IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks jumped on Thursday as expectations of reassuring quarterly results from bellwethers including Google lifted technology shares, while JPMorgan's better-than-expected profit added to bank stabilization hopes.

The current global recession is likely to be unusually long and severe and the recovery sluggish since it sprang from a financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

Wall Street has high hopes for Google Inc after the bell on Thursday, even as advertising spending remains under pressure and another tech giant, Intel Corp, disappointed some investors.

Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said on Thursday that the company will introduce zero emission cars into the U.S. market by 2010 with a price that makes sense in the market.

Stocks rose on Thursday as JPMorgan's better-than-expected profit added to optimism about bank stabilization, while expectations of reassuring technology results boosted bellwethers like Hewlett-Packard and Google Inc .

Technology magazines, facing dwindling advertising and lost luster for big-ticket gadgets, may be turning their attention to helping readers make home improvements or beef-up devices they already own.

Stronger-than-expected results on Thursday from motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Inc and off-road vehicle maker Polaris Industries Inc raised a glimmer of hope that the buyer pullback bedeviling consumer goods companies may be slowing.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Thursday after JPMorgan posted better-than-expected earnings and amid a flurry of positive news on the technology front.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit as debt trading and underwriting revenue surged, lifting the shares of the second-largest U.S. bank by as much as 4.5 percent.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit as debt trading and underwriting revenue surged, lifting the shares of the second-largest U.S. bank by as much as 4.5 percent.

A federal indictment against Texas billionaire Allen Stanford is not likely before the end of April, one of his lawyers said on Thursday.

President Barack Obama outlined his plan for long overdue high-speed rail on Thursday that would rival air travel, create jobs and help curb the U.S. transportation system's appetite for oil.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to create a special panel to investigate the causes of the Wall Street meltdown that helped put the country into a severe economic recession, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Who gets an upgrade and who gets bumped? What if your name is on a watch list? How can you avoid baggage fees? Why do airfares change several times in one day? Where to find the blacklist of airlines banned for safety reasons?

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose on Thursday after JPMorgan posted better-than-expected earnings and amid a flurry of positive news on the technology front.

Plugged-in hotels are likely to get the most guests checking in, with a global survey showing websites, and hi-tech facilities, are the top criteria travelers look for when picking a place to stay.

NEC and Panasonic will unveil on Monday nine new cell phone models running the open-source LiMo operating system, wireless Linux foundation LiMo said at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

Rosetta Stone Inc shares rose nearly 44 percent in their trading debut Thursday, following the company's initial public offering, the fourth in the United States this year.

Ashton Kutcher and CNN are competing to see who can first reach a million followers on popular social networking site, Twitter.

Oil edged higher toward $50 a barrel on Thursday but gains were limited as mixed data from the United States and China reminded investors that any signs of economic recovery were still tentative.

In March building permits fell to a record low level and construction of new homes plummeted again following a February gain which raised hopes of recovery.

The world's top cell phone maker Nokia calmed jittery investors on Thursday when it said it saw signs of stabilizing demand in the tumbling handset market.

The Dow and the S&P 500 fell on Thursday as some investors doubted that banks would sustain strong first-quarter performance as unease about the economy's health persist.

Japan promised on Thursday to pledge up to $1 billion in aid for cash-strapped Pakistan at a donors conference as allies pressed the country for commitments to fight an Islamist insurgency and implement economic reforms.

China insisted on Thursday that six-party disarmament talks remain the way to defuse conflict over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, despite Pyongyang abandoning the process and expelling U.N. inspectors.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina (Reuters Life!) - Forget boring company training films. A leading hotel chain has teamed with a videogame developer to create a new game to improve their employees' job performance.

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra humbly urged the country's revered king on Thursday to help resolve Thailand's political rift, after a week in which two people died during anti-government protests.

Heather Whaling, a marketer from Florida, was recently planning a business trip to Long Beach, CA, and wondered if she should fly into Long Beach or LAX. She could have looked at blogs, checked out airport websites, or even called a travel agent.

A suicide bomber in army uniform detonated a vest packed with explosives at a military base in Iraq's western Anbar province Thursday, killing 16 people and wounding 50, the army and police said.