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World stocks fell on Thursday as heightened worries about sluggish economic recovery prompted investors to cut exposure to riskier assets, while the Swiss franc fell as the central bank took further steps to halt its steady rise.

Markets are in a "new danger zone" as investors have lost confidence in the economic leadership of several countries, the World Bank president says.

US stocks rose Friday as an upbeat retail sales report trumped a weak reading on consumer confidence, putting the Dow Jones Industrial Average on track for its first back-to-back gain in ...

Investors seem to think you want an iPad more than oil, as Apple Inc. became the most valuable company in the United States, surpassing Exxon Mobil Corp. on Wednesday.

Stocks resumed their downward slide in early trading Wednesday as investors retreated from the initial optimism that greeted the Federal Reserve's decision the day before to keep interest rates low.

AOL had a record decline in New York trading after reducing its annual earnings forecast, raising concerns that the company may not be able to turn itself around following the 2009 spinoff from Time Warner. AOL fell $3.88, or 26 percent, to close at $11.19 in New York Stock Exchange trading, the biggest drop and the lowest level since the spinoff. Earlier, the slump prompted a so-called circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading.

Standard & Poor's, whose unprecedented downgrade of U.S. debt triggered a worldwide stocks sell-off, is pushing back against a U.S. government proposal that would require credit raters to disclose "significant errors" in how they calculate their ratings.

The Fed spoke - and financial markets rallied. The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 429 points, its tenth highest point gain in history and the biggest since March 2009. It was just one day after the Dow had its worst point decline since 2008.

Apple Inc briefly edged past oil major Exxon Mobil to become the most valuable company in the United States after days of volatile stock market action.

The sell-off comes in reaction to the downgrade on U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's. Accelerating fears of a new global recession sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging more than 600 points as Washington policymakers scrambled to contain the damage fueled by reaction to the U.S. credit rating downgrade.