IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks slipped on Friday as a session with sparse economic data gave investors little reason to push indexes higher, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remained on track for their eighth positive week in the last nine.

Morgan Stanley has placed a senior investment banker on leave following his arrest this week on assault and hate crime charges for allegedly stabbing a taxi driver over a fare dispute.

Spain's highest court wants the top court in Europe to decide if requests by Spanish citizens to have data deleted from Google's search engine are lawful, in a case that could put more pressure on it to review its privacy policies.

Wall Street's biggest banks are locked in an increasingly frantic struggle with the Federal Reserve over the right to retain the jewels of their commodity trading empires: warehouses, storage tanks and other hard assets worth billions of dollars.

U.S. stocks edged lower on Friday in a session with sparse economic data, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remained on pace for their eighth positive week in the last nine.

Neiman Marcus Group Inc reported a higher quarterly profit on Friday as high-end shoppers snapped up more of the luxury department store operator's expensive designer dresses, shoes and handbags during the holiday period.

Spain set itself a softer deficit target for 2012 than originally agreed under the euro zone's austerity drive, putting a question mark over the credibility of the European Union's new fiscal pact.

The U.S. economic recovery could be dented by a renewed drop in housing prices in the short term and the country lacks a credible, comprehensive fiscal plan, posing a major medium-term economic risk, a top IMF official said.

Consumer review website Yelp Inc's shares traded more than 60 percent above their initial public offering price in their market debut on Friday, as investors rushed to buy a piece of the growing local advertising market.

Blythe Masters, JPMorgan's global head of commodities, has steered the bank's expanded franchise to record revenues exceeding $2.8 billion in 2011, more than long-time industry leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the three banks' data showed this week.

European Union leaders met for a second day of talks in Brussels on Friday, where 25 of the bloc's 27 countries signed a fiscal compact enshrining common debt rules among the 17 members of the euro zone.

Stocks ticked lower in early trading on Friday in a light day on the economic calendar, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track to close their eighth positive week in the last nine.

The future of Honda Motor Co may rest with a pair of contrarian Japanese car engineers working from a drab Tokyo suburb with a hotline to the boardroom. Their mission: just say no.

The euro zone will decide whether to increase its debt crisis firewall before the end of March after the European Central Bank said its extraordinary support measures would not be repeated, putting the onus squarely back on governments to act.

Futures on the S&P 500 edged lower in sparse volume on Friday in a light day on the economic calendar but were still on track to close their ninth straight week of gains, the longest such run since January 2004.

Wall Street was set to fall at the open on Friday in a light day on the economic calendar, but S&P futures were still on track to close their ninth straight week of gains, the longest such run since January 2004.

A German court on Friday dismissed two cases brought by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics against each other as part of a global battle for dominance in the market for smartphones and tablet devices.

Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said on Friday a CNN report linking an internal engineering memo to potential glitches that could cause sudden unintended acceleration in its cars was grossly inaccurate.

Facebook Inc plans to increase its $2.5 billion credit line to help cover a major tax hit when employee stock awards vest shortly after it goes public, according to two sources familiar with the company's plans.

For Facebook it must look like a no-brainer -- exploit its huge consumer loyalty and half a billion mobile phone users as a way of opening up the mobile market to blue chip advertisers.

Yelp Inc priced its initial public offering of class A common stock at $15 a share, above the expected price range, valuing the U.S. consumer review website at nearly $900 million.

Transatlantic stock exchange NYSE Euronext stands to gain whether or not its rival the London Stock Exchange snatches up hotly contested clearing house LCH.Clearnet - given that NYSE is LCH's biggest shareholder.

Futures on the S&P 500 edged lower in sparse volume on Friday in a light day on the economic calendar but were still on track to close their ninth straight week of gains, the longest such run since January 2004.

The Japanese government is set to take a majority stake in Tokyo Electric <9501.T> in return for injecting about 1 trillion yen ($12.4 billion) in public funds, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday, in what would be a political victory for the trade minister in his battle to reform the once all-powerful utility.

Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> plans to revive the Datsun nameplate to sell inexpensive cars tailored for emerging markets from 2014, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday, as the Japanese automaker revs up its efforts to tap fast-growth countries.

Italy must lay the foundations for economic growth and get its debt under control to return to a sovereign 'A' rating, a Standard & Poor's official told newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore for its Friday edition.

Adidas said it would step up its compliance efforts in Japan after its unit there received a warning from the Fair Trade Commission saying it unlawfully pressured retailers to stop them from offering discounts on Reebok EasyTone sneakers.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV , the world's biggest brewer, and two Chinese brewers are on the shortlist to buy most of the operations being sold by China's Kingway Brewery Holdings Ltd <0124.HK>, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The U.S. government has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit relating to its 2008 takeover of American International Group that was filed by a company run by former AIG Chief Executive Maurice Greenberg, court documents showed.