IBT Staff Reporter

A distressingly slow U.S. housing recovery, with inflation-adjusted home values expected to decline over the next five years, makes it unlikely that housing wealth will drive consumer spending in the next decade, a Reuters/University of Michigan survey found.

Earlier this month China's car sales had surged on the back of generous government incentives and indeed has now passed the U.S. as the largest car market in the world.

Oil slipped below $71 a barrel on Thursday in volatile trade as investors weighed signs of slightly better demand against concerns over the fragility of any economic recovery.

Now if you are going to do stimulus, China shows us how to do it! As car sales jumped 47% year over year in May, the profits at auto makers fell 28%, and revenue dropped 11% for the first 4 months of the year

E*Trade priced a stock and debt exchange offers on Friday as it seeks to raise about $1.4 billion to boost its equity capital.

China's Internet watchdog on Friday ordered Google to stop overseas websites with pornographic and vulgar content from being accessed through its Chinese-language search engine.

Eight percent of all consumers in Britain, France, Germany and the United States admit to downloading video illegally from the Internet, according to a survey, showing the scale of the ongoing fight against piracy.

Hormel Foods Corp. and Herdez Del Fuerte S.A. de C.V. are expanding their relationship, announcing Friday they will form a 50/50 joint venture to market Mexican foods in the U.S.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday as a recent spate of improving economic data beckoned investors back into equity markets for a second day.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday as a recent spate of improving economic data beckoned investors back into equity markets for a second day.

Former Merrill Lynch executive Winthrop Smith on Friday denied approaching Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis with two other former Merrill executives to discuss buying back all or part of the bank.

The latest iPhone hit stores on Friday with new features and faster speeds, drawing some fans but not the crowds that had swarmed Apple and AT&T stores at previous iPhone launches.

Texas billionaire Allen Stanford will appear in federal court in Virginia on Friday to answer allegations he orchestrated a massive fraud through his Antigua bank that bilked investors out of millions of dollars.

Britain said on Friday it was too early to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe despite the creation of a new unity government in its former colony.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday as a recent spate of improving economic data beckoned investors back into equity markets for a second day.

European Union leaders will agree more steps on Friday to avert a repeat of the banking crisis that has sapped the world economy and the IMF said 2010 might deliver stronger growth than earlier forecast.

R. Allen Stanford was arrested Thursday in Virginia by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, his lawyer said, according to reports.

Australian's conservative opposition called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to resign on Friday over accusations he misled parliament and sought special government treatment for a car-dealer friend.

Vietnam has detained four people who local news reports said colluded with prominent lawyer Le Cong Dinh, arrested last weekend on charges of spreading propaganda against the state.

Japan on Friday passed a law bolstering its anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, despite criticism from the opposition that the move further erodes the country's pacifist constitution.

Fearful of landmines and under fire from rebels, Indian police struggled on Friday to enter a Maoist liberated zone close to east India's biggest commercial city of Kolkata.

North and South Korean envoys failed on Friday to resolve a dispute over Pyongyang's demands for salary and rent increases at a joint factory park in the communist state that is one of its few sources of hard cash.

Several staff at a Chinese television station were suspended from their jobs after footage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests slipped past censors and was broadcast to the public, a human rights group said on Friday.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is considering separating a plan that links buying its Amsterdam-listed fund with its own moves to list on the NYSE, a source familiar with the matter said, throwing further doubt on whether the private equity giant will list in New York.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 64th birthday in detention on Friday as supporters worldwide condemned her trial and called for tougher sanctions against the military regime.

Air France will compensate the families of the victims of a June 1 crash in which 228 people died, the company's chief executive said on Friday.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday demanded an end to street protests that have shaken the country since a disputed presidential election a week ago and said any bloodshed would be their leaders' fault.

The U.S. Senate rejected on Thursday an attempt to strip a $1 billion program aimed at spurring flagging U.S. car sales from a pending $106 billion war funding bill.

Beijing's bid to boost the solar energy sector could draw more than $10 billion in private funding for projects and put China on track to become a leading market for solar equipment in the next three years.