IBT Staff Reporter

Mattress maker Sealy Corp's quarterly profit edged past market expectations, helped by strong demand in its international markets and on lower costs.

Video game sales fell for 2010 but are expected to bounce back this year as people embrace new ways of playing games online and on-the-go, according to retail research firm NPD Group.

Jared Lee Loughner's interactions with instructors at his Tucson, Arizona community college were strained throughout 2010, with administrators and instructors reporting disturbing out of context comments, inappropriate expressions, and very hostile behavior which culminated in a suspension, according to school documents.

Stocks edged lower on Thursday, hurt by a slide in drugmaker Merck and as falling commodities prices hit shares of natural resource companies.

Coal freight lines could start reopening as early as Thursday in Australia's flooded Queensland coalfields as waters recede, rail officials said, prompting predictions of a faster-than-expected start to a recovery in exports.

Morgan Stanley announced on Thursday a number of executive changes across its global wealth management and fixed income divisions, as Chief Executive James Gorman pursues an overhaul of the bank roughly a year into his tenure.

Shares in Research In Motion jumped as much as 4 percent to near an eight-month high on Thursday after it reached a deal with India that appeared to protect its secure corporate email service.

LOS ANGELES - The social gaming market is expected to pass $1 billion this year, thanks to a rising number of users and a projected increase in advertising, according to research group eMarketer.

AOL Inc formed three partnerships to help cut costs -- and possibly jobs -- while beefing up three areas of coverage: sports, health and real estate.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said it will take longer than expected to win approval of a bankruptcy plan, and projects paying out $60.1 billion as it tries to settle differences with creditors owed six times that amount.

LOS ANGELES - Foodies take note.

Advances by China's military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare technology could challenge the ability of U.S. forces to operate in the Pacific, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in prepared remarks on Friday during a visit to Japan.

Microsoft Corp notched its best ever month for the Xbox in December, selling 1.9 million of the game consoles, helped by its new Kinect hands-free system and the latest in the blockbuster 'Fable' and 'Halo' game series.

The tablet industry took a chunk out of PC shipments in the fourth quarter according to two separate reports.

A U.S. judge approved a $7.2 billion settlement on Thursday to pay former customers of the Madoff firm, the largest yet in the worldwide search for money lost in Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Intel Corp's revenue and margin forecasts beat expectations on healthy technology spending, defying worries about the chipmaker's minor role in the booming smartphone and tablet market.

Apple Inc enters 2011 on a roll, a cash-generating machine with surging sales across its product lines -- even as it confronts a sea of restive rivals determined to halt its stunning run of success.

LOS ANGELES - Kiefer Sutherland and two-time Academy Award nominee John Hurt are teaming up for The Confession, a new scripted Web action series, Digital Broadcasting Group announced Thursday.

Investors showed appetite for Spain's debt Thursday, pushing borrowing costs up less than expected at its debut debt auction for 2011 and alleviating some concerns about the euro zone's more vulnerable debtor nations.

Banks seized more than a million U.S. homes in one year for the first time last year, despite a slowdown in the last few months as questions around foreclosure processing arose, a leading firm said on Thursday.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said it will take longer than expected to win approval of its bankruptcy plan and projects paying out $60.1 billion as it tries to settle differences with creditors owed six times that amount.

Intel Corp posted an 8 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue and forecast revenue of $11.1 billion to $11.9 billion in the first three months of 2011, riding an upswing in corporate technology spending.

Researchers from NC State create a third-dimension coil of silicon nanowire which could lead to stretchable electronics.

U.S. regulators are preparing for a possible antitrust challenge to Google Inc's planned $700 million acquisition of airline ticketing software company ITA Software, according to a media report.

Jobless claims hit a 10-week high last week while producer prices shot up in December, pointing to headwinds for an economy that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said was showing fresh vigor.

Gold fell on Thursday, snapping three sessions of gains as safe-haven buying subsided after successful European bond sales and a more positive economic outlook from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

On Thursday IBM demonstrated Watson, a computer consisting of a roomful of the company's Power7 processors -- sophisticated enough that it can understand language well enough to figure out the wordplay that makes up a Jeopardy! question.

Stocks edged lower on Thursday, hurt by a slide in drugmaker Merck and as falling commodities prices hit shares of natural resource companies.

Intel Corp cheered investors with a strong quarterly revenue forecast and better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings as sales to corporations grew.