IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stocks hit session lows on Friday afternoon, with the market being weighed down by a huge loss from insurance giant AIG and on fears of an economic recession, causing all indexes to fall more than 2 percent.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group on Friday laid out plans to become Japan's biggest credit card issuer, saying it would establish a new holding firm for four companies and merge three of them.

U.S. government bond prices extended their rally on Friday after a much weaker than expected Chicago purchasing management report.

Oil fell more than $1 to stand under $102 a barrel on Friday, stepping back from a record high reached due to supply disruptions and as a weak dollar encouraged investors to buy commodities.

Stocks fell on Friday after data pointed to more deterioration in the economy and the largest loss in insurer American International Group Inc's history signaled the worst was far from over for the beleaguered financial sector.Benchmark indexes sank to session lows after two widely watched surveys indicated U.S. consumer sentiment was at its lowest in 16 years and Midwestern business conditions were the weakest in more than six years.

The trailer for Universal's upcoming movie Wanted features many of the hallmarks of a studio summer movie: Quick cuts, effects-heavy action, Angelina Jolie on the hood of a vintage red Viper.

Turkey pulled its troops out of northern Iraq on Friday, ending a major offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels that Washington feared could spread conflict through the region. A statement by Turkey's armed forces General Staff denied any foreign influence on the decision, which came a day after U.S President George W. Bush urged a swift end to offensive.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it plans to cut prices of its Windows Vista operating system sold at retail outlets in a move aimed at pushing customers to switch to the newest version of Windows. The world's largest software maker said it plans to lower retail prices for Vista in 70 countries later this year in tandem with the shipment of the first major update to Vista, known as Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Barack Obama holds a slight lead on Hillary Clinton in Texas and has almost pulled even in Ohio before contests that could decide their Democratic presidential battle, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released on Friday.

How did Democrat Hillary Clinton tumble from all-but-certain presidential nominee to endangered candidate fighting for her political life?

A senior Israeli defense official said on Friday that Palestinians firing rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would bring upon themselves what he termed a shoah, the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster.

Tokyo stocks dropped over 2 percent on Friday, marking the lowest level this week as the yen gained on the U.S. dollar.

The Land and Natural Resources Department of China (LNRD) starts up iron ore exploration to ease the stress of rising iron ore prices.

Google on Thursday unveiled its plan to give San Francisco's homeless lifelong phone numbers and voice mail.

Americans are sleeping less and instead watching more TV and surfing the Internet

American International Group lost $5.29 billion in its fourth-quarter late Thursday as the insurance company took a charge related to credit derivatives.

Italians are used to buying bogus Gucci bags or Rolex watches to look stylish but police found a new height of craftsmanship and cunning when they broke up a ring selling fake Ferrari cars for a fraction of the real price.

At least nine people were seriously injured on Thursday after a suspected gas explosion inside a beauty salon wrecked two adjacent stores in the Chicago suburb of Illinois.

American International Group Inc on Thursday posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss, missing Wall Street expectations after being hurt by a write-down of derivatives exposed to bad mortgage investments. The world's largest insurer said its fourth-quarter loss was $5.29 billion, or $2.08 a share, compared with a profit of $3.44 billion, or $1.31 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote this weekend on a resolution imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Western ambassadors said on Thursday. We thought it was perfectly reasonable to (finalize the resolution) tomorrow and to vote on this important issue on Saturday, said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

A blind Irishman regained his sight through a surgical procedure which involves inserting a tooth into his eye.

Two US doctors are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration over the prescribing of the powerful painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin to Australian actor Heath Ledger, according to news reports.

EBay Inc and MercExchange LLC have settled a long-running patent lawsuit, said eBay on Thursday, ending a fight that prompted a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Google unveiled a new Web-site publishing tool for office workers late Wednesday, taking aim at rival Microsoft in the corporate tools arena.

Oil futures surged to a new record on Thursday as reports showed more signals of an economic slowdown in the U.S., the dollar fell against the euro and Nigeria reported a partial shutdown in production.

Treasuries rose on Thursday after a U.S. government showed the economy grew at a slower rate in the fourth quarter of 2007 than forecast and jobless claims rose more than expected.

Coffee in London posted gains on Thursday for a second day after funds tried to diversify their investments from stocks.

Sensex, the prime index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), fell marginally by 0.01 percent or 1.51 points, Thursday, dragged down by weak market sentiments ahead of announcement of India's annual budget on Friday.

Oil surged more than 3 percent to an all-time high on Thursday after news that a fire struck a major European natural gas terminal.