IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks suffered their biggest one-day loss in nearly six months on Friday as anti-government rioting in Egypt prompted investors to flee to less risky assets to ride out the turmoil.

Stocks suffered their biggest one-day loss in nearly six months on Friday as anti-government rioting in Egypt prompted investors to flee to less risky assets to ride out the turmoil.

Gold surged 2 percent on Friday, gaining as much as $40 per ounce in a knee-jerk rally as fears that unrest in Egypt would spread across the Middle East prompted safe-haven buying. It's the largest one-day gain in nearly two months.

Sales of Microsoft Corp's Windows software fell short of outsized expectations, rekindling fears that the spread of mobile gadgets will erode its main PC-focused business.

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co's $2 million deal for 3Leaf Systems is being reviewed by an inter-agency committee, the company said on Friday.

Microsoft Corp shares fell more than 4 percent to a six-week low on Friday, dragging down much of the tech sector, as investors fretted about the strength of the company's core Windows franchise and the broader threat to personal computers from tablets.

Earnings reports and acquisition announcements took a back seat to the violent unrest in Egypt today, as U.S. stocks fall.

Stocks suffered their biggest one-day loss in nearly six months on Friday as anti-government rioting in Egypt prompted investors to flee to less risky assets to ride out the turmoil.

A job posting offers clues that Apple may include a near-field communications chip in the next iPhone and iPad for contactless payments.

Microsoft's Kinect is starting to mount a credible challenge to the Nintendo Wii.

All across Europe, from Brussels to the Balkans, a new generation of WikiLeaks-style websites is sprouting.

Senior investment banking executives at Bank of America Corp will likely see as much as 80 percent of their 2010 bonuses in stock, but the cash portion will be higher than what was paid out last year, said a source familiar with the company's pay plans.

Stocks suffered their biggest one-day loss in nearly six months on Friday as anti-government rioting in Egypt prompted investors to flee to less risky assets to ride out the turmoil.

A group led by the former deputy to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launched a new site to aid whistleblowers on the sidelines of the Davos meeting of the global business elite Friday.

Microsoft Corp shares fell 3.5 percent on Friday as its better-than-expected profit was overshadowed by worries it is failing to cope with threats from hot areas like tablet computing.

Nasdaq quotations for its main stock indexes resumed after nearly a one-hour outage as the market opened on Friday.

Despite Verizon's announced intention to acquire Terremark for $1.4 billion, are down virtually across across the board amid violent uprisings in Middle East.

The U.S. economy gathered speed in the fourth quarter to regain its pre-recession peak with a big gain in consumer spending and strong exports, removing doubts about the recovery's sustainability.

(Corrects the name of Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes, which was erroneously written as Andrew Noyce.)

Chevron Corp's fourth-quarter profit easily topped Wall Street forecasts on Friday, but anemic growth of its oil reserves disappointed investors, and its shares slipped.

Amazon.com founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos trimmed his stake in the world's biggest online retailer to under 20 percent last year, a regulatory filing showed on Friday, a day after the company reported quarterly results.

The situation in Egypt is, as they say, fluid, with rioting in Cairo, protestors clashing with police, vehicles set afire and a prominent Egyptian who returned home to foster democracy placed under house arrest. The president, Hosni Mubarak, has not been seen nor heard from in days. His wife has, by some reports, fled the country. The world is watching and no one can predict what may happen next.

As Google experiments with Gmail display ads for a select subset of users, analysts weigh in on whether this could be the company's next great source of revenue.

SanDisk Corp shares plunged 10 percent on Friday as worries about falling chip prices and crumbling margins outweighed a better-than- expected quarterly revenue forecast.

Nasdaq quotations for its main stock indexes resumed after nearly a one-hour outage as the market opened on Friday.

Wall Street retreated from its 29-month high on Friday as escalating anti-government protests in Egypt prompted investors to move away from equities and into safer assets.

Crude oil prices surged, stocks fell around the world and the dollar gained on Friday as images of street battles in Egypt riveted investors and raised concerns the protests will intensify and spread across the Middle East.

Egypt has officially cut off Internet access to the country, marking the first time in the history of the Internet when a nation-state has gone dark. Other nations, though, seem reluctant to follow suit.

A Mauri, Hawaii-based man has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for passing on classified national defense information to China, besides committing other offenses such as money laundering and filing false tax returns.