production.

Apple Inc and its main contract manufacturing Foxconn agreed to tackle violations of conditions among the 1.2 million workers assembling iPhones and iPads in a landmark decision that could change the way Western companies do business in China.

In its latest bid to slow dollar inflows in a global currency war, Brazil has dealt an unexpected blow to its own commodity exporters, choking off medium-term trade financing at a vulnerable time for the sector.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Friday after a string of declines, with equities on track for their strongest quarter in more than two years.

Honda Motor Co Ltd is recalling about 554,000 sport utility vehicles in the United States to inspect for faulty wiring in headlights.

Executives of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs are due to take their Indian charm offensive to the capital, New Delhi, on Friday, sources said, after courting business leaders and holding their first annual board meeting in the country.

Stock index futures were higher on Friday as bargain hunters entered the market after a string of declines, putting equities on track to record their strongest quarter in more than two years.

Stock index futures were higher on Friday as bargain hunters entered the market after a string of declines, putting equities on track to record their strongest quarter in more than two years.

BHP Billiton's veteran iron ore chief, Ian Ashby, is stepping down after 25 years with the world's biggest miner, it said on Friday, clearing the way for a new leader to complete the company's long-term $11 billion iron ore expansion.

French airline Air France is not considering a capital increase, Chief Executive Alexandre de Juniac said on Friday, after a newspaper reported earlier this week that auditors had given executives two years to recapitalize the carrier.

Euro zone finance ministers have agreed to boost the currency bloc's debt crisis firewall to roughly 800 billion euros ($1.06 trillion), Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said on Friday.

When Chinese worker Wu Jun heard that her employer, the giant electronics assembly company Foxconn, had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.4 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2 percent at 1007 GMT.

It is a marriage made in heaven for shopping addicts. Social shopping, the merger of social networking and e-commerce which has hooked millions of users in the United States, has now captured the attention of China's Internet giant.

More than $5 billion was wiped off the market value of Sun Hung Kai Properties on Friday, after the billionaire owners of Asia's largest real estate developer were arrested on suspicion of corruption.

Two U.S. clean tech companies plan to go public on Friday, as executives and bankers increasingly bet that high energy prices and more proven technology will make investors forget the sector's recent flameouts.

Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd said on Friday it was raising domestic and international fares for the second time in as many months to partially offset high jet fuel prices.

Semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology Inc said late on Thursday it has reached a deal with software giant Oracle to settle a lawsuit filed by Oracle over price increases for memory chips.

Star natural gas trader David Coolidge is returning a quarter of Velite Capital's assets to investors, seeking to prevent his Houston-based hedge fund from growing too big for the narrow gas market as prices plunge to 10-year lows.

Apple Inc and its China manufacturing partner, Foxconn, agreed to improve wages and working conditions at factories accused of being sweatshops, a move that could set a new higher-cost benchmark for other Western users of Chinese labor.

The United States is expected to ratchet up pressure on the European Union to end subsidies for Airbus by moving at the World Trade Organization toward retaliation on European goods, an industry official and other sources said.

Google Inc is planning to open an online store to sell tablet PCs directly to consumers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Verizon Communications Inc is aiming to offer an integrated video service for its wireless customers, its FiOS customers and its cable partners as soon as this holiday season, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing the telephone company's chief executive.

Best Buy Co reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales and said it would close 50 large U.S. stores and lay off another 400 employees, disappointing investors looking for even deeper cuts to turn around the world's largest consumer electronics chain.

In a landmark development for the way Western companies do business in China, Apple Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to work with partner Foxconn to tackle wage and working condition violations at the factories that produce its popular products.

The Pentagon budget for next year is dishonest and generals who have endorsed it on Capitol Hill are not giving Congress their true advice, a senior Republican lawmaker on budget matters said on Thursday amid rising rhetoric over looming defense cuts.