Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N) said it would spin off its college books unit and keep its Nook tablets and e-book business, instead of spinning off a combination of the two.

Crude oil futures rebounded on Friday, with Brent heading for its biggest monthly gain since May 2009, as supply outages in North Sea and renewed fears of gas supply disruption in Europe supported prices.

Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) will be able to meet its goal of taking 10 percent of the U.S. market in two years without any major new investments and by making use of capacity available at factories in Japan and South Korea, a top executive said on Friday.

International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), which ruled computing in the age of the mainframe, is targeting $40 billion in annual revenue from the cloud, big data, security and other growth areas by 2018.

Japanese stocks crawled to a fresh 15-year peak on Friday after the dollar surged against the yen as upbeat U.S. data flipped expectations back in favor of an early interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

Bank lending in the euro zone fell slightly in January but at a slower pace than a month earlier, suggesting the economy may be turning a corner as consumer morale picks up in the bloc's largest economies.

Former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said on Thursday Vladimir Putin was a "naked king" presiding over an economy that will weaken further, eventually provoking a battle between rival clans in Moscow.

Department store chain J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) reported a lower-than-expected quarterly adjusted profit as it discounted more during the holiday season and invested in store expansions.

The Nasdaq resumed its recent advance on Thursday after deal news in the technology sector, while the Dow and S&P 500 dipped as energy shares sank with oil prices.

U.S. consumer prices fell over the past year for the first time since 2009 as gasoline prices continued to tumble, which could allow a cautious Federal Reserve more room to hold off on raising interest rates.