Friday 10:00 BST. Japanese stocks closed higher, but only after another extremely volatile session leaked uncertainty into global equity markets that some investors consider vulnerable after many months of strong gains.

Lafley will replace CEO Bob McDonald, effective immediately. McDonald, who will retire June 30 after a transition period, has been CEO since 2009.

WASHINGTON - Economic data released on Thursday indicated solid job growth and provided further signs that housing is recovering. The New York Times.

Target Corp. (TGT) and Macy's Inc. (M) joined with 15 other retailers in suing Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. (MA) over credit-card and debit-card fees after dropping out of a multibillion-dollar settlement of a similar case.

The German economy's return to growth in the first quarter was hampered by declines in construction activity and investment as a severe winter and a recession in Europe damped demand.

Sears Holdings Corp. swung to a fiscal first-quarter loss from a profit a year earlier, when the retailer booked a large gain on asset sales.

Michael Jeffries's penchant for having the male crew on Abercrombie & Fitch's (ANF) corporate jet wear the retailer's boxer briefs, flip-flops, and cologne certainly hasn't hurt the chief executive officer's standing with his board.

Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp., plagued by setbacks with its pricey high-flying spy drones, has come up with a new version for the Navy that could keep the company's unmanned aircraft assembly line in Palmdale humming.

FRANKFURT�Germany's businesses and households are becoming more chipper, two sentiment surveys showed Friday, indicating that growth in Europe's largest economy is gaining traction following a weak start to the year.

FRANKFURT | Fri May 24, 2013 6:19am EDT. FRANKFURT May 24 (Reuters) - Banks will return early 8.123 billion euros ($10.48 billion) of crisis loans to the European Central Bank next week after the ECB cut its main interest rate to a fresh record low of 0.5 ...