IBT Staff Reporter

Asian stocks fell on Friday in a broad wave of profit-taking, giving up much of this week's gains, while a ratings cut gave investors an excuse to reduce their Japanese share holdings.

Global cellphone sales surged 18 percent from a year ago in October-December, boosted by strong growth of North American smartphone vendors Apple and RIM.

Booming demand for smartphones and tablets will help Samsung Electronics Co post better results this year after the world's No.2 mobile phone maker reported its weakest profit in six quarters.

Asian stocks fell by half a percent on Friday, succumbing to a broad bout of profit-taking, as concern about rising inflation outweighed robust earnings.

LinkedIn Corp announced plans to go public this year in what could be a test of investor appetite for social networking websites ahead of a highly anticipated Facebook offering.

Japan's core consumer prices fell in December from a year earlier for a 22nd consecutive month, as slow wage growth and sluggish demand kept the country mired in deflation while the government grapples with heavy public debt.

Asian stocks eased on Friday before a slew of earnings from corporate heavyweights in the region, while Japanese government bond futures rose despite a ratings cut.

Microsoft Corp's quarterly profit fell slightly as the world's largest software maker was hit by slower-than expected growth in computer sales.

LinkedIn Corp announced plans to go public this year in what could be a test of investor appetite for social networking websites ahead of a highly anticipated Facebook offering.

Microsoft Corp surprised Wall Street with a better-than-expected profit, but its shares stayed flat as investors expressed concern about the weakness of computer sales amid a faltering U.S. recovery.

Borders Group Inc received a financing commitment from GE Capital, providing a potential lifeline to the troubled bookseller, but said it would also explore options, including an in-court restructuring.

Sales of Microsoft Corp's Windows software fell short of outsized expectations, rekindling fears that the spread of mobile gadgets will erode its main PC-focused business.

The Japanese yen fell sharply against both the U.S. dollar and the euro on Thursday after Standard & Poor's cut Japan's long-term credit rating while the prospect of higher European interest rates weighed on commodities' prices.

The FBI said on Thursday it executed more than 40 search warrants in the United States as part of its investigation into cyber attacks allegedly by a group called Anonymous that had backed WikiLeaks.

U.S. manufacturing companies posted higher-than-expected results, as sharply improved margins boosted profits amid strong industrial demand and growth in emerging markets.

In what could signal a big year of Internet initial public offerings, social networking website LinkedIn Corp announced plans on Thursday to float shares to the public.

ATLANTA, Jan 27 - It's the latest litigation tactic in the online age: U.S. lawyers are trying to mine the private zones of Facebook and other social-media sites for photos, comments, status updates and other tidbits that might contradict what their opponents are saying in court. And increasingly, judges in civil cases are granting access to online caches that had formerly been considered off-li...

Amazon.com forecast lower margins than some investors hoped for, reflecting the costs of its growth strategy, and shares of the world's largest online retailer plunged 8.5 percent.

For the first time, sales from Kindle books outsold their paperback counterparts sooner than expected.

Although no logical correlation could be found between the two events, CBS shares fell nearly 3 percent after Charlie Sheen, the star of its most popular show, Two and a Half Men, was rushed to the hospital this morning.

A Federal court in California has bit the hacker who publicized a jailbreak for the Playstation 3 console with a temporary restraining order, impounding his computers and barring him from publicizing the exploit on the Internet.

Amazon.com posted quarterly revenue that fell short of analysts' estimates on Thursday and its shares fell almost 10 percent.

Three big defense contractors beat Wall Street earnings expectations, aided by higher sales, and said cost-cutting would aid 2011.

Twelve of the 13 most important U.S. financial firms were at the brink of failure at the height of the credit crisis in 2008, according to previously undisclosed remarks made by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in November 2009 to an investigative panel.

The United States and Japan received sharp warnings from the IMF and ratings agencies on Thursday that they must tackle their huge budget deficits to avoid investors dumping their bonds, which would create a sovereign debt crisis and push up their borrowing costs.

News Corp will launch its long-awaited digital newspaper created for Apple Inc's iPad on February 2, two weeks after the two companies were widely expected to introduce the new product.

Hulu, the privately owned internet company that provides free, ad-supported television archive, is considering becoming the first web-based cable operator.

With all the buzz surrounding the HP and Palm Topaz Tablet, it's easy to forget the Slate 500, HP's previous tablet offering.

The S&P 500 broke the 1,300-point threshold for the first time since August, 2008 as gold plummeted and U.S. stocks rose slightly.