INVESTMENT

In a bid to raise much-needed funds for its struggling economy, the Italian government is auctioning off more than a dozen picturesque lighthouses off the coast of Sardinia.

While global leaders obsess over the likelihood of debt-stricken Greece departing the euro zone, an emerald isle 1,800 miles away from Athens may be on the brink of needing another financial bailout.

In a talk at New York's Princeton Club, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman said the solution to create more jobs and get the U.S. economy to grow faster isn't rocket science: it's fiscal stimulus.

Gold prices continued its rebound Friday after dipping to a five-month low earlier this week. June delivery of the metal rose was up over 1 percent to $1,595 on Friday after jumping 2.3 percent the day before, the biggest one-day gain since January.

Gold rose more than 1 percent on Friday, building on the previous session's hefty gains, as a recovery in the euro prompted fresh buying of the precious metal after prices slid to five-month lows earlier this week.

It?s not just Mark Zuckerberg whose shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social network, became more valuable on Friday. U2's Bono is also smiling.

The U2 front man is a partner in Elevation Partners, a private equity firm that owns a little more than 2 percent of Facebook. That's $1.3 billion, but not all of that money may be Bono's.

The ratio of bad debt held by Spanish banks increased in March and hit an 18-year high of 8.37 percent, or $187.5 billion, the country?s central bank announced on Friday. The number of nonperforming loans with payments that are 90 days overdue is now about 10 times larger than it was during the peak of the property boom in 1997.

The prospect of producing ten $12,000 melons off a $1.95 investment sounds enticing, but is it too good to be true?

A highly popular tranche of municipal debt issues is likely to feel the sting of a multi-notch ratings downgrade soon, a Wells Fargo credit strategist warned. The downgrade would wreak havoc on the portfolio strategy of a substantial number of investors in tax-exempt debt, and would also likely have noisy political repercussions in Puerto Rico, the municipality whose bonds are in the crosshairs.

Asian shares fell steeply Friday after more signs emerged of growing instability among Spanish banks and political turmoil in Greece, with the latest sluggish economic data from the United States adding to the list of risks for investors.

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), the No. 3 search engine, now has three new directors from Third Point Capital, the New York hedge fund that boosted its stake in the company.

Got 48 hours to spare this summer in Warsaw?

Mitt Romney's campaign sought to temper any fallout from a planned advertisement attacking President Obama's former pastor, releasing a statement that deplored attempts at character assassination.

Social network and scrapbook website Pinterest said it took in $50 million from Japan?s Rakuten (Tokyo: 4755) empire, which valued the four-year-old company at $1.5 billion.

Afghanistan, bracing for a potential sharp decline in financial support from the West amid fears of a fresh military offensive by the Taliban insurgents, has demanded $4.1 billion a year for its security forces after the foreign troops pull out in 2014, ahead of the NATO summit starting Sunday.

Shares in South Korea's Samsung Electronics extended their heavy slide on Thursday, on speculation that arch rival Apple Inc is looking to cut its reliance on Samsung memory chips and turn increasingly to Japanese chipmaker Elpida.

Investors who want Facebook shares when the social network goes public may have lost the opportunity. Some brokers have stopped accepting orders.

Asian shares steadied Thursday from the previous day's selloff, but investors found no reason to bet on risk amid deepening turmoil in Greece and fears of contagion to other stressed euro zone economies.

Warren Buffett's investing powerhouse, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.B) took a 10 million share stake in General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) during the first quarter, an investment it disclosed Wednesday, delivering a 2.29 percent bump to car company's shares and a welcome dose of investor confidence.

Bruno Iksil, the trader behind the $2-billion-and-counting loss at New York-based banking giant JPMorgan Chase and Co. (NYSE: JPM) that has been the talk of New York and Washington for the past few days, will be leaving the bank within the year, the New York Times' Dealbook blog reported Wednesday.