Stocks | featured news

Europe's sovereign debt crisis will still hang over global markets this week, but on Wall Street, investors will not be afraid to bet on stocks.

Job growth in the U.S. and signs of global manufacturing expansion sent stocks sharply higher Wednesday. Bond prices and the dollar fell as investors moved money into riskier assets.

YouTube forms a very small portion of Google's overall business accounting for 4% of Google's stock

Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, the fugitive former chief executive of Comverse Technology Inc, agreed to pay nearly $54 million to resolve civil litigation brought by the U.S. government over the backdating of stock options, court papers show.

The GM IPO could wind up as the largest in history. Earlier this week, GM raised the high end of its initial price range from $29 to $33 and increased the number of shares it was offering from 365 million to 478 million common shares because investor demand was so high. Counting preferred stock issued by the company, the deal's value could top $23 billion.

Wall Street tumbled Tuesday, with the Dow down over 200 points, following new worries about rising inflation in Asia and the possibility Ireland might need a bailout.

Without a boost from Washington or data showing budding strength in the economy, Wall Street's rally may be running out of fuel as the S&P 500 eases off its 2010 high.

New rules would oblige financial services firms to record relevant employee communications made on their work cell phones.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sold $1.34 billion of Microsoft shares in recent days, his first share sales in the company since 2003.

The Federal Reserve wanted to push interest rates lower and jump-start financial markets with its $600 billion economic stimulus plan. So far the Fed is getting the results it wants.