Apple is kicking an important Google application off its iPhone and buddying up with Facebook rather than Google's social network, as it distances itself from a bitter rival in the phone arena.

Chinese consumers may be losing their appetite for American fast food.

A group of New York City pension funds is suing current and former Wal-Mart executives, saying they mishandled an alleged bribery scheme at the world's largest retailer.

This year’s U.S. presidential race is considered a tossup by both sides, and unforeseen events could prove determinative: contagion from the European economic crisis, war or terrorism.

What went wrong? The U.S. economy seemed to have finally reached a cruising altitude, albeit a low one, almost three years after the end of the 2007-2009 recession. Growth was hardly strong at 2 percent, and monthly payroll increases of 250,000 during the winter were nothing to get excited about. Still, the idea that the U.S. economy might finally be able to walk on its own got tripped up by anemic job growth of 69,000 in May.

Federal health officials are asking safety questions about the first artificial heart valve designed to be implanted without major surgery, ahead of a meeting this week to consider broadening its use.

The Great Recession shrank Americans' wealth so much that in 2010 median family net worth was no more than it had been in 1992 after adjusting for inflation, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Solazyme Inc. reached its highest price since April 16 on expectations that the company will meet its planned targets in a joint venture with Bunge Ltd. to build a facility in Brazil capable of producing 100,000 metric tons of oil from sugar.

Stocks on Wall Street are closing sharply lower. Investors are skeptical that a deal to save Spanish banks will do much to resolve the debt crisis in Europe.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co., weighing choices for its next wide-body jet upgrade, said developing a stretched version of the 787 Dreamliner may require less work than devising a revamped 777.

New iPhone and Mac software and updated Mac computers were among the highlights Monday at Apple Inc.'s annual conference for software developers. The updates include Apple's own mapping service, better integration with social networks and an improved virtual assistant in Siri.

Andy Queen and his wife have been apartment renters in Manhattan since selling their home in 2006, when prices were climbing to their peak.

Facebook's growth appears to be slowing, particularly in the U.S., according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Harold Fuller said he’s planning a cruise with his wife to Bermuda, their first vacation in two years, after cutting his mortgage payments by $400 a month after refinancing their $212,000 home in Apopka, Fla.

The U.S. Coast Guard says an unmanned Naval plane has crashed on Maryland's Eastern Shore and there are no injuries.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks swung between gains and losses, following the biggest weekly rally of the year, as optimism over Spain’s bailout plan mixed with skepticism it will succeed in halting the debt crisis.

Seoul may be the most poignant place one could pick in Asia for a spectator seat at Greece’s economic implosion.

An unusual study of traders’ spit may offer a taste of the future in how we understand what drives markets — and why they aren’t as stable and efficient as we might hope.

Stuart Stevens, who is Mitt Romney’s chief strategist, is also a novelist and memoirist, and last week he offered me a couple of bon mots that help frame the challenge President Barack Obama faces as the economy sputters.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The future of the euro may be determined in the coming weeks, as Greek voters decide whether to honor the country’s international bailout and create a first test for Spain’s newly built 100 billion-euro ($125 billion) banking firewall.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lowered its three- and six-month price forecasts for cocoa traded in New York, citing an improved outlook for the crop.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Global wheat inventories are poised to decline next year by the most since 2007 as drought curbs production from the U.S. to Russia, implying tightening supply this season that may halt a three-month slump in prices.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gold was seen advancing for a second day as the dollar slumped against the euro, boosting demand for precious metals as an alternative investment.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- BrightSource Energy Inc., a solar- thermal developer that withdrew its registration for an initial public offering in April, is seeking to buy an unbuilt 500- megawatt power plant from the bankrupt Solar Trust of America LLC.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. is releasing a fresh lineup of computers and software tools to woo consumers and keep developers making applications amid accelerating rivalry from Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and, now, Facebook Inc.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. has paid software developers $5 billion, sharing a portion of the revenue raised from downloads of 30 billion applications from its online store.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. expects to sign a new service contract with Petroleo Brasileiro SA within the next year, GE Latin America Subsea CEO Fernando Martins said today in Rio de Janeiro.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Herbalife Ltd. has an image problem on Wall Street.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- New York City is giving private operators until July 31 to show their interest in running the biggest U.S. municipal parking system.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Shanda Games Ltd. gained the most in New York in six weeks as investors bought shares of the Chinese online games operator which is set to report earnings tomorrow.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., maker of the antibiotic Cubicin, is seeking early-stage experimental therapies to buy or license to fuel growth beyond the next five years, Chief Executive Officer Michael Bonney said.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay as much as $2.2 billion to settle U.S. probes of the marketing of its Risperdal antipsychotic drug and other medications, two people familiar with the negotiations said.

