IBT Staff Reporter

Chesapeake Energy Corp CEO Aubrey McClendon has been sued by a shareholder over potential conflicts of interest, after a Reuters report showed he had borrowed as much as $1.1 billion against his stake in thousands of company wells.

Stocks rose on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on pace for its biggest gain in the past five weeks, after earnings from a slew of bellwether companies propelled what has been a solid earnings season to date.

Shares of Microsoft Corp rose more than 5 percent on Friday after the world's largest software maker reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street forecasts on better-than-expected sales of personal computers.

Flash memory chipmaker SanDisk Corp's shares fell 15 percent on Friday after the company warned that a glut in the memory chip market will hurt prices for the rest of the year.

French food group Danone has raised its offer for Pfizer's infant nutrition business to close to $11 billion in an attempt to outbid rival Nestle , according to news website WanSquare.

Three unions representing workers at AMR Corp's American Airlines would support a merger with US Airways Group Inc, calling it the best strategy and fastest option to complete a restructuring at bankrupt AMR.

Stocks rose on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track to snap a 2-day drop, after better-than-expected results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled what has been a solid earnings season to date.

Three unions representing workers at AMR Corp's American Airlines would support a merger with US Airways Group Inc, calling it the best strategy and fastest option to complete a restructuring at bankrupt AMR.

Stocks were poised for a higher open, putting the S&P 500 on track to snap a 2-day drop, after better-than-expected results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled what has been a solid earnings season to date.

Stocks were poised for a higher open, putting the S&P 500 on track to snap a 2-day drop, after better-than-expected results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled what has been a solid earnings season to date.

McDonald's Corp reported higher quarterly profit on Friday, paced by strong sales at established restaurants in the United States and Europe.

Nokia lost a court case on Friday after a regional court in Mannheim, Germany, found the Finnish mobile phone company had violated patents belonging to German patent firm IPCom.

Major emerging powers stood ready on Friday to pledge money to bolster the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting war chest, though Brazil was holding out for promises that their voting power at the global lender would increase.

Apple is to hire 500 people in Ireland in the latest boost to the indebted euro zone country's multinational sector, one of the few bright spots in a struggling economy.

For 30 years the Grateful Dead recorded music and toured the world with their unique blend of rock, folk and psychedelic songs, gathering an army of followers known as Deadheads.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, indicating the S&P 500 may snap a 2-day decline, after better-than expected results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled a solid earnings season.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, indicating the S&P 500 may snap a 2-day decline, after quarterly results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled a solid earnings season.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, indicating the S&P 500 may snap a 2-day decline, after quarterly results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled a solid earnings season.

Hungary is considering a new tax on phone calls and Internet usage which could yield up to 50 billion forints ($221.38 million) a year and would help plug budget holes, website Origo.hu reported on Friday, citing economy ministry sources.

General Electric Co reported first-quarter profit that topped analysts' expectations, helped by strong sales of jet engines and energy equipment, as well as profit growth at its finance arm.

German business sentiment unexpectedly rose for the sixth month in a row in April in a sign that Europe's largest economy continues to outpace peers and shrug off persistent worries about the euro zone debt crisis.

China is poised to boost quotas on outbound investment schemes to $100 billion and cut barriers to moving foreign currency in and out of the country in a series of swift but small steps to crank open its tightly controlled capital account.

Shareholders of Olympus Corp <7733.T> approved a new board on Friday, hoping for a fresh start at the camera and medical device maker that hid $1.7 billion of investment losses in Japan's biggest corporate scandal in decades.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising 0.2 to 0.4 percent.

Major emerging powers stood ready on Friday to pledge money to bolster the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting war chest, though Brazil was holding out for promises that their voting power at the global lender would increase.

German 10-year bond yields hit record lows on Friday and riskier assets came under pressure on growing fears about the euro zone debt crisis and uncertainty over global growth.

Nestle , the world's biggest food group, reported forecast-beating first-quarter organic sales growth of 7.2 percent on Friday as emerging market demand and price rises helped offset sluggish growth in the developed world.

Asian shares fell and commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian dollar slipped on Friday after disappointing U.S. economic data stirred doubts about the strength of the recovery.

Large U.S. manufacturers are much more likely than their smaller peers to move production to the United States from China, according to a survey.