IBT Staff Reporter

Despite slow sales in the past four years, Americans believe their homes are worth more now than a year ago.

Gold held steady on Friday after falling to a one-week low the previous day, while bullion contracts in Tokyo extended losses as cautious investors digested a plan by the Japanese exchange to boost liquidity.

U.S. officials said India and Brazil were to blame for the breakdown on Thursday of trade talks that some were billing as a final chance to spur the Doha round toward completion.

Oil jumped more than a dollar to top $71 a barrel on Friday on fears a strike by Nigerian unions could intensify and disrupt shipments from the world's eighth-largest exporter.

A sustained push above 5 percent on the yield of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note could roil markets, deepen housing woes and slow the U.S. economy.

The head of U.S. Air Force intelligence and surveillance on Thursday said data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth posed a danger to security but could not be rolled back.

AT&T Inc. said on Thursday it has hired 2,000 temporary store workers to handle its much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first cell phone from iPod music player maker Apple Inc.

U.S. farmers need rain to help them cash in on demand for ethanol, the alternative fuel made from corn.

When Kansas-based real estate investor Phil Ruffin paid $165 million for 41 acres on the famed Las Vegas Strip in 1998, his critics said he overpaid by $15 million.

For online advertisers, your name, address or age is far less important than the record of what you were looking for online.

Blackstone Group LP, the largest private equity firm to go public, said on Thursday it raised $4.13 billion in an initial public offering priced at the top of a forecast range in the biggest U.S. IPO in five years.

Consumer groups urged the Federal Reserve on Thursday to make minor changes to a proposal requiring more disclosures by credit card companies to help consumers understand various fees and interest rates.

News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for Dow Jones & Co. Inc. may have fueled a modest rally among newspaper stocks but it's unlikely to spark similar deals or push publishing sector takeover values higher, analysts say.

The dollar gained against the Swiss franc on Thursday and approached a four-and-a-half-year high against the yen as investors continued to punish low-yielding currencies in a quest for higher returns.

China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) may rise by 3.3 percent this year, surpassing the government’s annual 3 percent target rate, according to a government report.

Stocks rebounded on Thursday after brokerage upgrades sent the semiconductor sector to a 13-month high and fresh data pointed to a growing economy.

Consumers in Japan may be feeling increasingly uneasy as the weakening yen and recent rises in the price of crude oil and raw material costs are making commodities in Japan more expensive.

Gas exploration talks between Japan and China over a disputed area in the East China Sea will be held next Tuesday, Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

General Electric Co. and Pearson Plc said on Thursday they will not pursue a joint offer for publisher Dow Jones & Co. Inc., removing a potential challenge to a $5-billion bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Oil prices eased further on Thursday, pressured by bulging U.S. crude stockpiles and expectations that a strike in Nigeria would not slow shipments from the eighth largest oil exporter.

Sony Corp. expects a steep increase in the number of game titles released for its flagship Playstation 3 game console, aiming to help the unit's slumping sales, according to a published report.

MySpace Launches Instant Messenger News Corp.'s (NSADAQ: NWS) popular social networking site, MySpace, said it officially launched a test version of its instant messaging program, dubbed MyspaceIM.

H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) reported a fourth quarter loss on Thursday, on the poor performance of its mortgage lending arm, sending shares down nearly 4 percent.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) may swap its popular social networking site for a stake in Yahoo! Inc. according to a published report.

Shares of graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) traded at an all time high on Thursday after the company gave an upbeat outlook for the near-term and it introduced a new high-end desktop product.

Gold extended losses on Thursday to slip to its lowest in nearly a week as a firmer dollar and rising bond yields triggered more selling, traders said.

Key plot details could be fake, warns a publisher of the eagerly awaited book.

Starbucks Corp.'s chief financial officer said on Thursday the high end of the coffee shop chain's 2007 earnings forecast will be 'very challenging' due to current market conditions, including higher dairy costs.

Sony Corp. expects at least 380 new PlayStation 3 games to hit the market this business year and says that should rev up demand for the console that has so far lost out to Nintendo's wildly popular Wii.