IBT Staff Reporter

As two Internet powerhouses slug it out to tie the knot with Skype, Facebook looks likely to be a more aggressive suitor than Google, and the world's largest social network may make for a better fit.

China reiterated on Friday that it is not deliberately seeking a trade surplus with the United States, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said, days before talks with the United States.

Sony is looking to its insurers to help pay for its massive data breach, an amount that one expert estimates could exceed $2 billion, but others said insurers may balk at ponying up that kind of money.

Brent crude rose by 1.3 percent to over $112 a barrel on Friday as a weaker dollar sparked a rebound from an overnight rout, but prices could head south again on mounting economic concerns.

Bank of America Corp made money in trading every day of the first quarter, and posted more than $25 million in trading-related revenue for practically all of those days, the company said on Thursday.

Kraft Foods Inc reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by price increases and cost cuts, but it tempered its full-year outlook after losing the contract to sell Starbucks coffee in grocery stores.

Vale , the world's biggest producer of iron ore, posted a record profit in the first quarter as revenue more than doubled and the company booked a one-off gain from the sale of some aluminum assets.

Credit Suisse was subpoenaed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week for documents related to securitized home loans, according to court documents filed on Thursday by a bond insurer suing Credit Suisse.

Kraft Foods Inc reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by price increases and cost savings.

Cisco Systems Inc CEO John Chambers, cutting back a bloated management bureaucracy he helped build, has kicked off a sweeping overhaul to revive the networking equipment maker's flagging fortunes.

Kraft Foods Inc reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by price increases, and said it likely will raise some prices even more this year.

New Yorkers and tourists alike gathered in the streets of Manhattan with the aim of catching a glimpse of President Barack Obama, who was visiting Ground Zero for the first time to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site just days after he announced that U.S. forces had killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Bailed-out insurer American International Group lost more than $1 billion from its ongoing operations in the first quarter, as the company took a huge charge for the termination of its credit facility from the Federal Reserve.

Domino's Pizza Inc posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as its reworked U.S. pizza recipe drove sales, and costs for cheese and meats rose less than feared.

Intel's latest manufacturing breakthrough sends a clear warning to rival ARM Holdings not to get too complacent with its overwhelming lead in the red-hot mobile arena.

Bailed-out insurer American International Group posted a loss from continuing operations in the first quarter as it recorded a charge of more than $3 billion related to its recapitalization and termination of its credit facility from the Federal Reserve.

A top Federal Reserve official called on Thursday for a small interest rate increase by the end of the year if inflation rises as forecast, in one of the first outright calls from a policymaker to tighten monetary policy.

Domino's Pizza Inc posted a big quarterly profit beat on Thursday, as sales at restaurants open at least a year were stronger than expected and costs for commodities like cheese and meats rose less than feared.

Antitrust law was inadequate to preserve the openness of the Internet and to allow innovation to flourish, the top U.S. communications regulator said on Thursday, defending Internet road rules adopted last year.

The number of Americans filing for jobless aid rose to an eight-month high last week and productivity growth slowed in the first quarter, clouding the outlook for an economy that is struggling to gain speed.

Wall Street stock indexes fell for a fourth straight day on Thursday as a massive sell-off in commodities spilled over into other markets, forcing investors out of higher-risk assets and rattling equities markets before Friday's U.S. payrolls data.

In Hebei, China, a teenager named Lui Shi Ching, 16 years old, has carried his friend to school daily for the last 8 years. His friend Lu shao has a congenital disorder which makes it difficult for him to walk.

A tripling of profits by General Motors Co was marred by incentives to lift car sales, raising doubts about the automaker's ability to maintain momentum since emerging from bankruptcy.

General Electric Co and Rolls Royce Group Plc asked the Pentagon on Thursday to let them resume development, at their own expense, of a controversial alternate engine for the multinational F-35 fighter jet.

Oil plunged more than 8 percent on Thursday, heading for the third biggest daily drop in dollar terms on record, as concerns about economic growth and monetary tightening spurred a sell-off in commodities.

Cisco Systems Inc CEO John Chambers, cutting back a bloated management bureaucracy he helped build, has kicked off a sweeping overhaul to revive the networking equipment maker's flagging fortunes.

Video conferencing services developed by Huawei and ZTE will shake up the market in coming years in the same way the Chinese vendors changed the telecom gear sector, research firm Ovum said on Thursday.

Oil collapsed into free-fall on Thursday, diving as much as 10 percent and sending U.S. crude back under $100 a barrel as investors staged a nearly unprecedented stampede for the exits.

Visa Inc's quarterly profit rose more than expected as increasingly confident consumers spent more, but doubts remain about the payments network's ability to grow under looming regulation.