Technology companies pose a competitive threat to established lenders, the head of Royal Bank of Canada said on Friday, adding he was keen to work with start-ups to improve the company's mobile offerings.

Apple Inc has approached more than a dozen musicians, including British band Florence and the Machine, in an effort to sign exclusive deals for some of their music to be streamed on Beats, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The United States is planning to impose a major new regulation on offshore oil and gas drilling to try to prevent the kind of explosions that caused the catastrophic BP Plc (BP.L) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing Obama administration officials.

General Electric Co will shed most of its finance unit and return as much as $90 billion to shareholders as it becomes a “simpler” industrial business instead of an unwieldy hybrid of banking and manufacturing.

Federal Reserve official Jeffrey Lacker on Friday repeated his call for the central bank to consider hiking interest rates in June, and said there was no shame in adjusting them lower again if economic data demanded it.

With earnings season underway, Wall Street is temporarily putting the U.S. Federal Reserve and macroeconomic policy on the back burner in favor of a focus on individual company results and forecasts for a pulse on the economy's health.

Customers preordering Apple Inc's smartwatch on Friday will have to wait at least a month for delivery, an early sign of strong demand for company chief Tim Cook's first new major product.

U.S. import prices fell in March as rising petroleum costs were offset by declining prices for other goods, a sign of muted inflation that supports the view the Federal Reserve will probably not raise interest rates in June.

Discussions on a takeover by Intel Corp of smaller chip maker Altera Corp have ended as the companies were unable to agree on price, a person familiar with the matter said, but Altera shares rose, suggesting it is still a potential target.

Cirque du Soleil is in advanced talks with two private equity consortia about selling a majority stake in what is the largest theatrical production company in the world, according to people familiar with the matter.