IBT Staff Reporter

Google's quarterly profit topped expectations, helped by cost controls, but Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the economic environment remains tough with Internet users still searching but buying less.

Institutional investors are participating in a broad-based recovery in equities with the United States leading the way and the euro zone lagging, State Street said on Friday.

World stocks steadied on Friday but were still on track for a sixth consecutive week of gains, while the euro fell on worries about the region's prospects.

The struggling cellphone market has not yet touched bottom, the chief financial officer of top mobile phone maker Nokia was quoted as saying on Friday.

Asian stocks rose on Friday after results from JPMorgan and Google kept shares on track for a sixth week of gains, while the euro fell to a one-month low on uncertainty over what non-standard policy action the European Central Bank will enact.

Asian stocks rose on Friday and the yen slipped, after upbeat results from JPMorgan and Google kept a revival of risk taking alive, with Asian shares outside Japan on track for a sixth week of gains.

Volkswagen AG may have passed Toyota Motor Corp as the world's top selling automaker in the first quarter, helped by robust demand in its main markets, while its Japanese rival suffered sharp declines, partial company data suggests.

Investors have hired attorneys to argue that large banks have a conflict of interest as mortgage servicers and holders of second liens, as a government plan to give servicers the power to rework the troubled loans has raised concerns.

Two top Fed officials are split on their outlook for the economy, with The Atlanta Fed chief saying he expects and end to the recession in months while the San Francisco Fed president saying she does not yet see a bottom.

Citigroup was sued on Thursday by Braintree Laboratories Inc over its sale of auction rates securities. The suit claims that bank sold $33.2 million of the ARS as money market instruments

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc sued rival Hilton Hotels and two of its top executives for corporate espionage on Thursday, accusing the pair of ex-Starwood workers of stealing trade secrets to speed Hilton's entry into the lifestyle market.

Volkswagen AG may have passed Toyota Motor Corp as the world's top selling automaker in the first quarter, helped by robust demand in its main markets, while its Japanese rival suffered sharp declines, partial company data suggests.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc sued Hilton Hotels and two senior executives in federal court on Thursday, claiming confidential information was stolen during Hilton's pursuit of a new lifestyle chain.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc sued rival Hilton Hotels and two of its top executives for corporate espionage on Thursday, accusing the pair of ex-Starwood workers of stealing trade secrets to speed Hilton's entry into the lifestyle market.

The rebuilding of New York's World Trade Center site may take up to three decades to complete because the demand for office space has shrunk with Wall Street's falling fortunes.

A bankrupt General Motors Corp could be reorganized in as little as a month, a top bankruptcy attorney said on Thursday, and if the case lingered then a tremendous sinkhole could open in the U.S. economy, a Delaware bankruptcy judge said.

Two top Federal Reserve policy-makers took divergent views on the U.S. economy on Thursday, with the head of the Atlanta Fed seeing a return to growth later this year, while the head of the San Francisco Fed saw the potential for an even deeper contraction.

Top executives of credit card companies will meet Obama administration officials next Thursday at the White House, as the industry faces the possibility of legislation aimed at curbing deceptive practices, sources familiar with the plans said.

Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the investment-firm executives involved with payments now under scrutiny in a state and federal investigation into an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Tentative signs of improvement in recent economic data do not mean the U.S. economy is out of the woods, Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, said on Thursday.

GMAC LLC, the General Motors Corp financing affiliate that received a government bailout, said its mortgage unit is hiring 1,000 people to handle a surge in refinancings and jumbo loans.

US Treasuries pulled back for a second session after economic data releases for Thursday demonstrated signs that the US economy may be finding points of stability.

Air China, which posted bigger-than-expected 2008 losses, returned to profit in the first quarter of 2009, helped by an exceptional gain and lower fuel costs.

Nippon Steel Corp and other steelmakers have agreed with Toyota Motor Corp to cut steel prices by more than 10 percent this business year, a newspaper said, a smaller-than-expected price cut.

Royal Bank of Canada, Canada's largest bank, said it will take a charge of roughly $850 million (C$1.03 billion) because the value of its international businesses has declined, reducing second-quarter earnings by an equivalent amount.

Overall U.S. video game sales fell 17 percent in March to $1.43 billion, research group NPD said on Thursday, a revealing figure for an industry that had so far shown resilience in the economic downturn.

The new head of Hong Kong's Catholic Church Thursday pledged to defend human rights and urged China to allow greater religious freedom in his influential new role as a bridging figure for Sino-Vatican ties.

Google Inc's YouTube said on Thursday it has reached a deal to post Sony Corp films and TV shows and was talking with other big studios to ramp up content and attract more advertising dollars.

U.S. Vice President Biden detailed on Thursday the Department of Energy's plan to develop the smart-grid by distributing about $4 billion to utility companies and other groups involved into the task.