It's Facebook's big day.

It's Facebook's big day.

Germany's chancellor apparently waded into Greece's choppy political waters on Friday, when Athens said Angela Merkel suggested that the country should hold a referendum on the euro together with next month's national elections.

It's Facebook's big day.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is eyeing a stake in Telekom Austria and is believed to have held initial talks with its two biggest investor groups, Austrian magazine Format reported, without citing sources. It said Slim had been in touch with Ronny Pecik - who with partner Naguib Sawiris has built a 20 percent stake in Telekom Austria - and Austrian state holding company OeIAG, Telekom Austria's biggest shareholder with a 28.4 percent stake. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - A new banking crunch in the euro zone risks another sharp retreat by western parent banks from vulnerable economies in central and eastern Europe, a process that must be slowed to preserve growth, officials from the region said on Friday. Countries backing Europe's development bank for the former communist bloc elected a new president - for the first time from non-euro member Britain - just as fears grow that a Greek exit from the currency could hit emerging Europe's lenders. ...

Boston (Reuters) - Welcome to the club, Jamie Dimon. Embarrassed by a surprise $2 billion trading loss last week, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co faced heightened criticism at the bank's annual meeting on Tuesday. That included 40 percent backing from shareholders for a resolution to strip Dimon of his chairmanship title, up from 34 percent in 2010. With the spring U.S. ...

Facebook updated its status to "public company" on Friday.

Facebook updated its status to "public company" on Friday.

Facebook updated its status to "public company" on Friday.

Salvage experts plan to use water-filled cisterns to weigh down the above-sea side of the cruise liner capsized off the Italian coast — part of an effort to turn the massive vessel upright so that it can towed for demolition early next year. One official on Friday called the operation's magnitude "unprecedented."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday, with the NYSE composite stock index turning negative for the year as Facebook Inc stumbled in its market debut and investors were cautious ahead of a G8 summit on the weekend expected to address Europe's debt crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 61.61 points, or 0.50 percent, to 12,380.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 6.90 points, or 0.53 percent, to 1,297.96. The Nasdaq Composite lost 20.81 points, or 0.74 percent, to 2,792.88. (Reporting By Edward Krudy, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

Facebook is trading up 8 percent Friday, as investors seek to put a dollar value on the company that turned online social networking into a global cultural phenomenon.

Facebook is trading up 8 percent Friday, as investors seek to put a dollar value on the company that turned online social networking into a global cultural phenomenon.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc shares rose less than expected on their first day of trade on Friday and huge order volume caused technical problems that marred the coming out party of the No. 1 online social network. Its shares were up 8 percent in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, after opening 11 percent higher and then rapidly heading south to touch their initial public offering price of $38. The gains were below market forecasts of as much as a 50 percent jump. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc shares rose less than expected on their first day of trade on Friday and huge order volume caused technical problems that marred the coming out party of the No. 1 online social network. Its shares were up 8 percent in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, after opening 11 percent higher and then rapidly heading south to touch their initial public offering price of $38. The gains were below market forecasts of as much as a 50 percent jump. ...

(Reuters) - Kraft Foods said on Friday it lowered prices on many of its U.S. coffees, including its flagship brand Maxwell House and some of its instant coffees, citing lower green coffee costs since prices peaked last year. The move comes three days after trend-setter J.M. Smucker Co. cut the cost of well-known brands Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts by an average of 6 percent. It is the second cut to coffee prices since August 2011 for both companies. "These changes reflect sustained decreases in the cost of green coffee," Kraft spokeswoman Bridget MacConnell told Reuters in an email. ...

NEW YORK, May 18 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - A labor-backed investor group critical of JPMorgan Chase & Co's corporate governance said the bank has failed to address concerns over its risk oversight and it will try to rally other shareholders for changes after a $2 billion trading loss. CtW Investment Group, which advises labor pension funds holding what it said are 6 million shares in JPMorgan, has advocated for risk governance changes there for more than a year. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks erased the year's gains on Friday as investors fled risky investments for safe-haven assets on concerns about the euro zone's deepening debt woes, while U.S. stocks lost ground after the market debut of social network Facebook . Brent crude briefly slipped below $107 per barrel to its lowest in 2012 as the euro zone crisis raised fears of a global slowdown that could dent oil demand. The euro hovered near a four-month low, while benchmark 10-year German bond yields hit a record low. World stocks, as measured by the MSCI index , dropped 0. ...

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - European officials are working on contingency plans in case Greece bombs out of the euro zone, the EU's trade commissioner said on Friday, while Berlin said it was prepared for all eventualities. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, one of Greece's harsher critics, said market turmoil fuelled by the euro zone debt crisis could last another year or two. "Regarding the crisis of confidence in the euro ... in 12 to 24 months we will see a calming of the financial markets," he said. ...

Without Steve Jobs here to defend himself, we're seeing a lot of talk about the visionary's last wishes -- the final visions in that brain that the Apple founder never saw to completion. The man was a genius, so it's no surprise he had a lot of ideas bouncing around in there. But even if he may have said some off handed things for ideas, as any creative-type knows, a lot of brainchildren are never born. Let's take a look at how Steve Jobs' last wishes are coming along.

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian carmaker Fiat said 5,000 office workers at its Mirafiori factory will be laid off for three days in June and three days in July. Car sales in Italy fell 20 percent in the first three months of the year, and are in their fifth year of decline. "When we sell less, we produce less, and therefore our office staff also works less as a consequence," a spokesman said on Friday. Manufacturing workers at Mirafiori in Turin, where Fiat has its executive headquarters, have already been laid off temporarily. ...

Facebook begins selling stock to the public Friday in the most talked-about market debut in years. Two Associated Press business writers are debating whether the stock is a smart buy.

Facebook begins selling stock to the public Friday in the most talked-about market debut in years. Two Associated Press business writers are debating whether the stock is a smart buy.

PARIS (Reuters) - French luxury giant LVMH is struggling to retain its image as exclusive and high-end creators of $10,000 alligator handbags and goat-lined fur coats, while opening enough stores and reaching enough customers to keep profits high. Thus far LVMH has managed the balance well, but it is taking no chances, offering customers increasingly expensive and bespoke services in an effort to retain a high-end mystique around brands in danger of becoming ubiquitous. ...

Facebook is updating its status to "public company" as its stock jumps in its debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Facebook is about to find out just how much status updates, puppy photos and billions of "likes" are worth on Wall Street, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg ringing the Nasdaq Stock Market opening bell Friday morning from company headquarters a continent away.

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc shares rose as much as 6.7 percent on Friday after a report that it was close to selling part of its valuable stake in the Alibaba Group. Shares of Yahoo climbed as high as $15.87 before easing to $15.64, up 5.2 percent. Yahoo and Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet group that runs e-commerce site Alibaba.com, are close to an agreement that could happen as soon as Monday, according to a report in All Things D, citing unnamed sources.. Yahoo would sell one-half of its 40 percent stake back to Alibaba. ...