IBT Staff Reporter

The tension level in the debate on U.S. financial reform rose on Thursday as Democrats slapped back at a Republican leader's comment about punk staffers and a pivotal vote neared in the Senate.

The stock market is nearly flat in afternoon trading despite several solid economic reports from the morning session as the financial and energy sector drag down the market.

Fresh off repaying U.S. taxpayers, PNC Financial Services Group said on Thursday it gave Chief Executive James Rohr an $18 million pay package for 2009, according to a regulatory filing.

Creditors of the owner of the Sex.com website have filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the company, stalling a lender foreclosure auction for the valuable website that was scheduled to begin on Thursday.

Greece raised the stakes on Thursday in its quest for EU help to tackle its debt crisis, saying it cannot achieve promised deficit cuts if its borrowing costs remain so high and may have to call in the IMF.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose legacy has been tarnished by the global financial crisis, on Thursday laid out a scholarly defense of why Fed policy did not fuel the housing bubble.

It's been a bad month for Pfizer's research labs but its head of R&D says the world's biggest drugmaker is on track to hit earlier targets for new drug filings despite the setbacks.

Barnes & Noble Inc promoted the executive who spearheaded the development and launch of its Nook electronic reader to be its new chief executive, as the largest specialty U.S. bookseller accelerates its push into digital books.

AstraZeneca Plc won a U.S. court battle on Thursday over product liability claims for its blockbuster Seroquel schizophrenia treatment, the first such case to go to trial.

FedEx Corp raised its fiscal-year outlook on Thursday after quarterly profit more than doubled, with strong Asian export volumes more than compensating for flat U.S. demand.

The Dow industrials rose on Thursday on Boeing's strength, while the S&P 500 slipped after a round of economic data and corporate results.

President Barack Obama signed into law a $17.6 billion jobs bill on Thursday and sounded an optimistic note about the U.S. economy, saying it may soon begin adding jobs instead of losing them.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to announce in coming weeks an agenda of proceedings stemming from the recommendations in the national broadband plan, an agency official said.

Toyota and its luxury Lexus brand slipped for the second consecutive year in an influential vehicle dependability study released on Thursday.

U.S. bank regulators may extend a guarantee program set up at the peak of the financial crisis, fearing that ending the program could spark liquidity failures at small banks.

An inquest into the death of newsreader, Charmaine Dragun revealed the psychiatrist was not told about her suicidal thoughts, thus delaying the depression treatment by two weeks.

Winnebago Industries posted its first quarterly profit in nearly two years as sales of its largest and most expensive motorhomes rebounded modestly.

U.S. stocks barely moved on Thursday after a report showed improvement in U.S. Mid-Atlantic business activity and companies posted some strong results.

The Philly Fed manufacturing report confirms that the labor market is stabilizing, although it also reports nascent inflationary pressures for manufacturers.

The atypical BSE - a cattle disease that seems to occur spontaneously, without carrying any known health threats, carries the same damaging trade implications as classical BSE. Regardless of the plans of the Australian trade defense, it may not be able to stop domestic cases of atypical BSE.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it released an application to allow its Kindle e-books to be read on Apple Inc Mac computers.

Presidents of regional Federal Reserve banks on Thursday defended their role in supervising small banks, and said ending it would cut a link between the central bank and the national heartland.

A gauge of the U.S. economy's prospects rose marginally as expected in February, pointing to a moderate improvement in economic conditions, a private research group said on Thursday.

Young people in Britain turn to the internet to look for help with personal problems rather than seek advice from their parents or friends, according to a survey released on Thursday.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday announced that Russia would build a high-tech hub near Moscow to spur modernization of the economy and reduce its dependence on oil and gas.

own=setLine( this ) >Based on the developed treatment of Australian scientist, experimental mice can smoke cigarettes without the usual adverse health consequences. This method can potentially allow smokers to evade some of the ill effects of their habit.

New applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell last week and factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region accelerated in March, suggesting the economy remained on a modest recovery path.

India-based spinners are all set to witness happy days ahead as the country's biggest competitor in yarn exports, Pakistan is said to have put a cap on the yarn exports to a maximum of 35,000 tonnes per month. According to Cotton Association of India expects spinners to realise higher prices for cotton yarn this year because of the recent decision by Pakistan.

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig said on Thursday that stripping the central bank of its oversight of smaller banks was inconceivable and would hurt monetary policy.