| » More concerns were raised about the potentially weak measures that companies employ to protect and secure data over the internet. Amazon's cloud-computing online-storage service broke down, causing websites run by Foursquare, ProPublica and others to crash and prompting questions about Amazon's backup procedures. And Sony (eventually) admitted that hackers had broken into its PlayStation Network and gained access to the personal information of some 77m customers, possibly including credit-card details. See article » Apple faced growing criticism over the way it gathers positioning data from iPhones. Steve Jobs, the company's boss, took time from sick leave to reassure users: "Your precise location is never transmitted to Apple." The company traces information from iPhones about tower masts and other transmitters to build mapping features on devices.
Meet the press » Ben Bernanke held a press conference at the end of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, the first time a chairman of the central bank has hosted such an event. There were no surprises as Mr Bernanke affirmed that the Fed was in no hurry to raise interest rates; its $600 billion quantitative-easing programme will end in June. See article  » After an ever-so-brief lull, gold and silver prices continued their breathless rally after Mr Bernanke's press conference, with gold well above $1,500 a troy ounce and silver marching towards $50. The dollar sank to a new three-year-low against a basket of currencies. See article » Standard & Poor's changed its outlook for Japan's long-term sovereign debt from "stable" to "negative". The credit-rating agency, which recently made a similar adjustment to its outlook for America's debt, said it was concerned that Japan's reconstruction costs after last month's earthquake and tsunami could weaken the country's public finances "in the absence of fiscal consolidation to offset them". Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan sharply reduced its growth forecast for the year, from 1.6% to 0.6%, because of the twin disasters. » Johnson & Johnson made its takeover of Synthes official by agreeing to pay $21.3 billion for the medical-device-maker » BP announced a headline profit of $5.5 billion for the first quarter, slightly less than the profit it made during the same period last year. The energy company's output fell by 11% in the quarter, partly because it has had to sell some oilfields and refineries to help cover the cost of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, BP started legal proceedings in Louisiana against Halliburton, Transocean and Cameron International, its contractors on the Deepwater Horizon rig, claiming that they contributed to the accident. » Canada's Barrick Gold made a friendly C$7.3 billion ($7.6 billion) offer for Equinox Minerals, which includes a big copper mine in Zambia among its assets, topping a hostile bid from Minmetals Resources, the largest iron and steel trader in China. Minmetals confounded market expectations of a bidding war when it responded by withdrawing its proposal.
Springtime in Zurich  » UBS reported that its core wealth-management business had done much better than expected in the first three months of the year, with net inflows of new money reaching SFr11.1 billion ($11.8 billion). The Swiss bank took far bigger losses than most of its rivals during the financial crisis, causing many wealthy clients to withdraw their cash. UBS pointed to its first-quarter performance as evidence that "trust and confidence" in its business has returned. » HSBC decided to close its retail-banking operations in Russia. The bank has found it hard to break into the market amid competition from state-controlled Russian banks, such as Sberbank, and other international financial companies. Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's boss, is expected soon to unveil a shake-up of its operations in other emerging markets. » The audit committee of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm led by Warren Buffett, released a report criticising the behaviour of David Sokol, one of Mr Buffett's potential heirs until his abrupt resignation in March. Mr Sokol had bought shares in a company, before recommending that Berkshire consider acquiring it. The committee found Mr Sokol had violated Berkshire's insider-trading and ethics policies, and the company may pursue legal action against him.
A goal for 2014 » Brazil's government said it wanted to increase private-sector involvement in the running of five airports, including São Paulo's international airport. Many of the country's airports are choked, and the government wants them to improve before it hosts the football World Cup. | 
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