The battering of “Battleship” at the box office hasn't scared Sony away from Hasbro toys.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Dish Network Corp., the second- largest U.S. satellite-TV company, is investing in technology for new mobile devices such as phones and tablets as it waits for government approval to enter the wireless industry.

Shares of Skechers USA Inc. got a boost Monday, after a Sterne Agee analyst raised his rating for the sneaker maker to “Buy” from “Neutral,” saying that the company may have finally made it over its financial hump.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. unveiled the next version of its mobile software, adding maps and integration with Facebook Inc., to extend its lead over Google Inc. in the market for handheld devices and downloadable applications.

Internet search giant Google and a group of French book publishers say they've resolved a long-running dispute over Google's book scanning and indexing efforts.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon plans to testify before Congress this week about his firm’s $2 billion trading loss. His Wall Street colleagues don’t understand why.

Freedom Communications Inc., the owner of The Orange County Register and six other daily newspapers, is being sold to an investment group that had earlier tried to purchase The Boston Globe.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Omnicare Inc., a supplier of drugs to nursing homes, said Chief Executive Officer John Figueroa resigned, effective immediately. The shares fell the most in eight months.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures advanced, following the biggest weekly rally for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index this year, as investors speculated that the bailout of Spain’s banks will help ease the euro area’s debt crisis.

Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. on Monday narrowed its profit and revenue forecasts for the second quarter. The company's new outlook remains squarely in the range of analysts' estimates.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension, has seen its market value decline 4.8 percent this year after stocks fell amid the brewing fiscal crisis in Europe and slowing of the U.S. economic recovery.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- LightSquared Inc. reached an agreement with one group of lenders for a loan and is in talks with other debt holders to use their cash collateral in a bid to avoid liquidation, a lawyer for the company said.

Thin is in.

In an investigation that spanned from a Seattle restaurant to Romania, a 21-year-old Dutch national pleaded not guilty Monday to federal computer hacking charges that include the theft of at least 44,000 credit card numbers.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks rose, with Spain’s banks climbing to a one-month high after the country sought a bailout for its lenders and China’s exports beat estimates. The euro strengthened and commodities gained.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Speculators reduced wagers on a rally in agricultural prices to a five-month low just as returns from crops and livestock beat most other commodities on concern that parched fields from Iowa to Russia will curb supply.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Plethora Solutions Holdings Plc rose the most in almost a year in London trading after the company said it submitted its premature ejaculation treatment spray for regulatory approval in Europe.

Germany luxury car brands Audi and BMW on Monday reported booming sales in China as exports there helped the two carmakers post record sales in May despite sluggish car markets in Europe.

ModusLink Global Solutions Inc., which manages corporate supply chains, said Monday that its CEO will retire once a replacement is found. The company also said Monday that it will restate its financial results since fiscal 2009 and delay filing its results for its most recent quarter because of accounting irregularities.

The Supreme Court has decided not to get involved again in fire departments' hiring and promotion disputes.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- California’s $15.7 billion deficit is the result of a “dysfunctional” tax structure that hasn’t kept up with changes in the state’s economy, according to Standard & Poor’s.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the world’s largest search engine, ended legal disputes with a French publishing trade group and a French authors’ association over the U.S. company’s scanning of books.

Under Armour Inc.'s board has approved a 2-for-1 stock split, its first since going public in November 2005, saying that the move could appeal to more investors and make its stock easier to trade.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street bankers and traders, given hope by a market rebound in the first quarter, are now seeing earnings and paychecks threatened by turmoil in Greece in what is becoming an annual cycle.

United Online Inc., the owner of the Classmates.com website, announced Monday that it has acquired social media application company schoolFeed Inc. for an undisclosed price.

Fitch ratings agency says it has downgraded Spain's two largest international banks Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) from A to BBB+.

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Falling interest rates and government bond yields are driving down the cost to insure debt from Australian real estate groups more than any other industry.

An advertising industry group says revenue from Internet advertising in the U.S. hit $8.4 billion in the first three months of the year.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to let two families sue elementary school principals who kept their children from giving out Christian-themed gifts during classroom parties.

A recent survey of small business owners shows that they're concerned that the economy will weaken, but they're feeling fairly confident about their own companies. Most aren't planning to hire more employees this year -- but that's because many have the right number of staffers at their companies.

Treasury releases federal budget for May, 2 p.m. Eastern