IBT Staff Reporter

When Adele Rothman bought her 16-year-old son a car in 2003

U.S. stocks jumped the most in three weeks on Friday,

Last summer's slew of toy recalls has not faded from U.S. consumers' minds

A Lebanese presidential election scheduled for Saturday has been postponed until December 29, the parliament speaker said on Friday, the tenth delay to the vote.

The software company co-founded by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates nearly two years ago is seeing the benefits of more stringent intellectual property policies in China, with a decline in piracy rates and improved results at its mainstay Windows division.

U.S. Stocks gained the most in two weeks, after news of a possible foreign investment in Merrill Lynch and a government report that consumer spending increased in November by the most in two years.

Consumer spending rose in November, beating forecasts and easing concerns of an economic recession, while inflation raised its fastest pace in two years, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

A Chinese appeal court upheld an earlier music piracy ruling on Thursday, that found Yahoo China guilty of allowing mass copyright infringement through music downloads from its Website, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said.

U.S. shoppers, come out, come out, wherever you are. Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, is often the biggest shopping day of the holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation.

President Vladimir Putin may become the next chairman of Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom when he steps down following a presidential election in March, Vedomosti business daily reported on Friday.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime says he isn't too excited about retailers forcing buyers to get bundles which include its Wii game system together with other products such as games and accessories.

Tribune Company said Thursday that it has completed its deal to go private with real estate magnage Samuel Zell taking over as chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

Red Hat, a distributor of the Linux Operating System, named former Delta Airlines Chief Operating Officer James Whitehurst as its new chief executive officer on Thursday.

Microsoft has signed a deal to share detailed information about its Windows software with a free software group, marking one of the first concrete results of the European Commission's anti-trust sanctions meted against the software giant.

Campbell Soup Co., the world’s largest soupmaker, said on Thursday it has agreed to sell its Godiva Chocolatier unit to Yildiz Holding A.Z. for $850 million. Yildiz, the owner of the Ulker Group, is the largest consumer goods company in Turkish food industry with biscuits, chocolate, confectionery, food and beverages and dairy businesses.

A Microsoft General Manager broke Microsoft's silence regarding Internet Explorer 8 by sharing details on a blog post of about its new web browser that will launch in the first half of 2008.

Apple is clearing up all rumors of its products, starting with the rumor sites sprinkled across the web.

Google cleared a major regulatory hurdle on Thursday after the Federal Trade Commission, the US antitrust regulator, approved the Internet search giant’s bid to buy online advertising company, DoubleClick Inc.

Gold prices fell on Thursday for the second straight day on a rising dollar, causing investors to lose interest in the precious metal, yet reinforcing confidence in steady U.S. economic growth.

Oil and gas stocks fell on Thursday as crude oil prices moved closer $92 a barrel.

European stocks closed higher on Thursday, recovering from a three-session losing streak due on strong Oracle results that pushed technology shares higher as energy stocks rose along with oil prices.

The yen rose on Thursday after a sign that the U.S. economy is still facing more trouble from the subprime mortgage market mess as financial firms continued to report high exposure and losses.

The dollar continued to firm against the sterling following weak UK economic data, rising to its highest level in 4-months at 1.9813. However, the greenback was slightly softer against the yen and euro following the weak Philadelphia Fed survey.

The gap between the best and worst child trust fund (CTF) deals has widened, research shows. Average interest rates on cash CTFs have risen by 1.19 percent in the past year to 6.34 percent, according to price comparison site MoneyExpert.com.

US Stocks dropped in late morning trading, in spite of higher than expected earnings results from Oracle Corp. and Nike Inc.

Nations are making deals with top exporters to to get enough oil and develop new projects to boost economic growth.

Bear Stearns Cos Inc posted a much bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday, capping a fiscal year when the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank took a beating on bad bets on risky subprime mortgages. It was the first loss in the company's history, and the bank decided top executives would not receive bonuses.

Google Inc's planned takeover of rival DoubleClick for $3.1 billion would harm European citizens through greater intrusion of privacy, the EU's top consumer lobby BEUC said on Thursday.

More television viewers are turning to the Internet to watch videos, films and TV episodes, according to a new survey.