Fishermen and federal officials grappled Friday with the increasingly bleak prospect of finding some way for the historic New England industry to avoid collapse amid troubles with the health of Gulf of Maine cod.
Regulators on Friday closed small banks in Illinois and Indiana, increasing to nine the number of U.S. bank failures this year, a slower pace than in 2011, when there were 92 bank closures.
Netflix pressed the rewind button on its fourth-quarter earnings after settling allegations that the video subscription service violated a consumer-privacy law.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Friday lowered its ratings on 34 Italian banks, citing concerns over Italy's financial vulnerability and expectations for weak profits at the banks.
Greece's future in the eurozone came under renewed threat Friday as popular protests again turned violent and dissent grew among its lawmakers after European leaders demanded deeper spending cuts.
BAILOUT BLUES: U.S. stocks took their biggest slide so far this year on news that European countries that share the euro with Greece want it to make deeper spending cuts in exchange for bailout money. Stocks had risen just a day before on hopes the bailout was imminent.
Stocks had their worst day of the year Friday after Greece hit a roadblock on its way to a critical bailout. The S&P 500 index had its first down week of the year.
Investors thinking of buying a piece of Facebook after it goes public are hoping it will perform like Google, whose stock has risen 500 percent since its debut seven and a half years ago.
A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Friday:
DEFICIT SHRINKS: The federal deficit is running lower through the first four months of the budget year than the previous year. Through January, it totaled $349 billion - $70 billion less than the same period last year.