IBT Staff Reporter

Stock futures rose on Friday fueled by higher oil prices and a better-than expected quarterly performance by computer maker Dell Inc .

Major credit rating companies hold diverging views on the state of the U.S. junk bond market in 2010.

Oil rose above $73 a barrel on Friday, lifted by slightly better GDP and jobs data out of the United States, although still rangebound over the week.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 stock indexes are up from 0.2 to 0.4 percent, pointing to a higher start when the U.S. markets open on Friday.

China Unicom, China's No.2 mobile carrier, said on Friday it had sealed a deal to sell the wildly popular iPhone in China, giving iPhone maker Apple access to the world's largest mobile market.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 stock indexes are up from 0.2 to 0.4 percent, pointing to a higher start when the U.S. markets open on Friday.

A surge in auto sales as drivers rushed to take advantage of the cash-for-clunkers scheme probably nudged U.S. consumer spending higher for the third straight month in July, according to a Reuters poll.

It's a 7-year-old boy's dream team -- Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton and David Koepp moving on from rampaging dinosaurs to marauding pirates.

Getting better access to information on derivative transactions was a critical factor in U.S. regulators' efforts to curb market abuses, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro told Bloomberg in an interview.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government is committed to its negotiating stance over carmaker Opel, which has strongly favored auto parts maker Magna's bid, a newspaper reported.

Oil climbed toward $73 on Friday after snapping a two-day fall a day ago from 10-month highs, boosted by better-than-expected GDP and jobs data in the United States that signal the economic recovery is on track.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, who was 11 years old when she was abducted on June 10, 1991, walked into the Concord Police Department and revealed her identity on Wednesday, according to the New York Times.

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke was among hundreds of victims of an identity fraud ring that stole more than $2.1 million from consumers and financial institutions across the United States, Newsweek magazine reported on its website.

A California girl who was kidnapped at the age of 11 in 1991 has been found alive, having spent 18 years living in sheds and tents behind the home of her accused abductor, a convicted rapist who fathered two children with her, police said on Thursday.

Oil rose further above $72 on Friday after snapping a two-day fall from 10-month highs a day ago, boosted by better-than-expected GDP and jobs data in the United States that signal the economic recovery is on track.

Research into clean energy technology should get a leading role in new U.N. climate pact ahead of ever tougher curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, a study said on Friday.

Oklahoma pastor Carol Daniels, 61, was killed at her own church in Anadarko while she may have been preparing for Sunday Service.

Dollar bulls beware; Regret after Toyota Leaves; Dell's Surprise

U.S. retailers could see sales in the 2009 holiday season decline from last year's dismal results or show only a slight increase, even in the best scenario, according to a new forecast.

Superstition, torture, and its effect on the perpetrator are at the heart of historical drama

MTV is doing a slasher movie.

Labor group Actors' Equity said on Thursday an arbitrator has cleared actor Jeremy Piven of wrongdoing in a dispute with producers of Broadway play

AT&T Inc and the Communications Workers of America union have reached a tentative agreement covering some 7,000 to 8,000 of telecommunications company's the U.S. core wireline employees.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, 29, lived captive in a backyard for almost two decades, separated from her family and gave birth at age 14 to the first child with her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido, 58.

Want the romance of the railways without the anoraks? We spot the world's best trains

China Mobile is to release the closely-watched 3G Ophone next week, while rival China Unicom is to bring Apple's iPhone to China as soon as Friday, which may add fuel to the flames in the fiercely competitive Chinese market.

Chaperoned by a pack of mules and local Samburu warriors, take in the beauty of northern Kenya

Despite more strong local economic data in the form of CAPEX yesterday the Aussie dollar struggled during the majority of the Asian session drifting lower from the days open around 0.8280 to exchange as low as 0.8240.

At 5,895m, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the world's highest peak that you can climb without technical skills. But could a mountain novice climb it?