EBay said Friday that private investors looking to buy Skype had agreed to settle litigation with Skype's founders, who will get a 14-percent stake in the Internet phone service in the transaction.

Entrepreneurs are finding the road to Internet riches in China increasingly rough, facing a thicket of regulatory issues, stiff competition and a frontier mentality that leads to frequent underhanded practices.

Former Silicon Valley executive Carly Fiorina announced Wednesday she is running for the chance to seize liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer's U.S. Senate seat, depicting the three-term Democrat as a Capitol Hill do-nothing who penned novels while jobs vanished and government spending soared.

Stocks advanced Thursday as investors seemed to focus more on some big-name earnings beats and a rise in leading indicators instead of a disappointing jobless report. Travelers and MMM led the Dow.

Stocks advanced Thursday as investors seemed to focus more on some big-name earnings beats and a rise in leading indicators instead of a disappointing jobless report.

US communications regulators voted unanimously to support an open Internet rule that would prevent telecom network operators from barring or blocking content based on the revenue it generated.

Stocks slipped Thursday as investors weighed a disappointing jobless-claims report and some encouraging earnings reports.

Earnings continue to come in largely above expectations, but other factors are waylaying the stock market's recent advances - ranging from Walmart's price cuts to analyst Richard Bove's downgrade of Wells Fargo to rising oil prices. 

EBay turned in a fourth quarter outlook that disappointed investors on Wednesday, pummeling shares in afternoon trading, even though the company slightly beat its third quarter earnings forecast.

Stocks finished lower after well-known banking analyst Dick Bove downgraded his rating on Wells Fargo.

Stocks advanced Wednesday as investors were encouraged by a few earnings reports, including Morgan Stanley, Yahoo and SanDisk. The VIX, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, dropped to just above 20.

Stocks opened lower Wednesday as a raft of companies beating earning estimates but failed to impress investors.

Earnings season continues in earnest Wednesday, as we roll on with a week that will ultimately see 25 percent of the S&P 500 report their quarterly numbers. 

What follows is a roundup of corporate earnings reports for Wednesday, Oct. 21.

After a 60 percent run-up in the stock market since March and the Dow again eclipsing 10,000, investors believe the market is priced to perfection. So if earnings fail to hold up their end, stocks could come under pressure.