IBT Staff Reporter

White House officials raised concerns on Saturday about online piracy legislation in the works in Congress that top technology companies have decried as heavy-handed, saying a lighter touch would be better.

European leaders promised on Saturday to speed up plans to strengthen spending rules and get a permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, a day after U.S. agency S&P cut the ratings of several euro zone countries' creditworthiness.

France risks another downgrade of its sovereign credit rating if its public debt and budget deficit deteriorate further, Standard & Poor's said on Saturday, a day after it cut the country's top-notch AAA rating by one notch to AA+.

Former NFL player Jeremy Bloom anxiously scanned the crowd at a taco party under the luminous faux-sky of the Venetian hotel's canal walk in Las Vegas. The wide receiver turned entrepreneur wasn't hoping to spot friends or catch a waiter's attention -- he was on the lookout for venture capitalists.

Former NFL player Jeremy Bloom anxiously scanned the crowd at a taco party under the luminous faux-sky of the Venetian hotel's canal walk in Las Vegas. The wide receiver turned entrepreneur wasn't hoping to spot friends or catch a waiter's attention -- he was on the lookout for venture capitalists.

Stock investors will return to a tug of war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns next week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region's difficulties in view.

France's credit-rating cut dominated the country's newspapers on Saturday, with the left-leaning Liberation blazing below a front-page headline reading S_RKOZY that the president had lost an A.

The loss of France's much-prized triple-A credit rating three months from elections that will likely hinge on the handling of the economy is a bitter blow for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made the top-notch grade a badge of honor.

Ratings downgrades in the euro zone by S&P underline why Europe must seal a pact to tighten fiscal rules quickly and get its permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co could lose up to $5 billion from its exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in an interview with Class CNBC, carried in Italian newspaper Milano Finanza on Saturday.

Credit-rating downgrades in the Eurozone by Standard & Poor's underline why Europe must seal a pact to tighten fiscal rules quickly and get its permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday.

A group of Indian hackers has offered support to an American man who filed a lawsuit against the Symantec Corp. by publishing source code from a 2006 version of Norton Utilities, a software program at the heart of the legal dispute.

A group of Indian hackers has offered support to an American man who filed a lawsuit against Symantec Corp by publishing source code from a 2006 version of Norton Utilities, a software program at the heart of the legal dispute.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro- zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area.

Stock investors will return to a tug of war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns next week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region's difficulties in view.

The top credit rating of Europe's bailout fund depends on additional financial backing from Germany and the other three remaining AAA-rated euro zone countries, Standard & Poor's said on Friday.

Bank of America , Goldman Sachs and Citigroup could be among companies that beat estimates when they report next week, Thomson Reuters StarMine forecasts show.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro- zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro- zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area.

A Japanese banker who is a key figure in the Olympus accounting fraud came into public view for the first time since the scandal broke, appearing on Friday at his divorce hearing in a Florida court.

Sempra, the commodity trading powerhouse that boasted a decade-long profit streak before it was sold four years ago, is being reborn.

A Japanese banker who is a key figure in the Olympus accounting fraud came into public view for the first time since the scandal broke, appearing on Friday at his divorce hearing in a Florida court.

In the first legal challenge to last week's recess appointments by the Obama administration, a lobbying group for small businesses said on Friday it is contesting the naming of three members to the National Labor Relations Board.

In a flurry of court filings this week, lawyers for claimants before the $20 billion BP oil spill fund asked a federal judge to reconsider his December order requiring that six percent of future settlements be placed in a reserve account.

Bank of America Corp told Federal Reserve officials in June that it could shed branches in some parts of the country if it needed to raise capital in an emergency, a person familiar with the matter said.

U.S. stock investors will return to a tug-of-war between signs of domestic strength and overseas concerns next week as a batch of critical earnings reports look to add credence to the idea the economy is improving, while credit-rating downgrades in Europe will keep that region's difficulties in view.

Main Street investors made fewer trades in their brokerage accounts toward the end of 2011 amid skittish markets, slowing a key engine of growth for U.S. discount brokers.

U.S. regulators looking at whether Google manipulates its search results to favor its own products have expanded the probe to include Google+, the search giant's new social networking tool, a source familiar with the probe said on Friday.

U.S. regulators looking at whether Google Inc. manipulates its search results to favor its own products have expanded the probe to include Google+, the search giant's new social-networking tool, a source familiar with the probe said on Friday.