IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as falling commodity prices prompted an unwinding of bets on risky assets and raised questions about the strength of the economic recovery, while a sour outlook from Cisco hurt technology stocks.

Allstate Corp said it suffered $1.4 billion in catastrophe losses from April tornadoes, and the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer said it will now make a regular practice of releasing such loss figures.

Despite bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Europe's debt crisis could still spread to core euro zone countries and the emerging economies of eastern Europe, the International Monetary Fund warned on Thursday.

Facebook allegedly hires a PR firm to slander Google.

The economy struggled to gain momentum early in the second quarter, with retail sales posting their smallest rise in nine months in April and wholesale prices increasing more than expected.

Thursday's London Silver Fix set the white metal's price at $32.50 per ounce, nearly $7 lower than a day earlier and 33% below the 31-year high of $48.70 set on April 28. [Silver] is still in an uptrend, despite the sharp sell-off reckons Mary Ann Bartels, head of US technical and market analysis at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who said yesterday silver could hit $50 per ounce by the end of the year.

Goldman Sachs plans to raise up to 5 billion yuan ($770 million) for a private equity fund in China, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Facebook enables tagging Pages for users.

The economy struggled to gain momentum early in the second quarter, with retail sales posting their smallest rise in nine months in April and wholesale prices increasing more than expected.

Lady Gaga kicked off the Cannes Film Festival by performing one of her latest singles off of her Born This Way album titled Judas.

Osama bin Laden's handwritten journal - obtained during a raid by U.S. forces last week - shows he urged followers conduct attacks in the U.S. on the scale of 9/11 - involving body counts in the thousands - in order to drive Americans from the Arab world, according to a report.

President Barack Obama urged businesses to step up and hire workers, pressing banks and other corporations to do more to help an economy that he said would take several years to recover fully.

Even in the heart of Sri Lanka's financial capital, convicted hedge fund founder and one-time billionaire Raj Rajaratnam remains a mystery to many on the island of his birth.

China lifted bank reserve requirements by 50 basis points on Thursday, signaling that containing inflation and soaking up excess cash remained its top priority even after signs the economy was slowing down.

Wall Street was set to open lower on Thursday as falling commodities prices prompted an unwinding of bets on risky assets, including equities, while a sour outlook from Cisco hurt technology stocks.

U.S. claims for unemployment aid fell sharply last week after a surprisingly big rise the prior week, a government report showed on Thursday.

Google paired up with Samsung for 'the world's first Chromebooks,' which are based on cloud computing and lack programs and stored documents.

Reasons why Apple should or should not go for ARM chips in its lineup of laptops and desktops.

Having supportive colleagues not only makes the workday easier, it may also help people live longer, according to a new study.

Kohl's Corp reported a higher quarterly profit as the mid-price department store chain kept gross margins steady despite rising cotton prices, and the retailer raised its full-year profit forecast.

The International Monetary Fund urged broad-based action to combat the euro zone debt crisis, saying it was ready to give Greece more aid and asking the European Central Bank to tread carefully in hiking interest rates.

Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co is in talks to buy privately-held Swiss rival Nycomed for more than $12 billion, seeking to boost its presence in Europe and emerging markets, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as a continuing slide in commodities prompted an unwinding of bets on risky assets, including equities, while a sour outlook from Cisco hurt technology stocks.

A rescue deal for Saab involving China's Hawtai Motor Group collapsed on Thursday, leaving owner Spyker chasing new funding alternatives to restart production at the Swedish carmaker.

Goldman Sachs plans to raise up to 5 billion yuan ($770 million) for a private equity fund in China, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Asia's reserve-rich nations see no viable option but to keep on purchasing U.S. government debt despite their uneasiness about Washington's fraught political battle over public spending.

German insurer Allianz's net profit fell 45 percent in the first quarter, hit by damage claims from the earthquake in Japan and other natural disasters.

Growth in eastern Europe should accelerate only slightly this year as domestic demand recovers, but trouble in the euro zone periphery, wide budget deficits and inflation pressures still pose risks, the IMF said on Thursday.

Google announced that it provides Chromebooks laptop for business users with $28 per month in Google I/O conference and the cost can be smaller than migrating cost from Microsoft Windows XP computers to new version of Windows.